Army & Navy: Air Investigation

The President’s Air Inquiry Board (TIME, Sept. 28 et seq.) took only three days’ testimony last week and then adjourned so that those of its members that were able to might attend the Pulitzer Air Races at Mitchel* Field, L. I. (see Page 26, AERONAUTICS).

At the hearings that were held additional naval officers testified and several who had testified previously were recalled to amplify their earlier statements. Notable of these was Admiral Moffett, chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics of the Navy. He recommended a series of improvements in the naval air service including: 1) removing the legal limitation on the number of naval shore-stations devoted to heavier-than-air craft; 2) increasing the enlisted personnel of the naval air service; 3) establishment of an airship base on the Pacific coast; 4) replacement of the Shenandoah as soon as practicable with a ship of about twice her size; 5) a five year program of airplane and airship construction; 6) provision for adequate air stations at Coco Solo and Pearl Harbor; 7) improvement in aviation training-facilities at Annapolis; 8) settlement of the flight-pay question; 9) encouragement of private airplane builders by liberality in letting naval air contracts.

*This field is not named, as many people ignorantly suppose, after Col. William Mitchell. It is named after John Purroy Mitchel, onetime (1913-17) Mayor of New York, who was killed while piloting a plane in Texas in 1918.