Against Time

Next to Singer Lawrence Tibbett, Flyer James Harold Doolittle is the most famed member of the Class of 1914 at Los Angeles' Manual Arts High School. In 1922 he became the first man to cross the U. S. in less than 24 hours. In 1931 he became the first to do it in less than twelve. Last week American Airlines invited him to pilot one of its eight-passenger single-motored Vultees on a non-stop coast-to-coast run.

Blown far off his course by crosswinds, forced to fly blind the whole way through fog and snow, Pilot Doolittle averaged 217 m.p.h., reached New York from Los Angeles (2,600 mi.) in 11 hr. 59 min., just in time to beat the transport record by four minutes. Said modest Flyer Doolittle: "I guess it was just a case of poor piloting. . . . The old man is slipping."

Said Mrs. Doolittle: ''The most unpleasant flight I ever had." Ace Edward Vernon ("Eddie") Rickenbacker is vice president of TWA and general manager of Eastern Air Lines. As such, he usually goes along on record-breaking inter-city runs by the companies' planes to help make publicity. Last week he started out on what was to be a dawn-to-dusk round-trip flight from New Orleans to New York, inaugurating Eastern Air Lines' 9-hour service between the two cities. The Rickenbacker plane zipped from New Orleans to New York (1,301 mi.) in 7 hr. 8 min., on the return trip got stuck in Washington with a cracked oil tank. Among its passengers was Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, who smiled patiently when a photographer called her Mrs. Roosevelt.

The passenger who got Eastern Air Lines the most publicity, however, was a starry-eyed New Orleans stenographer named Marie Louise Reynolds. Miss Reynolds, who studies journalism at night at Loyola University, was described by Col. Rickenbacker as a stowaway. His story: Stowaway Reynolds, 17, boarded the plane to interview Col. Rickenbacker for her college paper. She forgot to get off, was discovered after the takeoff. Reproached, she wept. Col. Rickenbacker succeeded in comforting her.

Last week American Airlines, opening its new 16-hour southern transcontinental route with Douglases by day, Condor sleeper-planes by night, announced that the first westbound ship would be christened The Southerner by Miss Anne Laxton of Knoxville, "a descendant of the late General Stonewall Jackson." In addition, Cinemactress Carole Lombard was to be on hand as a passenger. But Miss Lombard took a TWA plane instead, as did La Motte Cohu, onetime president of American Airways. Gary Cooper also failed to appear. Among those who did appear were Wallace Beery, Mr. & Mrs. Elliott Roosevelt and Texas Publisher Amon G. Carter.

Wearing his lion-skin coat, Roscoe Turner took off from Miami for New York (1,200 mi.) last week, ostensibly to break Rickenbacker's transport record of 8 hr. 36 min. With him in the United Air Lines' Boeing in which he placed third in the England-Australia air race last autumn was United's Traffic Manager Harold Crary. An hour after Turner's departure a regular Eastern Air Liner took off from Miami with twelve passengers. Pilot Dick Merrill refueled at Charleston, picked up a tailwind at Richmond, scooted into Newark at 227 m.p.h., two minutes ahead of Turner, two hours ahead of Rickenbacker's record. Pilot Merrill's time: 6 hr. 34 min.

An oldtime mail pilot is TWA's youngish Harry C. ("Skippy") Taylor. His was the fastest transport flight of the week. With 14 passengers in a TWA Douglas he rode a 60-mi. tailwind from Chicago to Newark (743 mi.) in 2 hr. 54 min., averaged better than four miles a minute.

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