With purring motors turning whirring propellers, the U. S. A. S. Los Angeles glided from Lakehurst to the Bermudas with the greatest human cargo ever carried through the air—58 men all told. Besides these, the airship carried fuel for 50 hours' flying, rations for 60 hours, ten sacks of mail. Twelve hours at an average speed of 41.66 miles took the Los Angeles over the 500 miles of Atlantic that separates the U. S. from the Bermudas, where without untoward incident she was moored in a strong wind to the mast of the Patoka, reconstructed naval tender. Thus was her second voyage to the Islands more successful than her first (TIME, Mar. 2).
Naval enthusiasts were loud in their praise of the Navy's floating mooring mast, which pessimists had claimed would be rendered useless by the rolling of the vessel; but for more than 12 hours the airship remained securely anchored in a northwest wind blowing 30 miles an hour. On her return voyage, heavy head-on winds were bucked and consequently it took 20 hours to make the trip. The next voyage will be to Porto Rico.
A Billion Candlepower
June 1, the Air Mail Service will start its night service between New York and Chicago. Night flying is absolutely essential to air transpor tation, which cannot otherwise compete with express trains. The route will have giant beacons of 600,000,000 candlepower at the terminals, smaller beacons every 25 miles and emergency landing lights every three miles. The French are following in our footsteps by inaugurating night flying and will have one beacon of even greater candlepower. This will be located at Mont St. Afrique near Dijon, 2,000 feet above sea level, operated at 8,000 volts with a candlepower of one billion—some 20 times .more than the most powerful marine lighthouse.
Flying Pianos One's impression of pianos, got by watching furniture movers, is that they are immensely heavy. As a matter of fact, the heaviest grand piano does not weigh more than 1,000 pounds. The Sikorsky twin Liberty biplane, at any rate, had no difficulty in carrying two baby grands securely lashed to the floor of the cabin from Roosevelt Field, L. I., to Boiling Field, Washington, D. C., covering the 225 miles in a strong head wind in 2 hours, 45 minutes.