Berliner-Joyce Adopted

Berliner-Joyce Aircraft Corp. of Baltimore was a worthy "orphan" company rich in engineering talent and sales ability, poor in cash. North American Aviation, Inc. of New York is a holding company, affiliated with the potent Curtiss-Keys group, whose subsidiaries include Sperry Gyroscope Co., Eastern Air Transport (formerly Pitcairn), Ford Instrument Co. Last week "orphan" B-J won a secure home and assured backing for aircraft development by accepting a stock exchange offered by North American. Many a B-J engineer, including Vice President Temple N. Joyce, is a former Curtiss man.

B-J plans are based chiefly upon prospective Government contracts. Although a two-place cabin commercial plane was developed and testflown last summer, it never was placed in production. Instead, all efforts were concentrated upon XFJ-1, a single-place fighter for the Navy; XP-16, two-place pursuit for the Army; XO-31, a light observation plane for the Navy. In an official test last week a few hours after the stock deal was completed, Vice President Joyce, who is one of the ablest demonstrators in the business, put the XFJ-1 into--and easily brought it out of --a spectacular 12,000-ft. power dive. Navy specifications also demand that the ship maintain a speed greater than 180 m. p. h. at 6,000 ft. altitude.

It is expected that the Berliner-Joyce Co. will be developed similarly to the compact, conservative, painstaking Douglas Aircraft Co. of Santa Monica. Calif., whose trademark on aircraft is coming to be regarded as the equivalent of "Sterling" on silver.

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