Flights & Flyers

Zeller & Wenzel. Well known in the industry but not overpublicized, experts but not sensationalists were Myron E. Zeller, chief pilot, and Carl Wenzel, chief test mechanic, of Ford Motor's aircraft division. Pilot Zeller flew a Ford to fourth place in the National Reliability Air Tour last September. Mechanic Wenzel was selected to accompany the Ford which Bernt Balchen and the late Floyd Bennett flew to the relief of the transatlantic monoplane Bremen on Greenly Island off Labrador in 1928.

One day last week Zeller and Wenzel were flying an experimental Ford tri-motor over their home field at Dearborn, Mich, in routine tests. Suddenly blue flames began to spew from two of the engines, enveloping the fuselage and wings. Zeller made a landing, but the ship nosed over, balanced for an instant, fell on its back, a blazing mass. Pilot Zeller, 26, and Mechanic Wenzel, 30, died.

Reckless Woman. Youthful Mrs. Jessie Maud Keith-Miller, famed for her 1927 co-flight from England to Australia, wanted to "put myself over as a commercial pilot" by showing she could fly a "rotten" plane as well as a good one. In a rebuilt Eaglerock Bullet which she called an "unairworthy crate rescued from the junkpile," devoid even of a turn-&- bank indicator, she flew solo last fortnight from Pittsburgh to Havana. Despite a 30-m.p.h. wind, despite her own admitted fright and premonition of failure, she took off last week from Havana to return across the Gulf. She never reached Miami. Planes and boats combed the Gulf, found no trace. Then, after three days silence, she cabled her mother from Nassau, Bahama Islands, that a gale had forced her to land on Andros, largest of the Bahamas.

Caterpillar Jr. Within 100-mi, of Los Angeles, his goal for a "junior transcontinental speed record,"* Gerald Nettleton. 20, of Toledo, Ohio, was hopelessly in the "soup." Floundering at 10,000 ft. in rain, fog and snow he "couldn't see ten feet ahead"; but he knew he was near the Cuyamaca Mts. To try a blind landing would be insane. The instruments froze; the magneto began to misbehave. Pilot Nettleton made his decision. He leveled off, throttled down, cut his switch, rolled out the door, waited and pulled his ripcord. Pilot Nettleton landed near a ranch-house in Pine Valley (in time to share Thanksgiving dinner with the occupants) --no speed champion, but possibly the youngest member of the Caterpillar Club.

*Pilot Nettleton had taken off from Newark Airport nine days earlier. For "junior" and "women's" speed records, only flying time is counted. Present east-west junior record of 24 hr. 2 min. was made by Stanley Boynton in six days.

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