Chain Of Aviation Depots.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 23, 1913:
France to Make Impossible Scarcity of Supplies en Route.
By Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph to The New York Times.
    PARIS, March 22.— After the lapse of a whole year, the National Executive Committee on Military Aviation has issued a report containing the decisions regarding the expenditure of the national subscription, raised in the Spring of 1912.
    The amount of the subscription which the committee actually holds in cash is almost $1,000,000, while about half as much again is promised by committees all over the country and is being reserved for local participation in army aeronautics. A large amount of money is also represented by aviation grounds which have been given or promised by townships.
    A certain portion of the money will be expended, of course, for the purchase, of new aeroplanes and the training of pilots, but the most striking step which will be taken by the committee, the one which is causing most discussion, is the formation of a close network of landing places all over France, with the object that no army aeroplane or dirigible will find itself at any time many miles from a spot where it can safely alight and obtain fresh supplies of petrol and necessary repairs.
    Thirty-two of these stations will be created forthwith, at a cost officially estimated at $100,000. The stations will, of course, be thickest along the frontier, as well as in the north centre of the country. In addition to these thirty-two stations, twenty-five others will be constructed without delay by the War Office out of its own funds, independently of the national committee.
    Great satisfaction is expressed by the public at this way of expending the money subscribed. It is felt that the good work thus started must not be allowed for a moment to drop, but be pushed forward at all cost by the War Office and Parliament, now that the nation has expressed its will in the matter in such an emphatic fashion.