Lex Anteinternet: The Dense Fog

The Dense Fog

An actual recent conversation, when I was in Denver.



By way of background, I'd caught the early United Flight to Denver. . .

Casper to Denver

and then the A Train from DIA downtown. . .

Denver RTD University of Colorado A Line

which puts a person right about where they need in downtown Denver about 9:00.



Yep.



So, the comments.



Big Firm Denver Lawyer:  So did you drive down last night?



Me:  No, I flew in this morning.



Big Firm Denver Lawyer:  Oh?  They have planes in Wyoming?



And no, she wasn't kidding.



And this firm used to have an outlet in my own town, when the carpetbagging was good during the last boom.



Sigh.

Lex Anteinternet: Poster Saturday: Albatros. Union for Aircraft

Lex Anteinternet: Poster Saturday: Albatros. Union for Aircraft:Poster Saturday: Albatros. Union for Aircraft

For probably only the second or third time here, I'm putting up a poster
from the Great War's Central Powers, this one for the Albatros
aircraft.

My German is rusty, but I think this says some something like "Union for
Aircraft", with the locations for the same.  It's likely a labor union
poster.

This poster may say more than we might know. For one thing, Germany was
heavily industrialized by World War One, even though big sectors of its
economy remained nearly Medieval in other ways.  Anyhow, labor was a
major, and fairly radical, sector of the German demographic at the time
and the government worried about it continually.  Fears were constant
that Socialist workers would reject the war or even overthrow the
government.  And, in fact, there was something behind those fears.

Socialist Germans, like every sector of the German population, rallied
to the crown in 1914 when the war came and by and large the Social
Democratic Party remained loyal to the German government and war
effort.  The SDP, while Germany's largest political party at the time,
saw itself begin to fracture during the war, however, and by 1917 really
radical elements had started to split into Communist parties as the SDP
pulled back from a pre war heavy leaning towards Communism.  The SDP
would in fact end up being the party that tried to bring Germany into
being a true parliamentary democracy without a crown in 1918, something
that would taint it with some voters thereafter, although those voters
were likely not in the SDP crowd to start with.  Nonetheless, there
would be no post war reunion with Communist who went on to try to foment
rebellion prior to the end of the war and who went into a civil war
with the SDP government immediately after the war, a rebellion that was
only put down through the aid of the very conservative German Army which
never supported the republic itself. 

Those tensions would all lead to the German republic being very short
lived.  It functioned from 1918 to 1932, a mere fourteen years, before a
final election brought the Nazis to power.  Communist elements in
Germany were completely anti democratic.  German conservatives tended to
lean towards monarchy and there were a lot of them.  Only the SDP and
the collection of Christian parties, with the Catholic Center Party
being the biggest, supported the parliament.  By the 1932 election the
stress of the Depression and the near state of civil war between
Communist and Nazi elements had undermined the SDP sufficiently that it
wasn't able to hold on any longer as Germans turned to the Nazis and the
Communist and brought down their republic and sent into and Europe into
a thirteen year long nightmare.

Lex Anteinternet: The Death of Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen

The Death of Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen

Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, veteran German fighter pilot
with at least 80 victories to his credit, was shot down and killed on
this day in 1918, thereby becoming one of the hundreds of thousands of
German servicemen to die in the 1918 German Spring Offensive.



Von Richthofen is arguably the most famous German military figure of the
Great War for a variety of reasons all of which are tied to the
romantic myths attached to the war in the air, which in reality was an
exceedingly grim affair.  Suffering in later years from the effects of a
head injury sustained in an earlier crash, Von Richthofen was arguably
no longer really himself.  In recent years the impact of head injuries
on mental outlook has become a well developed field of medicine but it
was not at the time.



To some extent it's surprising that Von Richthofen's memory has
sustained itself in such a romantic fashion as he was truly a
representative of a dying age, most particularly in his own country. A
representative of the aristocratic class, Germany was already beginning
to be torn apart by the forces of modernity that burst forth post war
and ultimately deliver the country to the Nazis and the world to a
second world war.  But then many of the German officer class were
likewise representatives of that world, even into World War Two.



There's always been some dispute on who shot down the Red Baron.  It
came in aerial combat, but that's about the only thing that can be
definitely said.



