Burned Pants

"When I'm sittin' on a hot griddle and my pants get hot, I get off before I get burned." With this cracker-barrel observation, North American Aviation's President James Howard ("Dutch") Kindelberger last week announced that production of the Navion, North American's entry in the light-plane market, had been abandoned.

To Dutch Kindelberger, the embarrassing fact was that he himself had fashioned the griddle, to keep his plant cooking after the wholesale cancellation of war orders (TIME, April 15, 1946). But Navion production had lagged because of delays in engine deliveries. When the planes finally came out, North American had no adequate sales force to sell them in the face of the light-plane slump. And the price of $7,750 was so far below cost--at the low production rate--that it became a wry joke. Once, when a prospect told Dutch that he would buy a Navion if he could "get it at cost," Dutch snapped back: "Wonderful. Make out your check for $10,000."

In all, 1,110 Navions were made, only 841 sold. But Dutch Kindelberger feels that Navion production kept his staff together till North American could acquire a backlog of $177 million in military contracts, enough to keep the company virtually intact. But Kindelberger did not get off the griddle fast enough to avoid a serious burn. On the Navion, North American lost around $8,000,000.

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