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destinations for hire, while others took over the work of crop dusting,
forest patrol, timber cruising, and aerial photography.
A notable development in the air-mail service was the inauguration
of the night service between New York and Chicago on a nine-hour
schedule. The greatest American achievement of the year in aircraft
 performance was that of the United States Ajr Mail Service;
it covered a distance of 1,681,350 miles in day flying and 839,044
miles in night flying with but one fatal accident, at the same time
successfully completing 95 per cent of its scheduled flights.
The most important factor in the speeding up of the mails during
the year was the enactment of the contract air mail law authorizing
the Postmaster General to enter into contracts with private concerns
for the transportation of mails by air over selected air routes. This
law offers an opportunity for connecting up the principal cities in a
network of air-mail routes and has given an impetus to the perfecting
of commercial airplanes from the point of view of capacity and
safety. It has also created considerable activity on the part of municipalities
 and commercial organizations in connection with the establishment
 of landing fields for this service. Following its passage
many petitions for air-mail routes were filed, air-transport companies
formed, and bids submitted, and by the end of 1925 nine contracts
had been let and three other routes had been advertised.
In a report issued by the joint committee on civil aviation of the
Department of Commerce and the American Engineering Council
a survey of conditions in aeronautics at home and abroad was made,
and attention was called to the fact that the delay in development
of civil aviation in the United States is due to the need of a definite
legal status and an established Government policy to encourage the
civil and industrial uses of aircraft, as well as to a need for commercial
aircraft and equipment best adapted to profitable commercial operation.

Of importance to aeronautics and to thase establishing landing
fields is the American Aeronautical Safety Code issued through the
American Engineering Standards Committee, having been prepared
by the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Bureau of Standards,
and representatives of all important aeronautical interests. This
code presents a statement of the best practices in design, construction,
 and operation of airdromes, airways, signals, balloons, airships,
and parachutes, trafficand pilotage rules, and qualifications for airmen.
The year 1925 is noteworthy for the greatest awakening of American
public interest in the question of aeronautics and aeronautic development
 since the first plane was flown over 20 years ago. '

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