Von Richthofen was pursuing the plane of Canadian fledgling pilot
Wilfred "Wop" May, who himself had just fired upon the plane of Wolfram
von Richthofen, a cousin of of Manfred's.   Brown dropped in on Von
Richthofen to aid May. But Von Richthofen also took ground fire at the
time and later forensic work, and some speculation, has lead many to
believe that it was likely ground fire that killed Von Richthofen, who
suffered a single fatal wound.  In that case, the shot could have come
from either Australian or British troops.

British funeral for Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen.  Scenes
like this were not uncommon during the Great War for airmen, oddly. 
Both the British and the Germans did this.  In this ceremony we see
officers of the RAF salute their former enemy and bear his coffin while
an honor guard of Australian infantrymen stand in armed salute.  A
person has to wonder what the Australian soldiers, notoriously salty in
their views, thought of this.  The clergyman is undoubtedly an Anglican
Priest of the Church of England, which itself is a bit of an oddity as
Von Richthofen was undoubtedly a Lutheran.

His death at a young age has preserved the romantic image he bore during
the war in a James Dean like way.  Wolfram, whom he acted to save, went
on serve in the Luftwaffe again and rose to the rank of Field Marshall
in Hitler's air force, dying of a brain tumor shortly after World War
Two.  He was 49 years of old, but appeared much older at the time.  Roy
Brown returned to Canada and tried, but failed, to enter politics.  He
became a farmer but died in 1944 at age 50.  Wop May died at age 56
while on vacation in the United States.  He had a varied post war
career, but much of it was as a flight instructor.  Cedric Popkin, an
Australian machinegunner whom some believe fired the fatal bullet went
on home to a career as a carpenter, living the longest to age 77.

CallAir Model A3

These are all photographs of a CallAir Model A-3 being towed down a highway.  

The Model 3 was designed by Wyoming's Call family, who were ranchers, which would explain the Steamboat symbol on the tail.  Their initial design, the Model A, was ready by 1940, but World War Two interrupted production of the aircraft and the company was accodordingly launched in 1946.  This example was built in 1947.

The Call Aircraft Company was sold at auction to Intermountain Manufacturing Company in 1962 and ultimately on to North American Rockwell.  A museum dedicated to the Call company is located in Afton, where Aviats and Pitts are still produced.

Taildragger in Cody

Flying a Tripacer from Ohio to Wyoming

The State of Aviation in Wyoming

Lex Anteinternet: The 2018 Wyoming Legislative Session.

Lex Anteinternet: The 2018 Wyoming Legislative Session.:

From the Casper Star Tribune:

Bills to watch in Wyoming's 2018 legislative session 

A good synopsis, some of these I would have had no idea about and with some I wasn't aware of what their status was. 

Here's one I wasn't aware of, for example:

What it does: This bill includes several major
revisions to Wyoming’s campaign finance laws. It expands the definition
of what is covered under the law and changes some reporting
requirements.

What they’re saying: The Equality
State Policy Center faced off against the Wyoming Liberty Group on this
legislation during interim committee meetings. ESPC was heartened to see
the definitions expanded, while the Liberty Group claimed that
strengthening the laws any further would be unconstitutional and was
successful in rolling back an existing reporting requirement. It
appeared some of the lawmakers were confused as to what they were voting
on during the interim committee meeting and amendments to this bill are
likely if it is successfully introduced to the full Legislature.

I still can't say I know much about it, but that is pretty interesting. 
Also interesting is that the Tea Party Wyoming Liberty Group is opposed
to a bill limiting corporate participation in campaigns via monetary
donations.



Here's another one that's interesting, which the Tribune titled with "Air Wyoming is Back"

What it does: This measure would move forward an
ambitious proposal by the Wyoming Department of Transportation to
effectively create a state-run airline, through which WYDOT would
contract with regional carriers to operate specific routes and
schedules. The idea is to ensure reliable air service to cities across
Wyoming without relying on the whims of commercial carriers.

What they’re saying: Critics
argued that the idea remains half-baked and that more information is
needed before acting on it. But proponents say if Wyoming doesn’t move
quickly, it may be frozen out of any regular air service in many cities
as commercial carriers begin using larger planes and have a harder time
staffing pilots for rural routes. Von Flatern resurrected this piece of
legislation after the full transportation committee declined to advance
it, and the bill has the support of Senate President Eli Bebout, which
may give it a boost. A similar measure is also included in Gov. Matt
Mead’s Endow economic diversification initiative.

