Stout Belief

"Aviation in the U. S. has been stagnating for two years. We are all copying. Aviation has shown no progress . . . comparable to that made in radio and talking pictures. Think how many copies have been made of the plane Col. Lindbergh used on his flight across the Atlantic . . . of other famous planes. None of us are building the plane that the public wants to buy, and that proves we are standing still." No mere disturber, no second-rate competitor disgruntled over his own failures uttered those words last week at Langley Field. Va. It was William Bushnell Stout, vice president (to President Edsel Bryant Ford) of Stout Metal Airplane Co., builders of Ford tri-motor all-metal transports. His listeners. 200 manufacturers and engineers and Government air service officials, were assembled to view the year's accomplishments of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. U. S.-supported research body. Mr. Stout saw hope for the becalmed market in private-use planes: ''Things are going to be different. We are going to fix it so a man can take a couple of lessons on Friday and fly his plane home on Monday without the Department of Commerce saying anything about it. . . . "* Guided by Dr. Joseph Sweetman Ames, provost of Johns Hopkins University and chairman of the N. A. C. A., the visitors saw latest developments in the committee's research facilities: P: A motion picture camera designed to photograph all the dials on an airplane instrument board during a test flight, permitting later study far more detailed than a testpilot's pencilled log could afford. P: A "recording multiple manometer'' which registers the varying pressures upon 120 distinct portions of the wings during all maneuvers.

P: An atmospheric wind tunnel through which 900-mi.-per-hour currents may be produced under all conditions of temperature and humidity.

* Average instruction time for private pilot license: 7 1 /6 weeks; average cost of instruction: $550.

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