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52              U.S. AIR SERVICES        August, 1931
Navy's Martin Trimotor Patrol Boat
THE Navy has completed testing, at Naval Air Station, Anacostia, D. C., its largest airplane of recent years. This is a Martin Trimotor patrol boat designated as XP2M-1. It has been about 12 years since the Navy had a plane of greater size, the Navy NC type, which made the first transatlantic crossing in 1919. By comparison, in speed cruising range and general suitability, this latest plane is far superior to its long range prototype of just after war days. The following statement is authorized by the Bureau of Aeronautics. 
 The Martin boat is not only a patrol plane designed for long cruises over the ocean, but as well can carry a load of bombs, each of 1,000 pounds, which was unheard of a few years back. It is arranged, not as the usual airplane which spends its night within the hangar, to spend its time on the water. In each of its three large compartments there are several full sized Navy bunks, fresh water, and the cooking facilities are adequate.
 The big flying boat has been developed to the point where it is self sustaining; that is, the crew can live on board week after week, and the plane requires no outside attention other than the provision of fuel for the engine and food for the crew.
 As one stand on the bow of the plane he finds an anchor and anchor gear which would be of sufficient strength adequately to moor the plane under the most extreme conditions of wind and weather. A little aft radio, which in flight is as powerful as any that has ever been in the air, and incidentally with provisions for an emergency apparatus for use when on water, which could insure continuous contact with any Naval unit. Those who have seen and wondered at the size of the large passenger transports in daily service in this country will perhaps be surprised to find that this new Navy plane carries into the air a weight equal to two of those airplanes. A ton, 2,000-pounds, of additional weight makes but little difference in the take-off and flying characteristics of this Navy plane.
 American flying boats are without doubt the superior of any in the world today.

Anyway, There Were Plenty
THERE was an extraordinary variety in the estimates by the New York newspapers of the size of the crowd which greeted Post and Gatty on their arrival at Roosevelt Field. Guy Fawkes, writing in The New Yorker, states:
  The Graphic put it at ninety thousand, the News at sixty thousand, the Journal fifteen thousand, the Mirror, Post, and Times stuck together at ten thousand, and the Herald Tribune, always the conservative, voted a scant six thousand. Perhaps Post and Gatty are Democrats.

WILL ROGERS said something about Claremore needing a bigger field than a parachute jumper's circle so that Post and Gatty could honor the town and incidentally do homage to Will, and they fixed one up for him in four days. Will has been talking to Congress about aviation for a long time but we haven't seen it set up any four-day speed record in doing anything. Trouble is, not enough congressmen come from Claremore. We know a lot of towns that still need airports. Wish we could get Will Rogers to change his place of birth once in a while.

THE stock market took Jimmy Hall for a little ride, so he sold his seat in the stock exchange and bought a Lockheed. As Commander of the Crusaders he thinks the time is ripe to fly from here to there the better to sell his particular brand of anti-prohibition theory that education can do the country more good in a shorter length of time than enforced or partially enforced prohibition laws. Other times he is with his jumping horses and yachts.

78% Business Men
THE Century Air Lines made a study of the 11,000 passengers carried by them during a 60-day period and found that 78% of them were traveling on their own business or that of their employer. They have been making it their business to operate frequent schedules at railroad rates and find the business man anxious to take advantage of it. 

THOS. F. HAMILTON, director of the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation and president of the United Airport, Burbank, Calif., is on his second trip abroad in recent months. He expects to establish United Aircraft products on foreign soil, where he feels there is a large untouched market. In the meantime the United Airport has installed an additional 8,000-gallon gasoline pit giving the field a capacity of 25,000 gallons. United Airlines, Western Air Express, and American Airways, Inc., are now all housed in a large new hangar.

TWENTY-TWO years after Bleriot earned the plaudits of the world for his flight across the English Channel in his monoplane, a round-trip over the same channel is made in a motorless plane, making one stop.

THE first American Autogiro was put into service in this country two and a half years ago, as the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Wright brothers' flight at Kitty Hawk was being celebrated. The Smithsonian Institution has asked for and obtained this Autogiro. Who said old dogs can't learn new tricks?

CAPT. HERBERT G. PARTRIDGE, Boston Tech and Selfridge Field educated, trained through the War at Issoudun, France, plans an attempt to capture the 72,500 prize for the first nonstop flight of 6,000 miles from Los Angeles to Tokio. September the first is the date now set for the start. Last year this thirty-five year old pilot was forced down near Washington in an attempted flight from Maine to South America.
 He announces that he will start with 1,300 gallons of gasoline and some, at present unidentified, Japanese. Some of the prize money is contingent upon his ability to carry a Japanese with him. The Japanese Government has offered $25,000 with an additional $12,500 if a Japanese is included in the flight. A Japanese newspaper will give $35,000 for the plane if delivered without stop across the Pacific.