Schneider Race Saved

Loud was the clamor in London last week over Prime Minister MacDonald's announcement that Great Britain would not defend the Schneider Trophy this year (TIME, Jan. 26). From the Conservative and Liberal benches were fired barrages of questions, demands to know why such a decision was made at this time, after Italy & France had been drawn into the contest on Britain's own exacting terms, and when a British victory would be a third successive one, bringing permanent ownership of the trophy. Scot MacDonald professed himself "personally ... as keen about this contest as any man living," but repeated the Government's three objections: 1) it could not afford $400,000;* 2) competition between governments was distasteful; 3) participation fomented jealousies among Royal Air Force pilots. Moreover, he revealed, he had tried for 18-months to convince the Royal Aero Club that the Government would give it no help this year. It was the Royal Aero Club's fault that private funds had not been solicited sooner.

All manner of pressure was directed upon the Prime Minister last week. Lady Houston, who inherited $35,000,000 from the late shipowning Sir Robert Houston, offered "to prevent the Socialist Government from being spoilsports" by paying the Schneider expenses beyond what the Government itself could afford. A deputation headed by Sir Philip Sassoon, chairman of the Royal Aero Club, and Commander Oliver Stillingfleet Locker-Lampson visited the Prime Minister. From their meetings Mr. MacDonald emerged with a change of mind. The Government would loan R. A. F. pilots for racing and planes for training, but no money. The Royal Aero Club hurriedly planned a nationwide appeal; the Society of British Aircraft Constructors assumed $50,000 of the burden. Sir Philip would do what he could. But the $500,000 was still remote.

Then came to the Prime Minister another message from Lady Houston: ". . . The supremacy of English airmen can only be upheld by their entrance into the contest . . . and to show I am not to be daunted, I will guarantee the whole amount of -L-100,000. . . ."

It was not Lady Houston's first spectacular gesture. Shortly before his death in 1926, and in anticipation of heavy inheritance taxes ("death duties"), Sir Robert moved their home to the Isle of Jersey whose inhabitants are generally exempt from such taxes. In a protracted legal wrangle the Government tried to collect the taxes from the widow. Adjudged insane, Lady Houston engaged a staff of alienists to prove the contrary. Then one day she lunched with Winston Churchill (then Chancellor of the Exchequer) and handed him a check for -L-1,500,000--the amount of the taxes.

In the U. S., meanwhile, Lieut. Alford J. Williams, famed speed flyer, began new efforts to secure a U. S. entry in the Schneider races by private subscription. In an article in Liberty magazine, Lieut. Williams declared that Britain's new speedy interceptor fighting planes, capable of 240 m. p. h., are adaptations of racing craft developed for the 1929 meet, which was won with a speed of 328.63 m. p. h. Liberty responded with an offer of $5,000 toward a fund of $300,000 needed to build and enter a U. S. craft.

$800 & Up

Many months ago U. S. aircraft manufacturers recognized a distressing truth. Airplanes were not wearing out as rapidly as anticipated, but were attaining a minimum life of about five years, sometimes reaching seven or eight. Gone glimmering were the industry's hopes of heavy replacement orders through obsolescence, at least for the present.* Astute manufacturers began to look for new markets, studied the private-flyer field. Last year it was apparent that they will attempt to make 1931 a "light-plane year," with planes priced up to $2,000, easy, safe and cheap to operate, attractive to beginners./-

Junior. Most recent and notable entrant into the light-plane field is Curtiss-Wright Corp.** Last week it announced its new Junior, a two-place high-wing monoplane for $1,490. Some features: Szekely 3-cylinder motor of 40 h. p.; top speed 80 m. p. h., cruising 70, landing 28 Fuel consumption: about one gallon to 25 mi.; cruising radius 200 mi. The plane is tiny, looks like a winged canoe built close to the ground, but is sturdily braced against the novice's "pancake" landings. It is of the "pusher" type (a rarity in modern landplanes) with the engine mounted atop the wing and abaft, out of harm's way, and allowing perfect forward visibility.

Bull Pup. Racier than the Junior is the Bull Pup, a single-seat high-wing monoplane announced at $1,250 last fortnight by Buhl Aircraft Co. Features: Szekely 3-cylinder motor of 45 h. p. Top speed 92 m. p. h., landing speed 35. But a larger wing span is provided for buyers who want to fly and land more slowly.

