[Illustration: description: Photo wide outdoor shot of Friendship airplane on airfield with a crowd of people caption: ARRIVING IN BOSTON BY PLANE, JULY 9 © _P. & A. Photos_ ] [Illustration: description: Photo wide outdoor shot of elegantly-dressed woman along side an airplane caption: LADY HEATH AND THE HISTORIC AVRO AVIAN WHICH A. E. BOUGHT FROM HER ] “A third notable accomplishment of the Post Office Department in 1927 was the success of its night flying, which has led it to authorize a considerable additional mileage of night mail carrying by private operators. The overnight operations now in effect and to be put into effect as speedily as the additional air mail routes are lighted, aggregate approximately 2,800,000 miles per year. The night flying program includes the following services each night of the year: Miles Chicago, III., to Rock Springs, Wyo. 1,100 Boston, Mass., to New York 192 Chicago, Ill., to Dallas, Texas 987 Cleveland, Ohio, to Louisville, Ky. 339 New York to Atlanta 773 ----- 3,991 “This night flying, formerly done by the Post Office Department, but now relinquished entirely to private mail transport companies, aggregates more than a million and three-quarter miles of flying in the year, and constitutes the greatest night air flying operation in the world.” In the development of aviation—especially long distance flying, and pioneer over-water efforts—meteorological study is vital. In connection with the Friendship flight I have told somewhat of how its backers cooperated in supplementing the work of the Weather Bureau with separately collected data. These efforts brought home to us all, I am sure, a vivid realization of how much is to be done in that field—a need understood better by no one than the weather experts themselves. Our knowledge of Atlantic weather is extraordinarily incomplete. Generally speaking, the machinery for securing the requisite data actually exists, but there are not funds to pay for its utilization. The Weather Bureau has no appropriation to meet the costs of the constant reports that should be radioed in by ships at sea, if the Bureau is to be able to forecast with accuracy precise detail conditions prevailing in various areas.