1
The NEW BERN
VOLUME 11
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 1969
NUMBER 49
You may be young at heart,
but certainly not in years, if
you can remember when an air
plane flying over New Biirnwas
sufficiently exciting to bring
joyful whoops from kids, and
concentrated stares at the heav
ens from grown folks.
Two such adults i standing on
the Elks Temple corner, in
evitably Indulged in comment
the day a plane came over at
a greater elevation than uitual.
“How would you like to be up
there with that thing?'’ one of
the old codgers queried.
His companion switched his
cud of Brown Mu'.e to the other
jaw, reflected with the solem
nity of a Solomon, and re
plied, “Woll, I su re would hate
to be up there without it."
Which, it seems to us, was a
statement more profound than
a lot of others made on this self
same Elks Temple cornor dur
ing the last fifty years.
Cominercial airliners were
unheard of back in the Twen
ties, and private planes were
mostly restricted to barn
storming pilots who came to
town and transported daring
citizens over the commujilty
for a few minutes in exchange
for a couple of dollars or
more.
Timid houls, who knew for
sure that they weren't about to
leave the ground in one of these
flimsy contraptions, flocked to
the landing Held in James City
to sec others risk their necks.
A few of them, initially attract
ed by morbid curiosity, devel
oped a sudden burst of cour
age and became jittery passen
gers.
Much to the disappointment of
many of the bystanders, none
of the barnstorming planes ev
er crashed, but otherwise a
Sunday afternoon visit to tli;
scene of unusual activity w.as a
rewarding experience and local
small fry could hardly wait for
the five and ten to open next
morning so they could pur
chase a pair of gobies and
play like they were aviators.
If memory serves us cor
rectly, Frank Duffy was the
first New Bernian to own and
pilot a private plane here. To
day, of course, Cecity has quite
a number of private planes and
home grown pilots. All told
there are 112,000 of these air
craft in the United States now.
At the helm of the 112,000
non - commercial flying ma
chines, at one time or anoth
er, are the nation's 700,000
private pilots, and it is esti
mated that during a single year
no less than 130,000,000 pas
sengers take to tte air in this
manner. Commercial lines
don't better this figure by much.
Although airports give prime
consideration to the big air
liners, causing ever mounting
bitterness among private pi
lots, there still isn't enough
room for sohodu! ad arrivals and
departures. Schedules are
being reduced, alternate fields
resorted to, and the popular
shuttla flights dropped.
This complete saturation of
available facilities shouldn't bo
surprising to anyone. It has long
been predicted, especially in
areas of concentrated popula
tion. Nothing will ease ttie
situation but more and bigger
airports, requlringa staggering
outlay of money.
Rapid fllt^tt, and if you've
(Continued on Page 8)
wwi.UA liUnwA
W
1
WINTER SCENE ON SIMMONS STREET
—^Photo by Chick Natella
★