Flights & Flyers

Pernambuco-to-Lakehurst. When Dr. Hugo Eckener wearily sought a bed at Lakehurst, N. J., naval air station last week, he may well have regretted that his Graf Zeppelin, no longer "scientific," was in the business of carrying passengers for hire. For his paying guests from South America made no little fuss over his summary decision to skip Havana and proceed to Lakehurst without stop. Patiently he tried to explain: the Graf had been forced to leave 8,818 lb. of fuel behind in Pernambuco, because a three-day rain there had soaked the ship's bag with excess weight. Moreover, unfavorable winds made the long detour to Cuba risky. But the passengers--particularly those from Brazil and Spain--made it clear they expected more for their $6,000 fare than a protracted view of the Atlantic Ocean. Further passenger complications arose over Dr. Herman Badt, German Minister of Transport, who, forbidden by orthodox Jewish law to travel on Saturday, demanded leave to remain in the dirigible's cabin while at Lakehurst. None of the passengers complained of discomfort or fright occasioned by violent squalls which buffeted the ship between Bermuda and the U. S. But young William Bateman Leeds Jr. indicated for newsmen his reaction to the trip by drawing his forefinger across his throat. The Infante Alfonso, social favorite of the party, good-naturedly concealed any disappointment over elimination of the Cuba visit. Said he of zep-traveling: "The country goes past you. . . . You eat all the time, and get fat and you feel no emotions." Anniversary. In Albany, N. Y. last week Glenn Hammond Curtiss entered the control cabin of a Curtiss Condor 18-passenger biplane, lounged comfortably while Capt. Frank T. Courtney, pilot for the occasion, took the ship aloft, headed down the Hudson. Speeding toward Manhattan at 100 m.p.h. Mr. Curtiss thought of a day exactly 20 years earlier when he broke all speed and distance records and won a $10,000 prize from the then-potent (Joseph Pulitzer) New York World for just such a flight--the first from Albany to New York. Instead of the easy cushions of an upholstered cabin, Aeronaut Curtiss' seat that day was a precarious perch in front of a box-kite flying machine of his own design. Instead of a Panama hat, he wore a cap turned backward--the 1910 style for cyclists and auto-racers. Instead of overtaking the fastest trains, and looking down at them from 3,000 ft., he barely kept abreast of a special newspaper train chartered to "pace" him at 55 m.p.h. And his 500 ft. altitude was then "daring." Twice he landed for gas and oil before completing the phenomenal 1910 flight in 2 hr. 51 min. Last week's time: 80 min. Said Aeronaut Curtiss: "I think it fair to compare aviation with the automobile industry . . . I believe 98% of the people will be using planes in 1950."

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