Manhattan Show

Only three dozen planes appeared at the New York Aviation Show last week. Few of the better known planes were there. The American Legion, not the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce, had organized the show. But it was the first air exposition that New York has had for almost eight years and 20,000 persons daily endured the active discourtesies of Grand Central Palace Exposition factotums to see the planes. Many a sight-seer bought a plane on the spot. Many another was there just to learn to recognize the different makes in the sky.

Identifying planes on. the fly is far more difficult than identifying automobiles. Every plane has on the under side of a wing and on its rudder a letter and number. Those are the Department of Commerce's permit symbols. The Department has issued more than a hundred permits. Rarely, except with field glasses, are the symbols discernible from the ground.

Yet the type, shape and motor of planes give a clue to their flying identity. Here are some from-the-ground descriptions:

Command-Aire--3-seat open cockpit biplane; wings equal but staggered; in-line motor; fuselage shaped to usual tail; balanced rudder.

Fairchild Cabin-plane--5-seat cabin monoplane; folding wings braced by steel V tubes on each side; radial motor, low-placed, affording view through sloping windscreen from glass-enclosed deep cabin; fuselage full; rudder, stabilizers large and curving.

Hamilton Silver Eagle--4-to-8 seat cabin monoplane, all metal; high wing tapering in chord and depth; short strut bracing to rectangular fuselage; pilot cabin under leading wing edge, glass-enclosed; passenger cabin goes back with windows to each seat, and wide doors on either side; radial motor.

Keystone Patrician--18-passenger cabin monoplane fitted with 3 radial motors, one in nose and others on each side on bracing struts of the high fixed wing. The whole ship is fabric covered. It started from Long Island last week on a 75-day tour of the country.

Kreider-Reisner Challenger--3-seat open cockpit biplane; wings, equal span, single bay, staggered; fuselage shapely; half hidden, in-line motor; smaller rudder outfit; V cross axle under carriage.

Ryan Brougham--5-seat cabin monoplane; one-piece wing, braced by 2 pairs of tube struts; radial engine at front of a tubular section starting with sloping windshield; fuselage small; rudder roundish; split undercarriage joined to wing struts.

Stearman---3-seat open cockpit biplane; wings unequal; strutted to fuselage; fuselage slim; sharp curves on tail units; radial engine; split axled wheels close to body.

Ford--3-engined 10-12 seater cabin monoplane; high wing, all metal like the rest of the plane in corrugated sheet; fuselage low slung, heavy; rudder high, wide sweeping; three radial engines, one in nose and two suspended under the wing on either side; pilot's cockpit in advance of leading edge; wide wheel base; steerable wheel on tail skid.