Fokker Fuss

Through the corridors of the Department of Commerce building and of Washington's Mayflower Hotel last week stormed an exceedingly irate Dutchman--Anthony Herman Gerhard ("Tony") Fokker. He shouted threats at the Department, at Assistant Secretary Clarence Marshall Young for the "hasty" "hostile" and "prejudiced" action of suspending Fokker planes from U. S. passenger service (TIME, May 11), hinted that certain airmail operators might cancel their contracts with the Government, out of sympathy for his cause. He issued angry statements to the Press at 4 a. m. and repudiated them at 4:30 a. m. He thrust his head inside the door where Department officials were meeting and announced "I'll give each of you $100 if you ever see me again." Ten minutes later he returned to resume his plaints.

So matters ran for three days until Publisher Frank A. Tichenor of Aero Digest arrived on the scene as mediator and persuaded explosive "Tony" to withdraw as spokesman in favor of more rational James M. Schoonmaker Jr., president and general manager of General Aviation Corp. (Fokker organization). Outcome of the final conferences, attended by officials of the transport lines affected, was this program:

Fokker tri-motors (35 in number) of the type in which Knute Kenneth Rockne and seven others crashed to death in Kansas six weeks ago (TIME, April 13) must be inspected by Department of Commerce agents before they can be restored to service. That inspection--a lengthy procedure involving removal of the plywood covering of the wings--must hereafter be undertaken regularly by the operators. The ailerons of the wings must be equipped with a counterbalance to make their manipulation easier.

From the week's sessions Col. Young emerged with an acute headache and the heightened respect of thoughtful airmen. Immediately after the Rockne crash (the cause of which remains unexplained save that a wing was ripped off in midair) he ordered a Fokker to Wright Field, Ohio for rigorous wing tests. The result did not please him.* Fearing a repetition of the Rockne crash, Col. Young quietly ordered all operators to withdraw their Fokkers pending inspection--which he also intended to keep quiet. But the story was broken by astute newshawks who saw certain of the operators wheeling their Fokkers into hangars and Col. Young was forced to make a public statement.

*Last week the crew of a switch engine in Kansas City stated they had seen the plane brush a grain elevator with its wingtip soon after the takeoff. They said that three days later they found a dent on the fire escape of the elevator, about where the wing was supposed to have struck.

Upon newsstands last week appeared a booklet bearing on its cover a photograph of the wrecked plane, and this legend in red and black: 'UNCENSORED TRUTH ABOUT ROCKNE'S STRANGE DEATH! At Last--Inside Story of the Fatal Crash." The booklet merely hints that someone might have tampered with the plane; does not even hint at identity or motive. It was published in Minneapolis by Graphic Arts Corp. which is controlled by Fawcett Publications (Capt. Billy's Whiz-Bang, Jim-Jam-Jems, etc.).

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