Dawson News, March 25: A flying machine with a capacity of fifty passengers is projected for service between Dawson and Skagway. A story to this effect
is brought to Dawson by recent arrivals from the coast. Details are not yet given out, but it is said that the promoter of the plan believes an aircraft suitable for this service can be secured, and that it will be able to make the trip, one way, in four hours.
The distance between Dawson and Skagway is something like 465 miles by trail, but by air-route would be much shorter.
Considerable speculation has been indulged in at various times by Klondikers as to the best type of air craft for service in this northern country. A good many believe that something after the type of the Gotha or of the larger Allied planes capable of carrying several passengers, could be operated successfully in this northern belt.
Among the several points considered as to the operation of aircraft is the temperature, especially in winter. It is believed by some who have been reading closely on experiments with airplanes on the European battlefronts that the cold of the Yukon would be no hinderance.
While it was as low as 86 below zero, Fahrenheit, in Yukon, this winter, thus. establishing a record for the country and perhaps for the world in so far as
temperature on the ground is concerned, one of the recent magazines reports that aviators
in Italy ascended to heights where they encountered similar temperatures.
One of the Italian fliers reached an altitude over 19,000 feet and found the temperature 89 degrees below zero. He was well dressed for the trip, having woolen underwear, fur coat and similar equipment to that worn by Arctic travelers, and did not suffer from the cold, so continued to ascend after reaching the extreme cold, and navigated there as long as he found it necessary in carrying out his mission.
The United States government some time ago considered seriously a plan to place airplanes on the mail routes in Alaska, especially where there are few trails, and where the distances are great and difficult of travel in winter.
Recent reports say that a mail service is to be established. by the United States government between Washington and New York. Many think that such service soon will be common in America, and that, after the war, aviators will be numerous and that many northern routes will have such a service. A number of northerners have projected the Dawson-Skagway flying service at different times.
