Manhattan's Airports

Last week came the first sign of disintegration of the U. S. Government's one-time adamant attitude toward commercial flying in New York harbor. The War Department announced that it would lease seven acres of the harbor floor, adjoining the north side of Bedloe's Island (site of the Statue of Liberty) for a seaplane base. Long have private operators cozened the Government to turn over Governor's Island to commercial flying. Steadfastly has the government refused. Its substitute offer last week came as a surprise.

Boasting first rank as manufacturer of aircraft and aircraft products, Greater New York, with its population of more than 6,000,000, has smarted for many months under real or fancied slurs of other municipalities.

Her airports are thoroughly inadequate. For 25 miles around Manhattan, all the land is very nearly at sea level. To the east are the sand dunes of Long Island, to the west, the tidal mud marshes of New Jersey. Her airports are too far away, are all subject to fogs which render navigation impossible. (The seaplane base in New York harbor, while decreasing the distance to the centre of the city, will still be affected by fogs.) Because of fogs, U. S. airmail removed its original terminal from Curtiss Field, L. I., to Hadley Field, New Brunswick, N. J., a distance twice as far from Manhattan.

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