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Mr. BURDEN. Oh, yes. I think undoubtedly some form of Government support is going to be necessary. The degree will depend upon the amount of competition from other countries and on the ingenuity of our engineers in reducing ton-mile costs. Fundamental research may be able to reduce our ton-mile costs very greatly. If that is true, the amount of necessary assistance will also be reduced and on certain routes no assistance whatsoever will be necessary. That is on routes where there is a very large amount of traffic.

The CHAIRMAN. Speaking roughly, the present act provides that the Civil Aeronautics Board in fixing compensation shall make it sufficient to cover the accomplishment of that service.

Mr. BURDEN. That is right.

The CHAIRMAN. For carrying the mail, for instance, and also for carrying cargo of the military and defense needs of our country. Mr. BURDEN. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. So that in that power we have as to that financial question a method of policy of taking care of the financial problem that is involved, which is the basic problem, of course.

Mr. BURDEN. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, the question about our rights ought to be handled through the executive department, I take it.

Mr. BURDEN. Yes, sir.

Mr. BOREN. Mr. Chairman——

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Boren.

Mr. BOREN. Just one question. We have anticipated in this bill and incorporated in this bill such recommendations as have come from the executive branch of the Government, and have anticipated the problems that we could reasonably expect would arise in the post-war period.

Mr. BURDEN. Yes, I believe so. I do not think of any major problem that has not been dealt with. Of course, when Mr. Stanton, Administrator of Civil Aeronautics comes to discuss these various amendments, he undoubtedly will have some specific suggestions to make, and what he will submit from the policy standpoint, I do not know.

Mr. BOREN. As this bill is presently drawn-and, of course, the purpose of these hearings is to get additional information.

Mr. BURDEN. Yes.

Mr. BOREN. There is nothing beyond that at all at this time that we could do?

Mr. BURDEN. No, I do not see anything of major importance that should be in. I think you would be justified in waiting until we have more facts before deciding what direction you want to go; besides what you have here.

The CHAIRMAN. About how much longer will you need, Mr. Burden?
Mr. BURDEN. I should say 5 or 10 minutes, Mr. Chairman.
The CHAIRMAN. Very well.

Mr. BURDEN. Further, even when conversion is completed, we will have a perfectly tremendous gap to fill. We have all become so used to the fact that America will soon be producing 100,000 military airplanes a year that it is easy to forget that our entire civil air transport fleet before the war consisted of 350 airplanes.

We can have a very large expansion percentagewise indeed from this prewar base and still not utilize any substantial proportion of our

huge wartime aeronautical plant. It is mathematically demonstrable that long-distance passenger transportation alone cannot go far to fill the gap.

As you have undoubtedly read, one month's production of our existing factories would build enough transport planes to carry all our 1940 Pullman traffic (plus 50 percent), a third of our coach traffic, and all the first-class steamship passenger traffic across the Atlantic, the Pacific, and to South America. The crews necessary to fly these airplanes would be a very small percentage of the young men now being trained for our air forces.

Obviously, we cannot be complacent about investigating fresh sources of air passenger volume-feeder services, very low-cost coachtype services and the like. This means planning.

Air-cargo development can go far toward expanding air-transport volume but just how far depends on how much costs can be reduced. It will require all the ingenuity of our engineers, all the resources of our wind tunnels and some basic discoveries which are now only hoped for if air cargo is to realize the potential which enthusiasts have dreamed for it. It can be done, but here again it means careful planning and years of hard work.

I now come to my basic thesis which is that air transport alone cannot do the trick. To achieve anything like our real aeronautical potential, we must devote far more of our energies to basic aeronautical education and the development of private flying than we have so far considered likely. I am not imperialistic, but Seversky was no visionary when he said:

The Roman empire flourished in the days of land power because every Roman was a soldier. In the period of sea power every Britisher, even if he never went to sea, was a sailor in his heart, and today, in the epoch of air power, it behooves every American, men and women alike, to be an airman in his heart.

This thorough understanding of the air for peace and war can only be accomplished through a change in our educational procedures and a tremendous stimulation of the production of private pilots. The proposed legislation is progressive in both respects.

The Civil Aeronautics Administration in cooperation with the United States Office of Education has already made a real start in the field of aviation education.

I would like to pass out these books. You might be glancing at them. Today a quarter of a million boys and girls in approximately 14,000 high schools are studying preflight aeronautics. A year ago less than a thousand high-school students were taking that subject. Accounting in large measure for this increase is the program undertaken by the Civil Aeronautics Administration in February 1942. The purpose was to foster aviation training in schools throughout the United States-with two main objectives:

1. Preparing our youth to understand the implications and ramifications of the airplane in the post-war world.

2. Developing a reservoir of air-conscious young men ready for advanced training in the air branches of Army, Navy, and C. A. A. War Training Service.

The curriculum advocated by C. A. A. for public, parochial, and private high schools includes such elements of the science of aeronautics as aerodynamics, airplane structures, meteorology, navigation,

airplane engines, and radio communications. There were obstacles from the outset. Teaching materials suitable for the high school were not available. Teachers themselves had to be trained in these subjects. Assistance had to be rendered to many school principals in organizing this type of activity. Practically none of the 28,000 high schools in the United States, with the exception of a few in the District of Columbia and in one or two other cities which were experimenting in this field had any experience in preflight aeronautics in February 1942.

