Transport: Cheap Trip

The happiest little airplane factory in the U. S. last week was the Aeronca plant at Cincinnati. Aeronca usually makes just two ships in December, but an ex-tap dancer’s amazing stunt had upped December orders 1,400%.

At Los Angeles, John M. Jones, who went to Hollywood to be an actor and remained to sell $1,795 Aeroncas, got into his own tiny demonstrator (50 h.p., 90 m.p.h., 672 lb. unloaded), took off with 876 lb. of gasoline and did not come down until he got to New York. It took him 30 hours and 37 minutes and he set a new non-stop distance record for planes of this size. Total operating cost: $30.91. Cheapest bus fare for the trip: $42.

American Airlines furnished Jones with his gas (twelve times the normal load), oil, food, hotel suite, weather and compass course. Jones furnished American Airlines with good publicity for its southern low altitude route across country. Like the misdirected Douglas Corrigan, Jones during his return to Los Angeles will exhibit himself and his plane at airfields which dot the American Airlines route. He will probably sell a lot more Aeroncas when he gets home, having proved that, with a pilot at the stick who doesn’t need much sleep, baby ships need not be confined to the environs of their airport cribs.