'Giro Crackup

Sooner or later it was inevitable that, as autogiros came into common use, there should be crackups. Some day, no doubt, one of those accidents will cause death. The safety features which insure the 'giro against tumbling plummet-like from the sky are not supposed to be proof against every fault of piloting. Builders of the ship may well have wondered in idle moments, How serious will be the first accident to ''crash'' U. S. headlines? Who will be the pilot? A foolish stunt flyer descending into a busy street? A drunken playboy flying into the side of a skyscraper? A witless novice slamming the controls this way and that? Last week the builders knew the answers. The accident, at Abilene, Tex., was not serious. But, unfortunately for the 'giro, its story was carried to the front page of practically every newspaper in the land by a highly publicized publicist--Amelia Earhart Putnam.

Mrs. Putnam, who had once publicized the autogiro by making an altitude flight (TIME, April 20), was this time advertising Beechnut products, by a transcontinental flight to and from Oakland, Calif. Her own autogiro, with Beechnut painted on the sides, was the second "windmill plane" to be seen west of the Mississippi. Whatever could be done to publicize the flight, was done, for Beechnut's sake.

Making the return journey to New York last week Mrs. Putnam and Mechanic Eddie de Vaught were taking off from Abilene, Tex. Mrs. Putnam, by her own explanation, neglected to make a sufficient run before boosting the 'giro into the air. Lacking momentum, the ship failed to get altitude, clipped a landing light at the edge of a parking enclosure. Pilot Putnam "sat down," striking two automobiles, damaging the plane, injuring nobody. Then she proceeded to Oklahoma City to resume her flight in another 'giro which is owned by the Beechnut Company.

Mrs. Putnam was scrupulous in her praise of the autogiro for the slightness of the accident. But she could not prevent the headlines which varied from MISS EARHART AVOIDS SERIOUS AUTOGIRO CRASH, through AMELIA EARHART'S AUTOGIRO CRASHES to EARHART AUTOGIRO SPINS TO EARTH IN TEXAS CYCLONE.

Since 1928 when she flew as "baggage" from Newfoundland to Wales in a monoplane piloted by the late Wilmer Stultz and Lou Gordon, Miss Earhart had to submit to such labels as "Lady Lindy," "First Lady of the Air," etc. Her name was bought by Cosmopolitan, which engaged her as aviation editor, then by Transcontinental Air Transport, which appointed her assistant to the general traffic manager. Last autumn she was given charge of publicity for Ludington Line (plane-per-hour) operating between New York and Washington, a job lately delegated elsewhere. Few months ago Miss Earhart married her friend and sponsor. Publisher George Palmer Putnam (TIME, Feb. 16).

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