Travelers Insurance Companies

Airplanes and Safety Travelers Insurance Companies

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 Excerpt: ... Convention Relative to Air Navigation, and as a sequence to this action Congress will doubtless take appropriate action for establishing an Air Navigation Commission, and drafting rules and regulations affecting aerial navigation in general. When this has been accomplished, air pilots will probably be licensed by the Federal Government, in accordance with some definite plan yet to be determined. Pending the establishment of a national bureau for carrying on this work, we offer, below, some constructive suggestions which may be useful to local authorities who are desirous of taking immediate action with regard to air navigation and the licensing of aerial pilots. Physical and Mental Qualifications of Pilots: Flying does not require a super-man, and in fact a super-man is undesirable. A flier must be normal in every way and any variation from this condition reduces his ability to manage a flying machine. Many authorities assert that if the machine is properly controlled, flying is not much more hazardous than riding in an automobile; but even if this were true, we must surely admit that the act of providing this control imposes unique demands upon the pilot. He is the heart and brain of the airplane and it has been said that no other occupation subjects a man to strains as varied and intense as those that he sustains while operating a heavier-than-air flying machine. Moreover, he is working in an unnatural environment, and is almost wholly unaware of its effect upon his nervous system. The machine itself may fail in some part and still be brought to the earth without serious injury; but if the pilot relaxes even momentarily, the whole machine is without a director,--and unless it possesses a degree of stability far in excess of that usually provided, it may e...