Flights, Flyers

Sleeping Passengers. Those who have flown as passengers to a definite destination know that, except for a few minutes after the takeoff, the trip becomes monotonous. William Bushnell Stout who makes all-metal planes for Ford Motor Co. and who is an executive of both Northwest Airways and Stout Air Services, remarked at Lehigh University last week that two out of five air passengers sleep enroute. In Germany last week one George Hermann slept so soundly while the Junkers plane on which he was a passenger bucked and twisted to a crash, that he knew nothing of the trouble until the smash-up made him bite off his tongue.

Colombia's Lt. Benny. Lieutenant Benjamin Mendez, young Colombian flyer, affectionately called "Benny" at the Curtiss Flying Field where he trained, was still at Balboa, Panama Canal Zone, last week. Three weeks ago he kissed Manhattan friends goodbye and started to fly to Bogota, Colombia, in his Curtiss seaplane, the Ricaurte (TIME, Dec. 3). He cleared the U. S., the Greater Antilles, Central America. Then two weeks ago he insisted on leading a fleet of welcoming planes into Colon Bay. Overeager to alight, he pitched into the water. Last week his Ricaurte was not yet repaired. The U.S. War Department offered him an Army plane wherewith to complete his voyage. Said Lt. Benny, sharply aware of his flight's significance to his native Colombia: "It was very considerate. However, I shall finish my trip in my own plane."

Peru's Circumnavigators. Intrepid Peruvians, Carlos Martinez de Pinillos and Carlos Zegarra, bought a Bellanca plane in New York and last week started to fly from Lima, Peru, back to Manhattan. But not by the shortest way. They are first circumnavigating the western, southern, and eastern edges of South America, stopping at the capitals of the various countries. Santiago, Chile, was their first visiting place.

Costa Rica's Gonzales. G. Gonzalez, son of Costa Rica's President Cleto Gonzalez, pleaded, argued, cajoled with Baxter Douglas Boozer and Donald Duke, two U.S. flyers, fellow passengers on the Pan-American Mail liner Colombia, bound for the Canal Zone. At the Canal Zone the flyers intend to fly to Costa Rica. Young Gonzalez wants to go along, to spend Christmas at the Costa Rican presidential palace. But aboard the steamship they would not promise him the trip. There might be an accident; he might be killed. The father Gonzalez would be pained, Costa Ricans vexed.

Wave-Riding Romar. Waves, 12 to 16 feet high, curvetted over each other as the huge German Rohrbach seaplane Romar roared over them in fractious test flight last week. The Rotnar alighted, ploughed through the flapping crests, took to the sprayed air again. The test of her seaworthiness was satisfactory, pleasing.