Borger Daily Herald (Borger, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 9, Ed. 1 Tuesday, December 4, 1928 Page: 4 of 6
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Along Air Mail Lines
Veteran Pilot Tells Dangers To Drivers
EDITOR'S NOTE: Every (lay,
every night (U-utli rides in the
airmail lanes, playing hide and
seek among the elouds >vlth the
daring pilots who whisk your let-
ter through the skien tor a five-
cent postage stamp. Here is the
first of five stories in which Ma-
jor Wesley lj. Smith, superinten-
dent of the New York-to-Chicago
division of the transcontinental
airmail service, tells of the dan-
gers faced fcj the flyers. In the
airmail service, himself, since
1010, Major Smith lias flown a
half million miles, or a distance
of 20 times around the earth.
Death rides the air lanes where
the airmail wings its way. His lin-
gers clutch from the fog, the storms,
the lightning, the ice clouds. His
score is 4 9 of the finest pilots Amer-
ica has trained in this new science
of riding the skies.
But the times he has clutched at
empty air are legion, for the dating
youths who fly the skies have
learned through grim experience to
outwit their foe and outguess his
moods.
Battling the fogs, the storms and
the ice has become their business.
Squeezing their planes between
clouds and mount?in tops, riding
high', or roaring up valleys between
the hills, are all part of the day's
work.
Danger rides with them. Gambl-
ing with death is the spice which
seasons the monotony of the long
rides alone through the skies, un-
der blazing suns, through blanket-
like fogs, or riding high above the
beacon lights which pick out the
course at night.
The story of their brushes with
death and the high degree of cour-
age with which they battle their old
time foe is almost an epic. And the
story of Major Wesley L. Smith, one
of the original airmail flyers and
now superintendent of the eastern
division of National Air Transport
company, is typical of them all. lie
is in charge of airmail operations on
the New York-Chicago division of
the transcontinental airmail route.
His headquarters are at Cleveland.
O.
.">000 Hours in Air.
Smith is a war-trained pilot, a
veteran of 5000 hours in the air.
during which he lias flown the
equivalent of 20 times the distance
around the world. j ■
For eight, years he flew the air-'
mail, first on the original New York-
Washington route and then on the
"hell stretch" over the Pennsylva-1
nia mountain leg of the transcon-
tinental route, the worst stretch of 1
flying country in the United Slates, j
Still flies it. in fact, if the emer-
gency arises and he is needed.
He has crashed his plane on
mountain tops, fought through the
ico clouds to the clear sky above \
where the stars kept him company; i
fought fire more than a mile high
and brought his ship down safely
— |
SAFETY FIRST BUS COMPANY
Announce a new service betweer
Stinnett and Borger.
WEFK DAYS
Leave Stinnett Leave Borger
a- m. 3:15 p. m.
SATURDAYS & SUNDAYS
Bns leaves I'.orger «f 8 n. in. ami
8:1."5 p. m. for Stinnett. Leaves j
Stinnett at 0 a. m. and ■ ::* <> p. in.
Bus leaves Borger daily at 11) a.
m. for Stinnelt and Spearman.
Leaves Spearman at i! p. ni.
Leaves Borger for Ainarlllo v
Deal at 4 p. in.
WE IIAUL TRUNKS S I'ARCMLS 1
. . H. I'RiNCE. Mgr.
rara
mmt
r
fir
"The air was a soup of tog. . . Suddenly I saw the losg upraised
hand of the Statue of Liberty ahead. I swung to the north, got niv
bearings and swept past to the open sea." Th tawas a tense moment
for Major Wesley L. Smith (right), veteran airmail pilot, who tells
about it in this story.
—and lives to tell the story. A tale . Island shore, hop the bay to the j
the fictionist.s couldn't imagine If Jeiv.ey coast, and then strike inland
they tried, yet a true tale of the I tc Washington.
dangers and the heroism of the met
who fly the airmail.
Smith, who attended the Univer
it was his first experience with
bad weather flying. He set his ship
on its course, plowing through for;
sity of California, was a war-trained banks and shr.weis o- rain. When
tlyerand a veteran ol a summer <.i hp had been on his way MO minutes.
aerial barnstorming when he joined | he looked below hoping to sight
the airmail service. His first flight | the bay. There was nothing below
with the mail might have been his j but I'o;-.
