Small towns in Indiana, village size, state parks and struggling privately-owned airports stand a chance for state improvements next year.

A plan was advanced at Purdue University Monday by a Warsaw newspaperman as he addressed the third annual Aviation Conference in that great seat of learning. It is fun to go back to school for a short period, but, as before, I was talking instead of listening.

There are two outstanding advantages to the plan which will ultimately put a landing strip along side every organized community in the state, at each state park, adjacent also to major state highway intersections. First, pilots and airport operators will not have to go begging to the general public for these improvements as they have done in the past. They are going to help themselves this time.

Second, the pilots involved are really not going to pay any more money than they are now paying. At the present time aviation fuel comes under the provisions of the Motor Vehicle tax law. An airport operator can avoid paying this tax, if he files a statement with the department. But in only rare cases has this saving been passed on to the pilot who buys the gasoline. He is still paying the same retail price that he did when the operator had to pay 4¢ per gallon on his gasoline. But he isn't getting anything for his money.

Now I want to see the motor fuel tax law amended to exclude aviation fuel; then an entirely new aviation law written. This law should place a 4¢ per gallon tax upon aviation fuel and ear-mark it especially for use of the aeronautics department. On the amount of fuel sold in Indiana this year, more than $150,000 would be raised. This would not be a great deal of money as far as big airports go--but we don't need it for big airports.

The new law should provide for a limit upon any one project in any one year of about $10,000. This would automatically force the money down to the grass roots towns, villages and smaller operations.

There are more than 400 small communities in Indiana not now served by a landing strip. If those little communities each had a plain and simple strip, the airplane would be a much more useful means of transportation in Indiana.

Upon application, the state would investigate and if it seemed practical, construct for any small town, a landing strip close to a highway and close to town, using funds contributed by the users and pilots.

The law should also include a paragraph making it possible for the state highway commission, state park commission and state aeronautics commission to enjoy a mutual exchange of property, as they reached agreement, so that strips could be built at state parks, and near good highways.

A small percentage of the funds raised should be earmarked for aerial navigation aids and air marking making Indiana an easy state to fly across.

Last, but not least, it should be possible for a privately owned field to receive aid in black-topping one runway. If the owner would deed or lease to the state for a nominal fee, the land immediately under the strip, the state, upon investigation would step in and make an all-season runway.

This last provision is because there are so many more privately-owned fields in Indiana than there are public fields. If a pilot takes off from a public field, the chances are four to one he lands at a private field. So as long as they are helping pay the bill, they should be able to benefit. At the same time, the pilots taking off from private fields will benefit in other ways, for there eventually will be hundreds of new strips for them to land upon.

In the same law, we should provide for a state numbering system on aircraft, some sort of registration, to make state aeronautics easier to administrate. It is to the advantage of all operators that a plane should be easily identified.

The plan which Sky Writing has advanced was well received at the aviation conference and I believe it will become a law, perhaps at the next session of the legislature. It is time that pilots and operators became willing to help themselves a little. If the plan goes into effect, Indiana will once again become a leader in another field--aviation.

Our state had the first city in the world to be lighted by electricity. It has the finest highway system in the nation--it can stay on top as a progressive leader by providing this fine system of state sky parks. The plan is not ambitious, but is conservative and sound. It can be done. Each little community can have its own landing strip. Airplanes will become practical in Indiana.

Warsaw Daily Times, Tuesday October 26, 1948