This is now only in its
infancy, but it is destined to become as common as the railway mail
service. It will employ hundreds of airplanes and aviators all over the
country.
Then there is the possibility of our machines being used for seacoast
patrol work, a valuable addition to our coast-guard forces which save
many ocean vessels from disaster every year.
They will be largely used for army dispatch work. Instead of sending
official messages from post to post by the present methods, airplanes
will be used after the war as they are now being used at the front.
On the Great Lakes, airplanes can be used for coast-guard work, as on
the seacoast, and they can also be used for patrolling the lakes
themselves. Think how many wrecked lake vessels might have been saved in
the past had there been an airplane nearby to carry its message of
distress and guide rescue ships to the scene.
Forest patrol is still another opening for the use of expert aviators.
Every year, almost, our great forest fires in the northwest demonstrate
that our present methods of prevention of forest fires are faulty;
chiefly because the fires are not discovered while they are still
smoldering. Constant airplane patrol over our great forests would make
forest fires a thing of the past.
Then there are any number of commercial uses to which airplanes can be
put.
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