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World’s Biggest Plane Makes First Flight – Spruce Goose

View forward on flight deck of 400,000-lb. flying boat shows upper level of nose. In back- ground Hughes discusses plans for taxi test with flight engineer and radio operator.

The biggest airplane in the world, Howard Hughes’ huge flying boat, has taken to the air at last. Hughes himself, shown above at the controls, unexpectedly lifted the big ship between 70 and 80 feet in the air during a taxi test in Los Angeles harbor.

Workmen dwarfed by huge center section of $25,000,000 plane give idea of vast size. Its wing span is 320 feet; length, 219 feet. Plane hit 100 m.p.h, during first test.

Grandfather Wins Air Race

AN AIR meet recently staged at Bradford, – Pa., featured only flyers who were grandfathers. The race, which was over a 25-mile course, was won by 62-year-old Paul Lyon who narrowly scored over Harold Sherrick, a youngster of 49; the grandfather of six children. The air meet was sponsored by the recently organized “Flying Grandfathers Association” with headquarters at Bradford. Among the entries was 71-year-old George Metzger of Emporium, Pa., who handled his plane like a youthful pilot.

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DISCOVER A NEW HIGH IN AIR TRAVEL…

TWA’s great new SUPER-G CONSTELLATIONS LARGEST. MOST LUXURIOUS AIRLINERS IN THE SKIES TODAY!

> Created by Lockheed especially for TWA!

> Powered by Curtiss-Wright’s newest Turbo-compound engines!

> Interior by Henry Dreyfuss. world-famous designer!
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The FLYING Automobile is Here

THE “flying auto,” a combination airplane and automobile which negotiates roads and air lanes with equal facility, has at last appeared in the aeronautical world.

Designed by two German engineers, the craft is a development of the autogyro. A great advantage, however, is that no propeller for the drive in the direction of flight is necessary. The little vertical fins on the gyro blades give the necessary force to drive the car forward in the air.
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France Builds DIVING Plane Carrier

CAPABLE of carrying a fighting seaplane, a full complement of big guns, and a crew of 150 men, the most powerful submarine in the world was recently added to the equipment of the French navy. It is known as the Surcouf, and is in reality a light cruiser capable of traveling under water, since when submerged it has a greater displacement than a floating cruiser. The Surcouf is by far the most powerful submersible yet conceived, and represents France’s latest bid for sea power.
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Man, this guy was good at predicting the future. I’ve heard that Jet Blue is going to be dropping container loads of passengers by parachute starting next year.

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What Will Come Next—Air Trailers or Mammoth Planes?

Edited by MAJOR H. H. ARNOLD Former Assistant Chief, U. S. Air Corps

With a background as old as aviation itself, Major Arnold, who conducts this department, is well qualified to look into the future and speculate on probable methods of air transportation.

A FEW years ago it was quite common to hear the expression, “It’s a queer looking contraption but I don’t think that it will fly.” Today it is not a question as to whether or not it will fly for it seems as if any kind of device will fly as long as it has wings to hold it in the air and an engine to pull it or push it. Read the rest of this entry »

New Type Airplane Landing Gear Said to Give Added Lift

REGINALD O. KING has recently applied for patents on a new type of landing gear which he believes will compensate for the wind resistance to the plane and thus add considerably to its speed.

The wheels are made of enduro steel and have flat, fanshaped spokes bent at an angle to catch the wind, with a guard overhanging the upper half of each wheel. The idea of this is that when the plane is in motion the wind will hit the flat spokes at the bottom, causing the wheels to revolve like propellers, throwing the air forward and greatly lightening the weight of the plane.
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14th Family Plane Enters Contest

FROM Hannibal, Mo., comes another entry in the government’s contest for a light, fool-proof family airplane. Hayden S. Campbell is the designer.

The new craft has a speed of 125 miles an hour and burns but one gallon of gasoline for every 24 miles. The motor is a standard automobile engine. In starting it is only necessary to turn on the ignition, step on the starter and wait a few moments for engine to warm up.
The interior of the cabin is much like that of an automobile. In recent tests the plane was demonstrated to be fool-proof.

Yes, giant analog clocks are the very picture of modernity. Without these, how could an aviator ever tell what time it was?

AIRPORTS Modernize With Huge Clocks

FROM the dusty tarmacs of yesteryear, where gophers dodged and the meadow-lark sprang affrighted from the thunder of old Jennies, down to the tiled airfields of today is a far cry. And a big advance to be made in so few years.

Here is a photo which graphically and dramatically depicts what a huge change has come about in aviation. Heston airport, the municipal airport of the City of London, where all the cross channel European planes check in and out, has installed a huge clock so that incoming or passing planes may see immediately their time of arrival.

The clock is built at the confluence of the tarmac and the hangar apron, and is 20 feet in diameter. It can be seen from 1500 feet. Note the tiled apron hangar. The clock is driven by an electric motor, synchronized in same way as a household electric clock.

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Douglas – builder of Super Planes

by Robert H. Rankin

HIS name is Donald Willis Douglas. Sixteen years ago he was working as an engineer for Glenn Martin, builder of the now famous Martin bombers. Today, as head of his own firm, he is rated one of the world’s foremost designers and constructors. In July, 1936, President Roosevelt officially awarded him the Collier Trophy for 1935 in recognition of his outstanding work in the development of twin-engined commercial transport planes.

Douglas was born on April 6, 1892, in Brooklyn, N. Y., and as a youth attended the Trinity Chapel School in New York City. In 1909, having successfully passed the difficult entrance examinations in good style, he entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.
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Strategy of New U.S. Aerial Patrol Traps “Sky Smugglers”

by RALPH SPENCER

Customs Bureau Men, perplexed by the flood of narcotics, precious stones and undesirable aliens pouring across our borders, have now traced the contraband goods to their sources—”sky smugglers.” How Uncle Sam’s new aerial border patrolmen hunt down these outlaws with ingenious aerial strategy is told in this story of gripping aeronautical adventure.

FIVE thousand feet above the arid Texas-Mexican border an airplane speeds on a secret, illicit mission. Traveling well over 150 miles per hour the craft maintains its speed until about three miles west of Poteet, Texas.
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10-mile Ascent Paves Way for Stratosphere Planes

Planes speeding through the thin air miles above the earth at speeds of 400 m.p.h.—power balloons floating20miles above the earth, deriving electric energy from outer space—these are some of the amazing possibilities pointed out by scientists who ascended 10 miles in a balloon.

A FEW days ago two Swiss balloonists, Prof. Auguste Piccard and his assistant Charles Kipfer, ascended more than 52,000 feet into the atmosphere in a hermetically-sealed metal gondola suspended from the largest balloon ever built. In the universal acclaim evoked by this amazing achievement, the startling scientific significance of the adventure has been somewhat obscured by the mere fact that a new altitude record was set. As far as the every-day life of the human race is concerned, altitude records are insignificant, but certain facts observed by the balloonists are likely to be of vital importance to every one of us.
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