Takeoff

As a member of the U.S. Army Air Forces, Private William DeWeese Pardridge could not get off the ground. He wound up as a latrine orderly because he says--he talked back to his superior officers. But last week breezy, young (30) Bill Pardridge was having his say about aviation, and the air world was listening. As founder and editor of the quarterly Air Affairs he had rounded up for his first issue a star-studded list of contributors headed by Atomic Physicist Harold C. Urey. It was all free, too; the writers wrote for love.

Air Affairs' editorial board, board of trustees and list of charter members were studded with such bigwig names as James Landis, Will Clayton, Gardner Cowles, William Benton. Pardridge had dreamed of just such a board when he was an unpromising student at the University of Chicago. There he had flunked 27 courses (freshman English four times), remained a freshman three years, never did get his degree. Later he wound up on the Chicago faculty as an $1,800-a-year research assistant in geography.

To get his money stake for Air Affairs, Pardridge pecked out three successive letters to a list of 2,500. Eight out of every 100 came through. The 165 individuals and 44 corporations who put up $100 or more became charter members. Sixteen hundred more (including citizens of 15 foreign countries) kicked in with $5 each for a year's subscription.

Smooth-talking Bill Pardridge hopes to see 10,000 subscribers before the year is out, will now take ads (the first issue was adless). Barred from advertising: aviation companies. Reason: to head off any talk that Air Affairs has an ax to grind. But every large airline except TWA helped with early contributions of $100 and up, and seven have agreed to plug the magazine with copies in every plane. Promoter Pardridge is already talking about moving Air Affairs from his fifth-floor walkup flat & office in Washington, D.C. Next month he will ask his hand-picked board of trustees (Sir William P. Hildred, Laurance S. Rockefeller, Quincy Wright, et al.) for a raise in pay, from the $250 a month he started business on. He expects to get it.

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