Flights & Flyers

Granville's Luck. Two years ago Zantford D. ("Granny") Granville was one of the two most successful manufacturers of racing planes in the U. S. His factory at Springfield, Mass. turned out the Gee Bee (Granville Brothers) in which Jimmy Doolittle set a world's record (294 m. p. h.). Some people who had been interested in Bellanca were ready to finance Granny Granville on toward bigger things. Then he had bad luck when his two entries cracked up at Indianapolis last summer during the transcontinental Bendix Trophy race (TIME, July 10). Three months ago his backers withdrew. Granny Granville closed his Springfield shop, went to Manhattan to look for a job. Last week bad luck dogged him to Spartanburg, S. C. His little Gee Bee crashed to avoid CWA workers who did not know enough to clear the runway of the local airport on which he was trying to land. Granny Granville was killed.

Pilot & Meteor. Last spring a TWA pilot over Texas had the thrill of observing a meteor in flight (TIME, April 3). Last week, also over Texas, an American Airways pilot had the even greater thrill of dodging a meteor. He was approaching Texarkana, said Pilot Hiram Sheridan, when a dazzling blue-white light attracted his attention. "I watched it for a minute or two," reported he, "and realized that it was coming straight at me. I changed my course and put on speed, but it looked like it would strike the plane in spite of all I could do. I banked sharply to the right and at about the same moment the meteor burned out and disappeared. . . . At the time it reached the altitude at which I was flying, it was just a glowing red ball."

First commentator on Pilot Sheridan's harrowing experience was Publisher Stuart H. Perry of the Adrian (Mich.) Telegram. As an authority on meteors Publisher Perry declared: "The fact that Sheridan saw the meteor disappear is conclusive proof that he was not very close to it, because most meteors cease to glow at a height of about five miles."

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