Weather Bureau topics and personnel / United ... - Index of - NOAA

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ical service and cooperation with private companies interested in specialized
weather service.
American interests in favor of free competition in international air
transport state that “there can be no national basis for permitting air
transportation within the country to develop and expand on a competitive
basis while that outside the country is left to the withering influence
of monopoly? They point out that competition has lcd to many tachnical
improvements in aircraft design and engineering which probably
would have becn much slower to develop without the stiniulation of free
enterprise. Thoy believe that American superiority in arronnutics and
its rapid development as a major means of transportation are tho direct
result of the “needling” that comes from hcnlthy rivalry of frcc enterprise.
’ Thosc who favor a considerable degree of Government control and
perhap8 a semi-monopolistic arrangement through selection of a ((chosen
instrument” for each principal international route maintain that cutthroat
cornpetition undor a policy of frec cnterprisc in international air
transport would placc the United States at a ecrious disadvantage in comparison
with the subsidized Govermon t air transport corporations of several
foreign countries. They believe that a franchise of sornc kind limiting
the degree of competition and permitting more cllicient operation
under suitable Govermont regulations as regards safety nnd operating
procedures is the only way for the United States to maintain its place
in international air transport.
The Governrricnt’~~ policy on this important subject has not been announced.
Upon it will depend, to some extent, the future progmm of tho
Weather Burcau and its relation to thr cxpantling needs for airways
meteorological service.
WEATHER AND WAR
The following excerpts from thcb annud wport of Gcnwal 11. 13.
Arnold, Commanding General of the Army Air Forces, arc of intcrcst to
all who are engaged in essential mctcorological work that contributes
directly or indirectly to the war effort. Theso pnragraphs nre rcprintcd
without necessfirily implying the concurrence of the Wrather 13uraau in
the stcitcments on a solution to the problcni of making long range weather
forccaab :
Excerpt from General Arnold’s Report to Becrctary of War, January,
1944:
WOILLD-WII)K WIEATII’ICIL HKIlVICR
Weather in a critical factor in this war. It; providd cover for tho oscaping (:or-
man battleships, tho Bcharnhoret and Gneimnnu. It failed to protoct tho Japane@
convoy that General Kenney’s men sunk in tho Uismurck &a. Success of theso
and many other operations has depended largely on tho wetlthor. Tho side mrik-
ing tho best prognostications has u tremendous ndvantugo.
The expansion of tho Army Air Ebrcos necessitated u corresponding increase in