Pickup

For months, T.W.A. and Eastern Air Lines have looked around for a new twin-engine craft to replace the DC-3 on short hauls. This week the Glenn L. Martin Co. won the prize: a $35 million order for 65 Martin 4-0-45 (35 to Eastern, 30 to T.W.A.).The two-motored plane is a pressurized version of the 2-0-2 and carries 40 passengers, four more than the 2-0-2.

To Martin the landing of the first sizable commercial order in three years was another step in its comeback. Hit hard by the sharp cutbacks in military buying at war's end, Martin had to borrow $26.7 million from RFC, expanded its operations in such sidelines as plastics in hope of making some money. But in 1947 it lost $19 million, followed that with a $16.7 million loss in 1948.

Things picked up a little last year as the Navy began ordering land-based patrol planes, pilotless aircraft and other equipment. (Martin's current backlog of military orders: about $75 million.) To help get the company squarely back on its feet, aging (64) President Glenn Martin moved himself up as chairman and brought in 43-year-old C. C. (for Chester Charles) Pearson, a onetime executive of Douglas Aircraft and a vice president of Curtiss-Wright, as his successor. With a sharp eye on overhead, Pearson sold off Martin's sidelines and managed to pay off all but $3,000,000 of the RFC loan.

Next week President Pearson will have more good news to report: in 1949 the company got into the black for the first time in three years; insiders estimated the net at $5.000,000 on sales of $50 million. This year, as it rolls 4-0-45 off the assembly line, the company hopes to do even better. Though such an industry leader as Boeing has lost money on postwar commercial planes, Pearson thinks that the Martin 4-0-45 can pay off.

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