Vidal at the Stick

When Col. Clarence Marshall Young resigned last spring as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics the new Administration abolished his job. His work was divided among five men under Assistant Secretary of Commerce Ewing Y. Mitchell who admittedly knows nothing about aviation. Sooner or later the Aeronautics Branch had to have a head man, and no appointive job at the Capital was subject to fiercer competition. Leading candidates were Rex Martin, Wartime flyer, onetime secretary to Illinois' Representative Keller; Major J. Carroll Cone, Wartime flyer, good friend and campaign helper of Arkansas' Senator Robinson; and Eugene L. Vidal, West Pointer, longtime airline executive. "Gene" Vidal is son-in-law of Oklahoma's blind Senator Gore. Early in the game he got directly to Presi dent Roosevelt, impressed him with his knowledge and ability. Last week, reputedly at the President's insistence, "Gene" Vidal became civil aviation's head man in the newly created job of Director of Aeronautics. Airplane manufacturers and operators viewed the appointment of Director Vidal with mixed feelings. He is the first aeronautics chief to come out of the industry. But the most important phase of his career -- vice president of Ludington Lines (hourly service between New York, Philadelphia & Washington) -- was insurgent. Bitterly critical of extravagant operation and fat subsidies, he helped prove that an air line could profit without airmail contracts. First thing Director Vidal did after taking control last week was to reorganize the Branch from three divisions into two: Air Navigation and Air Regulation, headed respectively by Rex Martin and Major Cone. Other points in the Vidal program :

For sake of economy (the Branch's budget was cut from $7,600,000 to $5,200,000) airway radio beacons will not be operated on clear days except on request. For several months airway beacon lights have been turned off between flight schedules, to save money. Henceforth they will burn through the night. Of the Branch's 60 planes for official use, 14 have been put in dead storage. Director Vidal travels not in the handsome Ford tri-motor NSt used by Col. Young, but in a small Stinson which he flies himself.

Transport operators must report in detail every forced landing, whether or not it results in damage or injury.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.