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54        U.S. Air Services      November, 1931

Did you Happen to Hear? 

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DO YOU know, inquires the Christian Science Monitor, that WARREN G. HARDING was the first President of the United States to drive an automobile? 
We know that the only President of the United States to go up in an airplane was Theodore Roosevelt, who was ex-President when he did it. He flew with Arch Hoxsey in a Wright biplane on October 11, 1910, at an aviation meet in St. Louis. Total elapsed time, 3 minutes, 20 seconds, which is just 200 seconds longer than any of his successors have flown. For a mode of transportation represented by such beautiful aircrafts as the American Clipper, christened by Mrs. Herbert Hoover, an average of less than 10 seconds a year in the air for our ex-Presidents during the last 21 years is impressive. President Coolidge refused even to walk through the hangars at Bolling Field, in May 1927, containing the meagre but brave exhibits of the manufacturers of aircraft and accessories at their first show. Nobody at the time seemed to know why. Perhaps it was because the aircraft show was held two weeks before Lindbergh flew to Paris. If Senator Bingham ever is President, he will probably fly to the Capitol and back- constantly. 

WILEY POST permitted Miss Dorothy Hester to take him for an outside loop, at Charlotte, N.C., recently. Mr. Post said it was his first experience of the sort, that he had never before been in a plane while an outside loop was made. 

PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS has been carrying gold, currency and negotiable securities back and forth among the countries of North and South America for the last four years. The shipper takes care of the insurance, the rate for which is relatively low. The risk of loss by robbery is, fortuitously, limited up to the time of going to press to the time that the plane is on the ground.

The newest labor organization to become affiliated with the American Federation of Labor is the Air Pilots Association, it was reported at a recent session of the Federation held in Vancouver. There are said to be 500 aviators of the United States in this union, which has jurisdiction over pilots in the U.S. Government and private air services, and similar services in Canada. 

Dr. John D. Brock, of Kansas City, Mo., who started for amusement making an airplane flight daily and now says he will continue to do so from now on, called on President Hoover last month, when his unbroken series of daily take-offs numbered 696. Dr. Brock manufactures eye glasses on an extensive scale. He has been flying since 1922, but not all that time daily, and has 2,700 hours in the air. The Army Air Corps presented him- and probably nothing could have pleased him more- with a commission as major in the specialist reserve. His specialty is to fly every day regardless of the weather. And sometimes the weather has been terrible. 

Karl Day has been appointed manager of the Curtiss-Steinberg Airport. Day was graduated from Ohio State University in 1916. He hails from Cincinnati, was one of the original members of the Marine Corps aviation unit, and saw service in France. 

The people of the State of Ohio now own their first airplane, at a cost of exactly 50 cents less than the authorized expenditure of $5,000. It will be used jointly by Adjutant General Henderson and State Aeronautics Director McKee, who is a pilot. 

Frederick M. Feiker, director of the U.S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, told a group of business men in Asheville, N.C., recently, that one of his friends paraphrased the present era of business management by calling it the "era of the passing of the stuffed shirt."

Samuel D. Irwin, born in New England, has been promoted to the important post of manager of the Curtiss-Wright Flying Service base at Rockland, Me. He flew with the marines in France during the war.

"The conquering of the Pacific, including its adverse weather, by the two Americans, Pangborn and Herndon, marks another great forward step in aviation's progress and is significant in bringing Japan and our Pacific mainland closer together," said Rear Admiral Moffett,  Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics. 

SIX INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE ROLLS-ROYCE SCHNEIDER TROPHY ENGINE 1931
DURING A FLIGHT OF ONE HOUR: 
(1) The twelve pistons together cover a distance of about 500 miles whilst reciprocating in the cylinders, during which period approximately FIVE MILLION stops and starts of the pistons are made at the ends of their respective strokes. 

(2) The fuel is used quicker than you can pour it out of a 2-gallon petrol tin. An hour's fuel supply would suffice for 10,000 miles in the case of an Austin Seven, or Morris Minor, motor car. 

(3) The quantity of air drawn into the cylinders to burn the hour's fuel supply is 1/4 million cubic feet of free air, weighing about EIGHT TONS.

(4) To cool the engine 10,000 gallons of water are circulated around the cylinder jackets.
The heat given to the cooling water is sufficient to make about 40,000 cups of tea. It will be noted that the facts are of British origin.

(5) The propeller screws its way through 4,500 TONS of air during the hour's flight and the tips of the airscrew cover a distance of 600 miles along a helical path. 

(6) In one hour the "S.6." will do approximately the nonstop journey from London to Edinburgh, whereas the "Flying Scotsman" takes more than EIGHT HOURS.

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[[image: drawing of a man going through papers in a trunk]]