Regarding flying risks, as compared to others, there is an endless field for discussion. Figures as to accidents and flying hours mileage I have quoted elsewhere. I know the facts and the conclusions to be drawn from them remain largely a matter of individual opinion. But whether one feels flying fairly safe or not it must be admitted it is safer than it was. Recent steps have been made in securing true safety for the flyer in the last few years. Once attainment of something akin to it was merely a vague hope. If one flew one took the risks. Selah. The problems of safety are concerned with the engineering problem of the motor and design of plane, the skill of the pilot and ground technique. Probably improvements in the power units will always be made. But it seems impossible that advances can go on so rapidly as they have in the last few years. It has been well demonstrated recently that the multiple engine plane has a factor of safety far beyond what is possible with the single engine. The Friendship is equipped with three. If one motor fails the other two can carry on, even with the large gas supply for long-distance flying aboard. At the end of a flight, when a minimum load weight has been reached, it is possible with one motor to keep the plane in the air. One engine can also greatly prolong the downward glide of the crippled plane for a forced landing, if need be. For instance, in flying over the ocean if two motors had cut out simultaneously (an unlikely contingency), with the remaining one the plane could have continued much farther than it could have, without any. The power of one motor would have made possible a flatter, and thus more extensive, glide. That long glide might enable one to reach a ship lane, or specifically, come down in the vicinity of some particular vessel that had been located by radio in the meantime. The plane and the engine, of course, are no better than their pilot. His reliability and skill are essential. There are fine men in the game today and on their capable shoulders the success of flying leans heavily. Just as the railway accumulated air-brakes, automatic signals, etc., so is the aeroplane being improved with safety devices. Landing places are included under this head. Their frequency is important, as well as their conduct. Some fields are so congested that planes have to circle about for minutes before rules of the air allow them to land. Terminal operations will have to be worked out as thoroughly as they have been by railroads and the safety devices of airways—lights, radio, signals, etc.—be equally efficient.