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AIRPLANE MAKER
SAYS QUIZ MAY
AID INDUSTRY
1934 -----
Pioneer Believes Wider
Bidding Is Needed.
-----
E.M. [Matty] Laird, pioneer pilot and airplane manufacturer, who de-signed and built the first commercial planes after the war, said yesterday that the congressional investigations of army and navy plane purchases, and the air mail situation, may have a salutary effect on the aviation in-dustry as a whole. 
Laird is one of the few independent airplane manufacturers who are not members of the Aircraft manufacturers' association, which was formed during the war by the pooling of air-plane patents. This pool has been in effect a monopoly, and it has tended to restrict the number of plane build-ers, and to reduce the bidding on army and navy contracts, Laird said. 
Started Factory in 1919.
Laird said he started his airplane factory at Wichita, Kas., in 1919 while the market was still flooded by surplus war planes manufactured by members of the aircraft patent pool. The Swal-low plane built in that factory was the forerunner of modern commercial type planes.
Associated with Laird in his first plane building company were Walter Beech, who later formed the Travelair company; Lloyd Stearman who built a plane bearing his name; Waverly Stearman, builder of the Blackhawk, and George E. Weaver, who founded the Wace Airplane company. Clyde Cessna became associated with the same group before building the mono-planes bearing his name.
Began Private Operations
In this original group were a ma-jority of the pioneer commercial plane builders, Laird said. Their efforts re-sulted in the beginning of private commercial operations on a large scale, which later grew into the air mail and passenger lines of today. Most of those pioneers are still building planes although almost none of them enjoys government contracts. 
If government contracts are opened to wider bidding in which the inde-pendent plane builders can compete Laird said, the aviation industry as a whole will benefit.