CEILING UNLIMITED

out of the skies is sweeping upon us a tidal wave that will change the face of America born of decades of bold pioneering and patient development transformed by the swift amazing achievements of the war years aviation has become a giant a revolutionary factor in transportation which will affect everybody we have had other mighty revolutions in transportation and cities and towns have prospered or failed according to how well they have trimmed their sails to the winds of change in pioneer days when the world still traveled by water a town flourished if it were well located on a harbor or navigable river a progressive town made the most of its advantages constructing canals and locks deepening channels improving pier facilities so that the world's commerce would come to its door then came the railroads not so important at first of course and many a community felt secure with its waterborne commerce but soon the steel rails were spanning the continent a community left off the railroad withered and died while many a small town grew into a prosperous City because it made the most of the new age of transportation mighty were the railroads but as the years rolled on they were challenged by a new force automotive transportation crewed uncertain and too expensive for the average person these cars rattled explosively through our town scaring the horses and provoking laws designed to shoo them away yet as the years passed automotive transportation changed every city and village in America almost beyond recognition today once again we are faced with the tremendous changes of a new age in transportation and the leaders of your town of every town are charged with the responsibility of making decisions of taking action by nineteen fifty say many experts half a million planes will be soaring in the skies of America in the interests of business of pleasure of military security opening still undreamed of opportunity to those communities which are on the alert half a million planes by 1950 incredible yes if you measure with the yardstick of the past but since the earliest days of aviation the incredible has happened over and over again and always most of us have been caught napping why only 40 odd years ago people were sure that a fellow who tried to take to the air with a heavier than air contraption ought to have his head examined but a couple of fellows named Orville and Wilbur Wright went right on crying and one day in nineteen three at Kitty Hawk they made it the first controlled human flight inspired by the achievement of the Wright brothers other pioneers sought mastery of the air the hedge hoppers of France the channel flyers among them was Santos Dumont who had many unique achievements to his credit including the first sustained flight there was Latham who hung up some records in the Antoinette a plane developed by lapa served in nineteen nine the celebrated Blair yo astonished the world by making a flight of 31 miles and Dumont made more history in the Demoiselles many pilots tried their wings at the world's first aviation meets those early years were exciting ones with every pilot building a plane according to his own ideas and then either setting a record or breaking his neck it took a brave man to go up as a passenger even with the pilot as expert as our talk.c but Huck C found the man in Teddy Roosevelt veteran of encounters with African lions as well as of two terms in the White House it happened at the st. Louis Ermita in 1910 in a few amazing years aviation had given us something to think about we thought of it as a spectacular novelty for a handful of men with inventive genius skill daring and financial backing crude oh it was this 1911 passenger transport showed the shape of things to come and the pioneer see planes which were being developed about the same time were another step forward interesting to see but aviation was way out of reach of most people just something to read about in the paper travel or ship biplane no sir that was something for Buck Rogers in the year 2000 our municipal leaders were still thinking of waterways and railroads as the only keys to their transportation future even ignoring the needs of the thousands of motorists who were springing up in our town loudly they were griping that our streets were bottlenecks and that our buggy roads were impassable at the time it didn't seem possible that in a few years our future would hang as much on automotive transportation as on the railroad no wonder aviation struggled along without prospect of municipal aid the first world war revealed the airplane in a new role new men were attracted to aviation new types of planes were turned out in quantity air battles tested both men and machines demanded the utmost in speed maneuverability durability the clumsy uncertain planes had to improve and they did going from a top speed of 70 miles an hour in 1914 to 160 miles an hour in 1918 plane and Liberty motors for our alive we sent several hundred pilots into combat and were training thousands more when the war ended our battle aces led an achievement by Eddie Rickenbacker received a warm welcome home we had gained an enthusiastic young Air Corps and increased production know-how as the war ended the first airmail service was established between New York Philadelphia and Washington abroad commercial aviation took its first wobbly steps with an uncertain service between Paris and London three US Navy flying boats attempted to cross from Newfoundland to the Azores and one made it everything was ready for rapid progress toward a great air age but most Americans failed to see that the light had turned green for one thing the automotive age was sweeping upon us like an avalanche overnight we had had to widen our streets build modern highways new important businesses had sprung into being the automobile the trailer the truck and the bus were changing our town everybody and his dog wanted to motor but most people felt that flying was far beyond their reach most of us still felt that aviation was something that had nothing to do with our lives it was something for the daring army and navy flyers something for McCready and Kelly who crossed the continent in 27 hours in 1923 it was something for the pilots of the squadron who circled the world in 1924 and during 175 days of peril and hardship flights like these we felt were too much like getting shot out of a cannon at the circus we were willing to leave routine flying to the commercial operators who were struggling to establish airline flying Ford and Fokker tri-motor planes we couldn't get excited about the possibilities of this clumsy contraption daddy of the helicopter as it's sort of pulled 24 inches into the air and some of the new ideas and planes made us think that aviation was dropping into its second childhood with an expensive untested plane and none of the modern flying aid a man had to trust a luck and most of us said no sir I'll stick to the old family car in spite of public indifference aviation made some progress and in 1926 richard byrd and floyd bennett were able to make a trip over the North Pole it was the first of many great exploration flights which were to make the most inaccessible regions of the earth give up their age-old secret in 1927 a new cycle in the development of aviation was ushered in when Charles a Lindbergh sailed up out of the mists of Long Island and set his wheels down in Paris the crowd went wild over the daring unknown American youngster who flying solo had spanned the Atlantic America gave him the wildest welcome home that had ever been accorded a conquering hero and suddenly we were all dreaming of flight in spirit we flew with Lindy on his journey to Mexico and Central America that same year flew with him on many other flight [Music]