It was wonderful! Airmen appreciated each and everyone of the hundred persons who attended the aviation dinner Thursday evening. Personalities were there by the score. I shall not attempt to name them all.

Aero club president, Stan Arnolt did a grand job of introducing folks and leading the meeting. Taking bows were Mr. and Mrs. Paul Lowman, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Carlin, Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Smith, airport board president John Widaman and board member Anthony Mathia. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Rarick, Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Outcelt of Rochester, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Clark, state board member of Valparaiso, and his flying secretary, Ruth Robbins, Alderman Jay Shue of Winona and Hobart Creighton, candidate for governor of Indiana.

As a sidelight, Mr. Creighton warmly congratulated Warsaw upon the aviation progress it had made without bickering or controversy, taking note that the city will soon have one of the finest Class II airports in the state.

Clarence F. (the Colonel) Cornish, director of aeronautics for the state of Indiana, began his address by shattering the illusion of his youthfulness. He started flying 31 years ago, a volunteer in the aviation branch of the signal corps. The good Colonel nicely marked the advancement of aviation as it paralleled his own career in the air.

Little cold chills played up and down my back, thinking of the possibilities when Colonel Cornish described the supersonic speeds now being attained in "certain" aircraft. The XS-1 has crashed the supersonic wall at better than 750 miles per hour, and is capable of 1,500 miles per hour with full thrust of its four rockets, the colonel declared.

In civil aviation, he noted with pride the fact that there are now 3,000 airplanes owned and operated in Indiana. Fifty per cent of them are owned by private individuals and one-third of those are owned by "Flying Farmers". In October, 1944, there were only 44 airports in the state, but today there are 185, plus 50 private fields, such as owned by Hobart Creighton, the Manwaring farms and Mr. Hunnicut at Syracuse.

Licensed pilots in 1933 numbered 11, 000 and today are 750,000 strong and gaining rapidly, the colonel stated. G.I. flight training has played an important part in the present healthy (?) state of civil aviation.

The aeronautics commission, sparked by the colonel, is striving for safety in Indiana, adequate airmarking of all towns, landing facilities at all state parks and an airport at every town of more than 1,000 population.

Cornish pointed out that aviation in Indiana would grow no faster and be no better than each interested citizen made it. The future of aviation is not in the hands of the officials, but rather will be pushed by each and every taxpayer, pilot and businessman, or it will make no advancement. Warsaw again was complimented upon its air-mindedness. The colonel noted that we had two fields, one public and one operated and developed by private capital and was proud of the fact that Kosciusko county had a generous share of aircraft landing facilities.

In absentia, native-born Lawrence Bell, received the compliments of the group when all stayed to see his latest colored sound movie of the Bell Magic Carpet--the helicopter. The versatile rotary-winged aircraft made a visible impression upon those present.

As is oft times the case, the after show, quite innocently arranged was even better. Before their long trip back to Valpo, Mr. and Mrs. Clark, Miss Robbins were invited out to the house for hot coffee along with Jim and Mary Snodgrass, Virgil and Lou McCleary and Colonel Cornish.

Out there, released from his crowd-conscious inhibitions, the colonel kept us spell-bound until midnight. We flew through mountains in the fog, followed the early air-mail routes over the Alleghenies and had a terrible half-hour lost in the soup over Seattle with a C-45, a B-29 and a Lodestar all off our wing tips. We got back down safely in the living room about ten minutes until 12.

Now comes the part I like and it serves airmen right for depending upon such undependable things as automobiles.

Mr. and Mrs. Clark had to leave their auto parked in Warsaw all night, for it had burned out a bearing. The good colonel kindly drove them home to Valparaiso. You never can tell about those automobiles. I doubt if they are here to stay!

Warsaw Daily Times Fri. Mar. 12, 1948