Aerial mail letters are effective over any distance, since,
with proper stations, light signals and guides for night postplane
flying, the air mail can be carried more than one thousand miles between
the hours of 6 P. M. and 8 A. M.
The cost of aerial mail night and day letters will be less than that of
wire communication. The cost of an aerial mail letter is sixteen cents
for two ounces. For this price there can be sent a message that would
cost five dollars to send by telegraph.
The estimate of $50,000,000 of potential postplane business takes no
account of the possibilities of transporting parcel post aerial mail.
One of the Caproni 2,100-horse-power machines now in operation could
easily transport 2,500 pounds of mail. At least $25,000,000 worth of
parcel post could be sent by airplane.
Enthusiasts who look forward to the transatlantic transportation of
aerial mail as certain to come within the next twelve-month assert that
there is another twenty-five million dollars' worth of transatlantic
mail waiting for an aerial mail service. They point out that Uncle Sam
now pays eighty cents a pound to American steamships to carry
transatlantic mail and that a charge of one dollar per letter across the
Atlantic would be a paying proposition.
[Illustration: Painting]
Copyright Illustrated London News.
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