Mr. Emile Georges Nasrallah — Is She Fit for Flying, I Wonder?

One of the engineers of the civil airport, holder of a number of Western certificates in aviation and airfields. What, one wonders, does he say about woman's possibilities in his own particular field?!

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Q — Is woman fit for flying?

A — Woman has proved — for all her scant practice in the art of flying — that she can match man, and sometimes outstrip him, in this field, especially in light, dangerous stunts.

I recall that during my studies in America, after I had obtained my pilot's certificate, I studied for a time under a young lady instructor in seaplane flying who was considered one of the most skillful artists in that important branch of aviation. As for the jet-flying competition held recently, the first prize was won by the daughter of the French President Auriol, who thereby outdid all her male competitors in the whole world.

And I attended an air show held in San Francisco in 1949, when I was taking my lessons there, attended by thousands of people. In it a beautiful girl went up in a single-engine plane and pierced the sky to a height of 5,000 feet. While she was at that towering height she leapt onto a rope tied between the wheels of the plane and began performing acrobatic stunts that bewitched the watching crowd. At last she hung by one leg, her body dangling in space; then she let her leg slip and plunged toward the ground. Shouting and clamor rose, the crowd surged and heaved, people's hearts were struck with terror, and some shut their eyes so as not to see the hideous death this bewitching girl was about to die. But within seconds she opened a parachute she had been carrying under her arm; calm returned to every breast, and the crowd cheered and applauded, while the girl proceeded to shed her clothes piece by piece on her way down to earth. By the time she reached it she was bare of all but a bathing suit of the 'bikini' kind, and she stood saluting the crowd, full of admiration for this graceful girl with her astonishing, perilous stunts.

After such proofs, madam, can there be any doubt that woman

Q: Are there new aviation projects that could be applied in Lebanon or in our Arab East?

A: There are several projects which cannot all be explained, but I will content myself with mentioning only two of them.

First: air taxis. It is self-evident that the failure of flying to spread between cities lying near one another in the Arab East is due to four causes: the distance of the airports from the hearts of the cities, the exorbitance of fares, owing to the high price of airplanes, and the absence of pilots.

Yet all these causes will soon vanish when the use of the new airplane called the 'Helioplane' becomes general. It is not the familiar 'helicopter,' and is distinguished from it by its speed, the smallness of its price, and the ease of piloting it. It has a single engine and holds four or five passengers; it travels at a speed of no less than 180 km an hour, and for its takeoff and landing it needs no more space than the area of a tennis court. It thus becomes possible to provide several airfields for it in the heart of every city, which will cut down travelers' time and expense. Moreover, its price does not exceed the price of a Buick automobile, while its running costs are less than the latter's; and as for piloting it, whoever wishes to fly it needs no more than a half hour's explanation before setting to work.

Thus we see that this airplane will smooth away all the difficulties that stood in the way of flying between neighboring cities, and tomorrow it will be possible for us to fly between Beirut and Damascus, for example, in less than half an hour, defying heat and cold and the closing of roads by snow, and sparing ourselves the curves, the slopes, the hillocks, the collisions, and so forth...

And today's ground taxi drivers can become captains and owners of air taxis more easily and more cheaply than what they lay out today.

Second: air trains. This means a leading airplane towing behind it several winged, engineless freight cars, at the cost of only a trifling increase in the outlay for gasoline, while saving the price of engines

and spare parts, which make up the greater part of the principal expenditure of the airline companies.

The Allies used this method when they invaded Italy from the African mainland in the Second World War, aiming thereby to transport the greatest possible number of soldiers in the shortest time and at the least cost — and it succeeded brilliantly. The idea was taken from German experiments carried out before the war between the Berlin airport and a number of other semi-airports. Why, then, should we not profit from this paying operation and link Lebanon with the rest of the neighboring countries by these air trains?

Picture a Douglas No. 4 airplane taking off from Beirut, towing behind it two winged, engineless freight cars, the first carrying Lebanon's fruit and vegetables to Baghdad, while the second carries Lebanese oil to Tehran, and the towing plane itself carries other freight or passengers to New Delhi.

The convoy passes over Baghdad at a towering height; the first car slips loose from it, steered by a pilot inside it, and without an engine sets down at the Baghdad airport in all ease and safety, thanks to its conveyance, discharging its exports; meanwhile the convoy continues on its way to drop the second car at Tehran; then the mother plane sets down its burdens at New Delhi, bringing it the passengers and the other freight.

And these freight cars can be manufactured in Lebanon, to Lebanese designs and of Lebanese or Eastern materials, apart from a few raw materials imported from abroad.

And there are many projects and surprises which we cannot explain or foretell now, in view of the shortness of time and the swift development taking place in this important field of the world's means of transport and communication.