The Industry

Regulations. In Washington 100 manufacturers and operators met with Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics Clarence Marshall Young to discuss proposed revisions in the air commerce regulations. The airplane manufacturers section of the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce pleading for greater liberality to relieve the manufacturers' marketing distress, petitioned: I) that a student (meaning a prospective plane purchaser) be allowed to receive dual flight instruction from any transport pilot without a permit or physical examination; 2) that the cost of medical examination for private license be cut; 3) that the department resume its former practice of inspecting and test-flying aircraft at the respective plants instead of at only eight designated stations in the U. S.; 4) that the manufacturer be allowed to make minor changes in design without constantly seeking department approval; 5) that the department withdraw its proposed performance requirements for all planes which would demand, among other things, a landing speed of 60 m. p. h. for single motored craft, 65 m. p. h. for multimotors. Manufacturers declared that such a rule would bar them from designing planes for specialized uses.

Secretary Young listened attentively, pledged cooperation, but was not to be stampeded. Said he: "The present situation in the industry has not minimized in any way the necessity for airworthy aircraft . . . aircraft approved for license [still must be] known by the department to meet the minimum requirements of air-worthiness."

A few days earlier, in an address at Philadelphia, Secretary Young had deplored the prevalence of conflicting air commerce laws enacted by state and local governments as "impeding the industry." Possibly with New Jersey's prohibition of seaplane landings on inland lakes (TIME, Sept. 29) in mind, he said: "The only solution is for the states to relinquish all rights to regulate flying and entrust the Federal Government with the development of this industry."

Aviation Corp. and N. A. T. No passenger line can expect to make money without a mail contract. The Watres Air Mail Bill was intended to combine the two services wherever possible. For those reasons Aviation Corp. last week yielded its Cleveland-Chicago passenger service (Universal Division) to National Air Transport, which carries the mail. N. A. T., which recently acquired Stout Air Lines (its sister subsidiary in United Aircraft & Transport), immediately placed in service a new fleet of Fords, with streamlining and engine-cowling that boost the cruising speed to 125 m. p. h. Aviation Corp. meanwhile turned attention to the new southern transcontinental airmail route which (if Avco accepts the contract) it will begin to operate Oct. 15. Not improbably Avco will seek to extend its control all the way to the Pacific by buying from Western Air Express its El Paso-Los Angeles division (formerly Standard Air Line?).

Pan American Airways. As everyone expected, Pan American Airways, the sole bidder, last week was awarded the airmail contract from Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana to Santos, Brazil--3,275 mi. The rate: $2 per mi. for 800 Ib. of mail; $1 a pound per 1,000 mi. for excess load.

Researcher's Return

As vice president of Curtiss-Wright Corp., Charles Lanier Lawrance was always happiest when duty took him to the Wright factory where he might get his hands grimy, bury himself in blueprints, fuss with engines. Last week Mr. Lawrance provided himself with endless excuse for just such pleasure by announcing the organization of Lawrance Engineering & Research Corp. with himself as president. The company has no connection with Curtiss-Wright (in which, however, Researcher Lawrance continues an officer). It has been "undertaken in order to provide a laboratory in which scientific research may go forward in that leisurely atmosphere so necessary to sound progress. The company will be unlimited in its scope in aeronautics. In other words we shall be interested both in engines for aircraft and in aircraft themselves," said Researcher Lawrance. To Mr. Lawrance, famed as the man who has done most to develop air-cooled engines and as father of the Wright Whirl wind, the new arrangement is really a return to laboratory and workbench. As a youngster at Groton, school for rich men's sons, Charlie Lawrance neglected his language classes in favor of mathematics, started building an automobile. As a Yale freshman in 1901 he and a class mate and a Harvard friend completed the car and drove it--the second ever seen in Cambridge, Mass. Because he did riot have to work for his living, young Mr. Lawrance could devote the years after graduation to research, experiment with motors and study in Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. In 1911 he presented the result of his first work in aerodynamics to the French engineer and towerman, Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. It was an original type of high-lift wing section later to be embodied in Allied and German planes, and still known as Eiffel No. 32.

When the War began, Mr. Lawrance was already attacking the problem of reducing the weight of aircraft engines, then all water-cooled. He enlisted in the Navy as a machinist's mate, was soon commissioned ensign and assigned by the Navy Department to aeronautical research. There he evolved the radial air-cooled motor which was to be the basic pattern for today's Whirlwinds.

After the War, no longer rich (but he is rich again today) Researcher Lawrance secured the help of friends and relatives and founded Lawrance Aero Engine Corp. While his wife, the former Emily Dix (granddaughter of famed John Adams Dix, onetime governor of New York) disposed of part of their Long Island estate to raise funds, he completed his nine-cylinder models. By that time Wright Aeronautical Corp. foresaw the collapse of the market for water-cooled types which it had been building. In 1923 Wright bought out Lawrance Aero Engine Corp. and acquired the founder. Soon afterward the Whirlwind series was born.

Flights & Flyers

Ford's Reliability. Edsel Bryant Ford, donor of the annual trophy for reliability in the National Air Tour (TiME, Sept. 29) last week (for the first time) saw it won by his own company's entry, a Ford 7-AT monoplane powered by one Wasp and two Wright J-6 engines. The winning pilot, Harry L. Russell, took the lead of the 18 contestants early in the 4,900 mi. race, gradually increased it through the two weeks of flying, finished the circuit at Detroit with 58,575 points. Until the final leg, Pilot Russell was always threatened by Waco's John Livingston and Arthur Davis whose company won the 1928 air tour. Pilot Livingston's score was 55,628 points. Honors in the class for single or dual engined cabin planes went to George Haldeman, whose Bellanca Pacemaker, after an early forced landing in Canada, fought its way up to fifth place ahead of the Curtiss Kingbird. Flying across Kansas, Pilot Haldeman tried the cross-country tactics of Lindbergh and Hawks, climbed above 15,000 ft., there found a strong west wind to whisk him into Wichita ahead of his rival. Most telling test of the week occurred between Wyoming and Colorado, when the heavily loaded ships had to take off from high-altitude fields, clear a 9,400 ft. range into Denver.

Smith's Record. Dean Smith, crack pilot of National Air Transport's New York-Cleveland mail run, took leave of absence two years ago to go to Antarctica with Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd. Fortnight ago he got his old job back. Last week he took off from Cleveland with 700 Ib. of mail, rode a tail wind over the Alleghenies and into Newark Airport (412 mi.) in 2 hr. 51 min.--a new record.

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