Aeronautics: Fast Freight

With a cargo of flowers, fruits, films, photos, Pilot “Buddy” Jones whipped a silvery Lockheed of Air Express Corp. off the runway of United Airport, Los Angeles, one afternoon last week to touch wheels at Floyd Bennett Field, N. Y. at dawn. Time: 14 hr.—a transcontinental record for commercial planes. Scheduled time: 17-18 hr.

Air Express Corp., a new all-merchandise service between New York and Los Angeles, was supposed to begin service Dec. 12 (TIME, Dec. 12). On that night blizzards raged. Rather than risk an inauspicious start the company waited for good weather, finally got into the air Dec. 18. In its first 30 days operation, bad weather forced it to cancel seven flights east bound, nine westbound.