pilotless planes, where a mechanical robot takes the place of the human equation. Pictures appear of planes that can land equally well on ice or snow or water or land. For the man who suggested what flyers really needed was a plane that could land on a tree or a house, there are proposed safety devices for nice “comings down” including plane ’chutes.
Steam engines, gasoline engines, fuel oil engines—prophecies concerning each may be had for the asking. Less exciting perhaps than some others are those of improvements in instruments and radio beams to guide the pilot through any weather to his home port, be that a concrete island anchored in the middle of the ocean or a plot near the city—crying to be perfected and put into universal use.
What about trans-atlantic flying? Of course that will come—and, according to good reports, sooner than most people believe. So will going around the world the other way, from pole to pole. In fact, it looks as if airplanes will pretty well cover the earth, in the words of one of our best known advertisements.
And perhaps contrary to what has always been the case, i.e. that increased speed has resulted in increased cost, aviation may prove one of the cheapest forms of transportation. From ox-cart to automobile, expense has mounted with m.p.h.’s. Would it not be pleasant, indeed, to have the process reversed?
If this prophecy is fulfilled, railroads take warn-
