World Air Code

Charles Lindbergh sees the need for a World Air Code in 1930

IMPOSSIBLE TO DEVOTE too much attention to overcoming obstacles to international flying!" So speaks Lindbergh, "aviation counsel to the world," of what is most needed for development of air travel and commerce in the shrinking distances around our globe. His plea for securing a uniform standard of regulations for international flyers by all nations is welcomed by an overwhelming chorus of press approval.

"Land boundaries mean nothing to a bird," says the Hartford Times; "they should mean nothing to the bird-man":

"There is to a large degree the same natural freedom to flying that there is to radio. Both are borne on the wings of the air. Each is man's successful attempt to release himself of the limitations of time and place. Lindbergh is right in stressing the point that artificial barriers have no place in this achievement of flying."

CONCERNING the airplane's place in transportation and communication, Colonel Lindbergh " does not suffer from the delusions that beset so many dreamers and air enthusiasts," observes the Philadelphia Public Ledger, which continues:

"Unless some radical scientific discovery revolutionizes our present aircraft, he says, they can not compete with ships and railroads in the movement of most articles of commerce. The airplane seems destined to supplement rather than replace ground transport, and its special field is in the rapid movement of passengers and documents from place to place. But this phase of transportation is highly important to human relationships, and the prospect of great networks of air-lines, both transoceanic and transcontinental, linking all nations, which the Colonel envisions for the near future, will bring every phase of modern civilization into closer contact, and may have much to do with future trends of internationalism."

BOTH over one of the largest radio world hook-ups and at a conference of the Williamstown Institute of Politics, Colonel Lindbergh gave his message advocating international conference and negotiations to "clear the air" for flying between nations. From experience he spoke of the lack of uniformity in regulations for flying to Mexico, Central and South America; the possibilities of regulated faster passenger and express service. He predicted development of linked-up transoceanic routes to form a "net-work covering the entire world." He added:

"At the present time it is the private flyer who requires the most assistance in international flying. He has not an organization to find out in advance what forms and reports it is necessary for him to make, and in many instances it is almost impossible for the private flyer making an international trip by air to learn in advance the conditions he will encounter, both in regard to air routes and also to the regulations and restrictions laid down by the various countries he expects to fly through."

Source: Literary Digest - August 23, 1930