'ast- | Then 'housetops and church spires ! b§Mk
Lost in the Fog. hi ran to flash by, too close below || s --
That was in the days of the pri ■ >r coinl'or, il'"ly. I •> wn off g*
inai New York-Washington airmail !r cour. ■, fly in? over the house- ik« ■■■■-■■tffritf-?
route. Me had left the Belmont top o' Brooklyn.
Park, N. Y., Terminal headed for ' There was nothing to do but v,;ls with me. 1 found myself ovei
Washington, with bad weather plunge on, dodging the high build- the river and headed down the bay
ahead, planning to follow the Long in: ■ if I could," Smith says. "Luck "The air was a soup of fog. Be
&
low I could head the whistles of j
tugs and far away the clatter of the
'L' trains over the bridges. My goal
was the Statue of Liberty. If I
could find that, I could point my i
way down the bay and to the Jer-j
sey coast."
Dodges Statue of Liberty.
The statue looms up large on
Bedloe's Island on a clear day. It
is a different matter to find it from
the ai.', when the air is full of fog
and rain and youcan't see where
you're headed.
"Suddenly, I saw the long up-
raised hand of Liberty ahead," :
Smith snys. "I swung to the north,
got my bearings and swept past to-1
ward the open sea and the Jersey
coast, waving a farewell to the God- j
dess as I passed. 1 was on my course ■
again and the rest of the journey |
passed without incident."
On another occasion while still
flying the New York-Washington
route, Smith lost the ground soon
after he loft Baltimore, heading
north for New York. For three
hours, he flew blind through clouds
and snow flurries, bound for the
Newark, N. .1.. field, then the north-
err terminus of the route.
i Kiow Towns by Smells.
But he overestimated the strength
of a head wind and when lie found ;
a. hole in the clouds and dived down j
to land he found himself in a couu- >
try covered with snow. He was at |
Orange, Conn., straight on his j
course, but he had overshot New- i
ark by 40 miles.
Such "blind" flying is part of the
airmail pilot's business today. Ho j
will battle fog and storms for hours •
on his course, if only he is assured j
of an even chance to land his plane
at the end of the journey.
Their instruments, keep them
flying level and at a safe altitude,
even though the fogs hem them in I
like a blanket. Sometimes- the} find
their way home by the smells of j
the towns they are headed for. Many i
an airmail pilot has found the Chi- !
I cago field by the smell of the stock- !
(yards. They know by the pungent,
I odor of the oil refineries when they!
are passing Baltimore.
A California!! is the inventor of a-i
! device to contain a reel of adhesive]
j tape tor fastening packages, tie- j
! tape being drawn out of one end I
and cut off against a sharp edge.
Atwater Kent
RADIO ~m '
CITY SERVICE STATION. -
"Down By the Water Tower"
"ea
Largest Welding Supply House
In The Panhandle
Wo carry n. complete line of Cutting and Welding
apparatus and supplies. Construction Flood Lights and
Car lie Cake.
BI.ACiCWELL IRON & METAL CO.
P'none 113 North Main St.
jumwrnu xmzsmmfrjmmswismiJiaMS
Borgrer Daily Herald Want Ads Bring Results.
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STOKLi
Phone 220
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SALESMAN SAM
By Small
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niMi'illo, Texus
Bum h«hvr** moixci for i'jtnhaiMtlr
l*ani| a him! Anoirillo rvrrv t v<
liiMirn on 111** liours. S!.h ,< •>
now I'Hiitcd in < !i<>i« I
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Dr. M. L Friedman
dentist
HME R^SOLMtO
CHrosTflAS
SWOPPING sefv-
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THIUGS PEPP6D UP HIGHER. TWftW OUR
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that'll catch PeopLe's e.Ves
aw' LuRa'ew TO OUR SToRe-
Fiwe' AM' I'M GOWNA OO
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TAICe A LOOK, AX TH' StCrM
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FRECKLES AND HLS FRIENDS
By Blosser
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Phone 36
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WIS STAMP OM 7VVIS POST CARD 7WAT
OSCAR'S S'POS&O TO AA-JE SEWT
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Byrne, W. G. Borger Daily Herald (Borger, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 9, Ed. 1 Tuesday, December 4, 1928, newspaper, December 4, 1928; Borger, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth209613/m1/4/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hutchinson County Library, Borger Branch.