Jet Age Problems

Report Outline
Rapid Approach of Jet Air Transport Era
Air Traffic Problems and Advent of Jets
Preparations for Use of Jet Transports

Rapid Approach of Jet Air Transport Era

With jet transport planes on order for all major U.S. airlines, civil aviation in this country is on the threshold of the jet age. Since last autumn domestic airlines and foreign air carriers serving the United States have signed contracts for some 200 Boeing and Douglas jet transports. Before those planes can be put into widespread service, many problems raised by their prospective use will have to be put on the way to solution.

Jet Plane Orders and Scheduling of Jet Service

No one anticipates that all the answers will be forthcoming in the next two or three years. The automobile age dawned more than half a century ago, and neither this country, where the motor car made its greatest advances, nor any other country has caught up with the problems it introduced. Economic and social adjustment to the spreading use of the automobile is a continuing process of which the end is not in sight. So it probably will be with jet planes and all aviation. But the tremendous speed that characterizes jet aircraft is symbolic of the urgency attaching to preparations for the jet age.

The first jet service by an American air carrier probably will begin in December 1958, when Pan American World Airways expects to start using Boeing 707s on its transoceanic routes. The first domestic jet service is looked for in June 1959, when American Airlines plans coast-to-coast operations with the same type of plane. Even though commercial jets thus will not be flying here for another two or three years, many authorities fear the interval may not allow enough time to get ready.