The Crowded Sky

U.S. airlines rolled merrily along on their plane-buying spree. Last week Baltimore's Glenn L. Martin Co. announced another $7,000,000 in orders for Martin 202s. Pennsylvania-Central Airlines Corp., which had already ordered 35, signed up for 15 more. Braniff Airways bought 18.

All told, twelve U.S. airlines have already announced prospective new plane purchases of some $520,000,000. (Book value in 1943 of all domestic airline planes: $32,500,000.) Before long the total of new planes on order may soar to a stratospheric $750,000,000. To pay for these new planes, U.S. airlines have total working capital and equipment purchase funds of some $200,000,000. But no one expects that they will take all the planes now on order. Many a line is ordering more planes than it actually intends to buy, to make certain that it misses no hot new ships.

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