WHAT DO AIRPLANES DO?

Tower, you are cleared to make a left turn into 1 5 wind. Tower, this is flight 23 on base leg approaching runway 1 5, over. Flight 23, you are cleared to land. What do airplanes do for us? Lots of people ask that question. Being a control tower operator at the airport, I think I can answer it for you. One of the most important things airplanes do is to carry passengers. These busy people had breakfast in their own homes this morning. Now, at the this afternoon They, Karen and her family, were in London. Today, they're home from a 2-weeks vacation. Before the days of airplanes, 2 weeks would hardly have been time enough to travel there and back. And a crew post office were filling our city and county. Some letters even come to small boys whose fathers are on business in countries far away. Another thing that airplanes do for us is to carry freight. Things that somebody wants to have delivered far away in a hurry. It may be a small birthday present for a boy in Paris. It may be a large motor for a factory in Alaska. It may be an unhappy cat going to a new home in Syracuse. It may be a young elephant going to a zoo in St. Louis. Whether the freight is large or small, airplanes deliver it in a hurry. Not all passenger airplanes carry dozens of people. A surprising number of people fly their own small airplanes. The first time you see a cockpit, there are so many levers and switches that you wonder if you could ever learn to fly. But learning isn't as hard as you might think. This businessman learned to pilot a plane just 2 years ago. Now, he often flies with other people in his company for meetings in distant cities. Tower, this is Cessna 310 requesting permission to take off. Cessna 310 cleared for takeoff. Use runway 2 5 left. Cessna 310, roger. Of course, not everybody flies on business. Flying is fun. Many fly just for sport. Airplanes do a great many special things for you. One of them is patrolling our country's forests. Patrols save millions of dollars worth of trees every year, as well as the lives of thousands of men. Helicopter 21 to dispatcher, forest fire 2 miles northeast of Colton. Traveling fast. Suggest water bomber and smoke jumpers. Helicopter 21, message received. Dispatcher calling emergency. Fire 2 miles northeast of Colton. Rush a water bomber and crew of smoke jumpers. Parachutes allow specially trained smoke jumpers to reach fire lines quickly. This is another kind of emergency that aircraft can handle best. Rescue team 31 to base. We've spotted him. We're going down to get him. This helicopter has pontoons, so it can land on water as well as land. A floating stretcher is dropped. One of the rescue team dives in to help the pilot who is heavy with clothes and gear and who may be injured. The stretcher is fastened under the belly of the aircraft. Many a downed pilot owes his life to a Coast Guard or Navy rescue team. Another unusual use of airplanes is for weather patrol. Particularly during hurricane and tornado season. It is important to locate bad storms so people can be prepared for them when they strike. Weather airplanes use radar and other electronic equipment to do their work. When a radar operator has located a storm his instruments show how fast and which way the storm is traveling. A record is made of the storm's progress and radioed back to Weather Bureau headquarters. By using this early warning system, we are able to prevent much damage to boats, planes, houses, and other kinds of property. Regular airplanes have to land on regular airfield. But because helicopters can land almost anywhere, they can do all sorts of special jobs. Here, a crew is using one to put in poles for electric power lines. Can you imagine how long it would take to haul this power pole up a mountain side by tractor? With a helicopter, a crew can put in 50 poles in the time it used to take to put in one. Not only does the helicopter carry the pole, it drops it neatly into place. Then, while the ground crew finishes the job, the helicopter goes back for another pole. One special use for airplanes is to help the farmer. This is called crop dusting. How would you like this job? In crop dusting, the plane is used to spray powder which kills insects that harm the crops. I can only do this work early in the morning or late in the afternoon when there is no wind to blow the powder away or to blow the airplane into a tree. Pilots who fly crop dusters are very good pilots. They better be. Aircraft serve us in many other ways. There are airplanes that can land on water. There are military airplanes that help the armed forces defend our country. There are aircraft that act as air taxis to carry people short distances. But perhaps most important in our lives today, the airplane is bringing the countries of the world closer together. The improvement of aircraft goes on all the time. New types of aircraft are continually being developed as men seek better ways to do things. Even now, we are developing rocket ships that will be able to leave the Earth's atmosphere to explore the unknown. Who knows? In a few years, you may be on a new kind of rocket ship on your way to outer space.