The steps we have taken to carry out our program include the following:

1. Development of preflight aeronautics teaching materials—such as those books you have before you, which incidentally, are extremely inexpensive, costing only 50 to 80 cents a piece-including both student textbooks and teachers' manuals. A research program to develop such books was initiated in March 1942 in cooperation with Columbia University in New York and the University of Nebraska. These books were prepared during the summer and were published by a private firm in August and September 1942 in time for the beginning of the school year. These textbooks also covered such subjects as mathematics, physical science, industrial arts, biology, geography, cartography-recasting them to bring out their relationship to and practical usefulness in aviation.

In other words, some courses in the straight elements of aviation or if you are taking courses in biology, social sciences, the books are related to aviation in that particular subject. It is a tremendous step in making our school population and hence the youth of the country really air-minded.

2. To help provide qualified teachers for preflight aeronautics, the C. A. A. made arrangements to admit teachers of this subject to the C. P. T. ground school classes in the summer of 1942. We trained over 2,000 teachers in our ground schools to enable them to teach these courses. Of these many have continued their training and have reached a level of proficiency sufficient for them to obtain C. A. A. ground instructor ratings. By stimulating and cooperating with teacher training institutions, the administration was instrumental in persuading these institutions to train another 3,000 teachers as a part of their 1942 summer sessions.

3. To give technical advice to the thousands of school authorities who asked for help, the C. A. A. provided them with the services of a small staff of consultants. These consultants besides encouraging the introduction of aeronautics. in the high school curriculum helped to place and organize preflight aeronautics courses. However, such services have been limited by staff and fund considerations. 4. To provide students of preflight aeronautics with some goal toward which they may strive, the C. A. A. made available to them the C. A. A. examination service of its General Inspection Division. Through the high schools these students may take the C. A. A. private pilot ground school examination. Students who pass the examination in one or more fields receive the C. A. A. certificate of aeronautical knowledge. Those who pass all four subject fields of the examination are credited with achieving the ground school knowledge required for the C. A. A. private pilot certificate.

If such students obtain proper flight instruction they may qualify for their private pilot certificates. Since the vast majority of preflight aeronautics classes started during this school year, most students will take this examination for the first time in May and June of this year. The examination is given only upon election of the student and permission of the school authorities.

All this has been done with the endorsement of the air branches of the Army and the Navy, and in cooperation with Federal, State, and local educational authorities. The C. A. A. works closely with the Army and Navy air services to guide its preflight aeronautics program along lines of greatest training value to them. Cooperation is likewise extended to the United States Office of Education for which technical materials and services have been provided from time to time. The C. A. A. has respected the sovereign rights of State and local educational authorities in its program of fostering, encouraging, and rendering of technical guidance services in the field of aeronautical education. And consistent with the American pattern of education the acceptance, direction, and operation of such programs in the schools is a matter for local determination.

We have been merely a service agency in this respect.

I will be glad to provide a full set of those books for the committee if they care to look at them.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. I am sure that the members will be glad to have them.

Mr. BURDEN. I just have one more subject which will take about 2 minutes, although it is very, very important.

The future development of private flying-a field which potentially is of far more importance both to the aircraft manufacturing industry and to the achievement of real airmindedness by the United States has to my mind received far too little attention.

If you can sell 200,000 private airplanes a year in this country as compared with our peak automobile sales of eight or nine million a year, that would be a very large volume even in terms of maximum we can expect for sale of air transports. 200,000 planes might be a very modest expectation if the airplane, post-war private plane, can do what we think it will be able to do.

Great strides have already been made in developing a safe and reasonably economical helicopter-a step which in itself may be greater than all which has been accomplished for private flying in the last 20 years. I do not know how many members of this committee have seen the colored motion pictures of Seversky's helicopter showing what it can do. If you have not, I will be glad to bring down a projector some time and show it to you. It is a remarkable device. Important improvements can also be expected in fixed-wing aircraft. Your bill takes a very constructive step in this field by including a very comprehensive and progressive section on training. Undoubtedly there will be very large number of privately financed training schools in the post-war period which will be able to operate profitably under C. A. A. supervision but without Government assistance. That answers one of the questions that was raised yesterday when you asked yesterday whether all training after the war would have to be federally financed. I certainly do not believe it will. I believe there will continue to be a real place for federally financed training.

The growth of such private financed activities should be encouraged. However, C. A. A.'s Government-financed training program has proved its soundness and an immense amount of experience has been gained. If civil aviation is to grow at the rate and in the manner which we all hope, it is highly desirable that C. A. A. continue financing trainingn-ot duplicating-but supplementing private activities and in particular searching out ne wfields such as the training of high school students and women, and others who are unable to finance their training themselves-a field which to date has hardly been scratched.

Our detailed comments on section 14 will be before you shortly. In the meantime suffice it to say that we are in hearty agreement with its intent and general principles. I would suggest here, however, that the Administration should be instructed to prepare a comprehensive report for Congress on the outlook for private flying in much the same way that the C. A. B. has been asked to report on the prospects for air commerce in general. Such studies are already under way but they can be carried out more effectively if they have the cachet of congressional approval.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much.

The committee will stand adjourned to meet at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.

(Thereupon, at 12:10 p. m., the committee adjourned to meet Wednesday, February 19, 1943, at 10 a. m.)

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