The crown and recognition as Messiah the king were offered to Christ. But He refused to accept them. However, He offered his spiritual leadership to the whole Jewish nation but his offer was disregarded.... The real cause of the tragedy was the irreconcilable conflict between the Divine ideology of Christ and the supremely evil spirit of the impending revolution. After drawing an apt parallel in current history, Mr. Sikorsky remarks, “If the world is to be controlled by spiritually dead men, it is as if an unconscious crew were placed at the controls of an airliner.” * * * * * Civilization stands today at the same crossroad. It need but accept the proffered leadership to commence an era of spiritual and material progress such as it has not yet known. A single characteristic differentiates America from all other lands. Ours is a nation created by God-fearing men and women in search of liberty. Liberty is a force more explosive than atomic bombs. It created America. America stands today both as God’s living proof of the power of human freedom and as the negation of conflicting human doctrine. As we have seen from the record, the airplane is one of the miraculous creations of liberty. No result of human foresight or planning, it is a Divine revelation. And though, as yet, largely prostituted to the folly of war, it embodies in itself the potential of world peace and freedom. For always the hand on the stick has been the Hand of God. The Berlin Airlift, hastily improvised amid the rubble of war, contrived out of dire necessity, uncertainty, and fear, gave the world an American answer to that eternal question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The unequivocal answer came, not in a rain of destruction but on a flood of life-giving necessities. “Yes, I am his keeper. I am the keeper of the peace!” The triumph of the airlift was not one of men and machines but of the Christian spirit. Index A Aeromarine Airplane and Motor Corporation, 18, 32-33 Aeromarine Inertia Starter, 33, 40-41 Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce, 213, 264, 268-269 Personal Aircraft Council, 273 reorganization of, 269-270 “Affair Fleet,” 47-48, 99 Air cargo (_see_ Air carrier service) Air carrier service, 280, 296, 306 certified, 303-304, 306-307 international, 303-304 uncertified, 304, 307 (_See also_ Air transport; Airlines) Air Coordinating Committee, 282 Air Corps Act of 1926, 69, 72, 244-245 Air Force, appropriations for, 293-295 and Berlin blockade, 307 created by Navy, 10, 20, 148 mobility of, 292 independent, 10, 25-26, 58-70, 107, 278-279, 291 and procurement, 282, 293 seventy-group, 293 and strategic bombing, 293 unification of, 293 (_See also_ Army Air Corps; Aviation, naval) Air France, 208 Air freight (_see_ Air carrier service) Air mail, 280 ocean, subsidies for, 187 revenues from, 300-301