Detroit Show

The dusty, musty smell peculiar to large expositions was missing from Detroit's second All-American Aircraft Show last week. Several thousand sightseers and several score actual plane purchasers each day could comfortably inspect 104 plane models, exhibited by 44 oldtime and 16 freshly organized manufactories. Planes ranged from the tricky little Heath at $975, which only the best of pilots dare handle, to the $67,500 Fokker, for which, with its ornate fittings* Cadillac's President Lawrence P. Fisher just paid $75,000. In between were sturdy one and two-seater open cockpit monoplanes and biplanes. Most models, however, were "closed jobs," built as coupes, sedans, coaches, cabins, buses. All but four planes were single-motored, with Pratt & Whitneys, Wrights, Warners, leBlonds, for the most part./- Exceptions were the trimotored Fords, Fokkers, Boeings and Kreutzers (a new Los Angeles product) and the twin-engined Sikorsky amphibian. Notable for the interest they excited in visitors and the sales they engendered were:

Aeromarine, Klemm, Alliance, American Eagle, Arrow, Bellanca, Berliner-Joyce, Boeing, Cessna, Chance Vought, Command-Aire, Curtiss, Fokker, Great Lakes, Hamilton, Knoll, Lincoln, Mahoney-Ryan, Mohawk, Moth, Parks, Pitcairn, Simplex, Spartan, Stearman, Swallow, Swift, Travel Air, Whittlesey.

Safety. Inherent stability is what every exhibitor claimed for his plane. Only a Department of Commerce certificate warrants confidence in such claims. Most craft at Detroit last week did have such certification. As a safety factor practically every plane carried a stabilizing apparatus which might be fixed to prevent it from suddenly going into stall, tail spin, or nose dive. Otto W. Greene, gaunt Elyria, Ohio, inventor, showed an aero-dynamic automatic control. It consisted of a small vane projected from a wing of his model plane. As the plane tilted or teetered the vane lagged and activated levers which forced the controls automatically to pull his model back to its course. No practical plane yet uses this device. Only one ship at the show was equipped with the De Havilland safety slot which greatly retards stalls and landing speeds.

Another protective device fixed in most planes nowadays is a broad canvas belt to be strapped across the passenger's lap. It keeps him from being tossed out of an open plane and, in case of crash, from being hurled the length of the cabin. When necessary he can unfasten the belt in less than one second.

Comfort. Even the open sport planes had their comforts--a pad for back of the pilot's head and one in front, if he jounces forward. Cabins had wicker or upholstered chairs or seats, ash trays, drinking cups. Large and small transports had washstands, toilets and kitchens. But informality is still essential for most air travel.

Specialization. Aviation has developed four main types of craft for civilian use--gadabouts to hop from one suburb to another nearby; sport planes, slightly bigger; coupes, sedans, coaches and cabins (all the foregoing may be flown comfortably by the owner pilot); limited commercial planes, which carry usually six passengers (these also come equipped with office furniture for the business executive, his secretary, his pilot); the great transports. Land planes, of course, were most numerous at Detroit. But notable is the number of amphibians, seaplanes and air yachts now on the market--Sikorsky, Fairchild, Keystone, Leoning, Boeing, Aeromarine, Klemm, American Marchetti, Chance Vought, Ireland, Eastman, Fokker, Great Lakes, Hamilton, Paramount, Columbia.

Detroit, fourth U. S. community (pop. 1,378,900), has $25,000,000 invested in the aviation industry in its neighborhood. Aircraft motor makers are Continental Motors Corp., Packard Motor Co., Stinson Aircraft Corp., Stout Metal Airplane Co. At the show last week Eastman Aircraft Corp., and Verville Aircraft Co. for the first time exhibited planes. Cadillac Aircraft Corp. and Trella Aircraft Co. showed experimental models. Four other concerns are working on aircraft designs.

Showman. As President of the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce Frederick B. Rentschler was the god above the show. As President of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Co. he was a big power. As President of United Airport and Transport Co. he was both a much respected and a much puzzled man.

Respect arose from United's prominence in U. S. aircraft, for United is among the four most potent interlocked air organizations, is closely integrated with Manhattan's huge National City Bank of which Frederick Rentschler's elder brother Gordon Sohn Rentschler was elected President a fortnight ago (TIME, April 8).

What puzzled the Rentschler air mind was: Should the seven United Aircraft subsidiaries be operated as separate concerns, with United the holding company or should the seven be made divisions of a great United Aircraft concern like the General Motors divisions. But whether United Aircraft is a holding company or operating and manufacturing company makes no difference to stockholders.

*Richfield Oil's President James A. Talbot, Clifford Durant, son of Motor-Financier William Crapo Durant, Norman Church, Joseph Schenck, the Agua Caliente Hotel in Mexico just south of the California boundary, Shell Petroleum, each have similar de luxe Fokkers. Fokker is building five $100,000, 32-passenger, four-motor transports for the Universal Air Lines system. Those will be the largest, most expensive standard ships ever built in the U. S. The Keystone Patrician, too huge to fit into Detroit's Convention Hall, after making a 25,000-mile circuit of the country without a difficulty, costs almost the same amount.

/-Continental Motors, who, with Lycoming, make almost all engines for motor car companies that do not make their own, last week announced its first aircraft motor, a seven-cylinder air-cooled radial. Lycoming also makes an aircraft motor.