Play Boy, built by Lincoln Aircraft Co., somewhat resembles the Curtiss Junior in boatlike appearance and low clearance. Performance figures are much the same. Engine: Lincoln Rocket. Cost: $800.

Other light planes of the year: Heath ($975),/-/- American Eaglet ($995 & $1,395), Aeronca ($1,495), Huntington Chum ($1,550 & $1,950).

Enthusiastic manufacturers hope to see 1,000 light planes sold during the year. Conservative observers suggest 500 as a generous figure.

Flights & Flyers

DO-X Again. From Lisbon last week the Dornier flying liner DO-X resumed its transatlantic passage begun three months ago at Lake Constance, Switzerland. The wing destroyed by fire at Lisbon had been rebuilt (TIME, Dec. S). Some of the fine interior fixings had been pulled out to make way for more fuel. The proposed course direct to the U. S. had been abandoned for a route via Rio de Janeiro. And Lieut. Clarence H. ("Dutch") Schildhauer, former U. S. Navy flyer, had returned from the U. S. to his post as copilot. The DO-X carried a crew of 13, with 1,100 Ib. of mail (180,000 letters & cards) and six passengers, among them the Portuguese Admiral Gago Coutinho who in 1922 made the first flight from Europe to South America. In happy contrast to the misfortune-dogged jumps from Switzerland to Lisbon, last week's 715-1111. flight to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands was well-favored by wind & weather, uneventful. There it was held again to await good weather for the next jumps to the Cape Verde Islands (845 mi.), to Fernando Noronha (1,429 mi.) and to Natal (300 mi.).

German Hero. Over Lake Rica in the southernmost Andes last week flew Capt. Gunther Plueschow and Mechanic Ernst Dreblow in the amphibian Condor de la Plata, on a mapping expedition. The plane fell out of control; Capt. Plueschow and his partner jumped. Their parachutes did not open. Both were killed.

Plueschow learned to fly in 1909. When the War broke out he was on aerial patrol duty at Tsingtao in the province of Shantung, then under German control and besieged by the Japanese. When the Japanese took the city, Capt. Plueschow flew out with the German colors, landed in southern China. By his knowledge of English and French he escaped capture everywhere, made his way through Japan to San Francisco, crossed the U. S., shipped to Scandinavia as a stoker, slipped back into Germany. Then he went into naval aviation, flew over the North Sea and the Baltic. After the War he devoted himself to exploring and mapping little known territory about the Strait of Magellan and Patagonia.

Swedish Hero. At Malmslaett Airdrome in southern Sweden last week Capt. Einar-Paal Albert Muni Lundborg started to test-fly a new Jagtfalken pursuit plane. The plane stalled, crashed, killed the flyer. Prompt and loud was the clamor for an investigation. The Swedish press dealt sternly with military authorities for permitting the test-flight to be made by Capt. Lundborg.

Soldier of fortune, Lundborg fought in four armies, won Germany's Iron Cross before learning to fly in 1922. His fame spread everywhere in 1928 for his spectacular rescue of General Umberto Nobile, stranded with the survivors of the wrecked dirigible Italia on an ice floe off North East Land. Subsequently Capt. Lundborg made efforts to clear the shadowed reputation of Nobile who had been bitterly flayed for his willingness to leave his companions. Capt. Lundborg always said he had insisted that the Italian accompany him first, to direct rescue operations.

* Cost of 1929 races; estimate for this year, $500,000.

* Between 75% and 85% of all new auto mobiles now sold are replacements. Average age of an automobile: 6% years.

/- At the turn of the year there were about 5,500 more licensed pilots than licensed planes. Also there were some 15,000 licenses issued during the year to new student flyers, presumably without planes.

** Curtiss-Wright Corp. last week reported $18,000,000 sales of planes and engines for 1930 (domestic and export). Orders on hand of $12,000,000 were reported, and compared to $10,000,000 of a year ago. Last week Edward B. Heath, 42, president of Heath Airplane Co., crashed to death near Chicago in a small experimental he had de signed and was trying out.

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