Aeronautics: $700 Plane (Cont’d)

The bold scheme of U. S. Director of Aeronautics Vidal for production of a small, cheap ($700) airplane got under way last week when the Public Works Administration allotted $500,000 for its development (TIME, Dec. 18). How his department would use the money, Director Vidal was not ready to say beyond repeating that the Government would not engage in manufacture. Best guess: a new company which would be formed especially to design and develop the “flivver” plane for mass production and in which the whole manufacturing industry would be represented.