I'll be very surprised if this passes, but I hope it does.  The backing
of Eli Bebout is interesting as well, as he's far from a gadfly of any
kind.  I'm skeptical of this bill's chances, but maybe I'm a bit too
skeptical.



February 12, 2018

Lex Anteinternet: ENDOW Study. Air Travel First

Lex Anteinternet: ENDOW Study. Air Travel First:     Federal Express at the Natrona County International Airport .  An airport that can  handle a plane like this could sure easily handle...

U.S. EP-3 Intercepted in the Black Sea

Air Subsidies Continue for Cody and Laramie. .. for now.

From Today's Casper Star Tribune, the following headline:

Air service subsidies expected to continue in Cody and Laramie. But larger questions loom.

But that apparently doesn't mean that such subsidies aren't on the firing line still, to some degree.

For those who might not be aware, air travel to Cody is subsidized by the Federal Government for the winter months, and for all passengers all year long for Laramie.  This provides for twice a day winter flights, for example, to and from Cody to Denver during the winter months.

It's pretty safe to assume that without these funds air travel to Cody would be impaired and for Laramie it would simply end.  The Tribune notes, regarding how this works;

United’s new contract to provide service to Cody guarantees the airline an annual payment of $850,000 to provide 14 nonstop trips each week from Cody to Denver between October and May.

That doesn't provide a reason to continue the subsidy, of course, and pure free marketers would argue that if the market doesn't support it, it should end.  On the other hand, it's been proven that a lack of convenient air transportation hinders Wyoming's economy fairly massively.  

For this reason, the state actually seriously took a look, and still somewhat is, on subsidizing air travel withing the state itself, although it didn't get to that. As the Tribune summarized it:

The Wyoming Department of Transportation presented an ambitious fix to the state’s reliance on commercial air carriers, who can currently decide whether and when to provide service — allowing the fortune’s of Cowboy State communities to rise and fall based on the whims of national corporations.

WYDOT proposed effectively creating its own airline, determining which communities would receive service as well as schedules, ensuring, for example, that it was possible for business people to catch an early morning flight into Casper or Rock Springs.

The state would contract with the same regional providers, like SkyWest or GoJet, that United and Delta Air Lines use on branded flights to connect relatively small communities, like those in Wyoming, with major hubs in Denver and Salt Lake City. These arrangements are known as capacity purchase agreements.

“This idea of capacity purchase agreements, for decades, has worked very well for airlines,” WYDOT director Bill Panos told lawmakers last summer.

At a bare minimum, a lack of air service certainly isolates Wyoming's economy.  So, at the end of the day, the argument somewhat comes the degree to which you favor practicality over economic purity, or whether you believe the government should have any role in subsidizing transportation.  The Governor's office noted, according to the Trib:

“Commercial air service is a significantly limiting factor,” Endow’s Jerimiah Reiman said earlier this year. “There’s a lack of air service particularly to global destinations.”

Of course, if we're going to go for economic purity, at some point we'd have to request that the Federal Government cease funding highway construction, which is a subsidy and a fairly direct one.  I can't see that request coming any time soon, but its interesting how in a state that tends to argue for a fairly laissez faire type of economics, we don't feel that way about highways.  No, not at all.  Of course, to be fair, funding the infrastructure, massively expensive though it is, is not the same as funding transportation itself.  I.e., there's no Federal bus subsidy, or Federal car subsidy.  

There isn't a Federal rail subsidy of any kind in most places, of course, although we do still have Amtrak, so I guess that's not fully true.  When railroads carried passengers everywhere cars were not as commonly used for over the road transportation and the Federal Government hadn't gotten in to highway funding yet.  Indeed, if the Federal Government quit funding highway construction it'd change the transportation infrastructure massively and we'd have to wonder if railroads and airlines would be big benefactors.  Anyhow, even at that time the railroads weren't necessarily super excited about passengers and the Federal Government somewhat forced the rail lines to carry them, but it didn't subsidize them.  The U.S. Mail was a big moneymaker for railroads back then, which it no longer is in any fashion, so the railroads had to listen to the Federal Government for that reason if none other.