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"If the time has not arrived in aviation when airport standards can be established, then the time has not arrived for a Federal Airport Program"

Surely this letter tells a terrific truth and it drives home with telling force the utter futility and downright wastefulness of public funds to continue engineering our air line aircraft in one direction and our airports in another, and last but not least, we are not advancing. We will not be able to run up many more of these blind, dead-end streets before John Q. Public takes a good firm grip on the purse strings and draws them closed, and that will be that.

When the industry failed to heed the safety advice of the air line pilots in 1945, explained fully, completely, and unmistakably in the editorial entitled "Stalling Speeds," WHICH IS A PART OF THIS STATEMENT, MARKED ENCLOSURE No. 2, it took the wrong fork in the road; and the costs in loss of air safety and dollars and cents are so great they are beyond realistic comprehension. It is a mistake from which complete recovery is possible, but to get the cart back on the road and headed in the right direction with the horse in front of it instead of behind it, the air line pilots urge that this Policy Commission, in its recommendations to President Truman, recommend that Part 04 of the Civil Air Regulations be amended immediately to reinstitute and re-establish a definite top fixed stalling speed limitation for air line aircraft. The re-establishment of a definite top stalling speed limitation for air line aircraft is a last ditch fight for safety on the air lines. It is also the key to our entire airport development program. Building airports costing millions upon millions of dollars today and outmoding them tomorrow with airplanes that do not have a fixed top stalling speed, which is also the landing speed, is the very height of foolishness and a wanton waste of taxpayers' money. 

Without a definite, immovable top stalling speed fix, the air safety picture is indeed confused and dark. The part of CAR 04 that replaced the definite top stalling speed limitation of 85 MPH is commonly referred to by the pilots as an engineer's nightmare. It is made up of a combination of engineering formulas and variables and fails to recognize certain vital performance factors such as temperature and humidity and the relation of these vital factors to takeoff and landing performance. This highly involved combination formula lends itself to easy error and the chance for hedging. It isn't definite and clean cut like a definite top limit stalling speed. The air line pilots have pointed out through the years that we should place the damper on the clamor for excessive speeds. We should gear our air line equipment to our flying fields by maintaining, above all else, a definite top fix stalling speed. We have said repeatedly that, unless this is accomplished, millions will continue to be wasted and safety will suffer irreparable damage.

Whenever a flying field is being planned or constructed, there immediately coming to the picture more self-styled airport and

Transcription Notes:
I did not indicated underline that was in the source document.