Horsepower Drop

By the time war came, many a Cub-sized aviation trade paper had grown to B-29 proportions; manufacturers with plenty of orders for planes, engines and accessories were spending fat chunks of their profits for advertising. Some journals averaged more than 200 advertising pages a month, sent off volumes of 500-page heft to be lugged about by sweating postmen. Then came peace, and a fall-off in horsepower.

By last week, advertising in the trade magazines had dropped off almost 50% since V-J day. One magazine (Industrial Aviation) had shut up shop. Said one editor: the aviation press had done too good a job of convincing the industry that it needed a mass market for peacetime success, and the mass market could be reached only through mass-circulation magazines and newspapers. Others had a simpler explanation: the war had stripped the helmet-and-goggles glamor from flying, made it commonplace.

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