Man v. Machine

"DON'T YOU WANT TO BECOME A DE PINEDO?"

From fences, telephone poles and bulletin boards all over Italy flared that legend six years ago. It was the recruiting slogan of the Italian Air Force. In hotels, drinking rooms, barber shops, banks, the legend was pasted above maps of the world, on which the course of the seaplane Santa Maria, captained by Commander Francesco de Pinedo ("Messenger of Italianity," "Conqueror of the Air"), was charted from Sardinia to West Africa, across the South Atlantic to Brazil, around South America and up to New Orleans, thence across the desert to Roosevelt Lake. Ariz. There careless mechanics let gasoline spill out on the water. A numskull gawper flipped a cigaret and Pouf! The seaplane Santa Maria was no more.

Benito Mussolini sent a new seaplane to Manhattan for his messenger to fly home. Meanwhile Pinedo-worshipping Italians raised a half-million lire (about $26,000) to buy a new plane. The money, unused, was lodged in a bank.

Two years later Hero de Pinedo was a general, chief of staff for Italian aviation, leading squadron flights in which one pilot was hot-blooded Italo Balbo, then Undersecretary for Air. Everywhere they went, de Pinedo was the hero. But no Italian youth in his right mind who knew Italo Balbo would have then wanted "to become a de Pinedo." Balbo learned that the forgotten $26,000 was still in the bank and that de Pinedo had been accepting $20 a week interest on the money. A word to Il Duce, a telephone call to de Pinedo: "Your resignation as Chief of Staff for Aviation is accepted." The Messenger of Italianity found himself farmed out to the Argentine as air attache.

After three years of exile de Pinedo, 43, believed himself in line for promotion last autumn "to the highest possible military air rank." Instead he was retired, put on reserve. In January he went to the U. S. with an idea for an aerial "tramp" freight service around the world in the southern hemisphere. Last week he popped up in Manhattan where he had been going under the name of "Mr. Smith." He had a new plane, a Wasp-powered Bellanca, and extraordinary plans. Single-handed he would fly from Floyd Bennett Field, N. Y. to "some point in Asia," breaking by 1,000 mi. the 5,126 mi. non-stop distance record held by Great Britain. Shrewdly, he timed his flight to steal some of the thunder of Italo Balbo's squadron flight to the U. S. next month. He got big headlines by describing his unusual preparations for the ordeal of flying solo two days and a half.

In the cockpit of the Bellanca, named Santa Lucia, he rigged an overhead water tank, a siren and a time clock. When the General feels drowsy he will set his controls, set the clock for ten minutes and doze off. At ten minutes the siren will howl, the tank will squirt cold water in the General's face. Siren and water spout are also adjusted to shriek and squirt if the plane should veer from her course, droop from her altitude. Said General de Pinedo:.

"These devices I have tested and retested and they all work. ... It is merely a question of tuning up the human machine to compete with the flying machine and its engine."

Instead of a helmet, the General will wear a grey derby to cushion his head against bumps. At a Manhattan toy store he bought two imported kites, one red & yellow, the other red-white-&-Blue to signal ships if he should be forced down at sea. For weeks General de Pinedo has broken each night's sleep into 15-minute intervals, steeling himself for competition against the flying machine.

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