Transport: Duck Soup

Fastest U. S. transport plane is the Cord Vultee, an eight-passenger single-motored (Wright Cyclone) all-metal low-wing monoplane introduced few months ago on American Airlines. Month ago Jimmy Doolittle flew a Vultee to a new coast-to-coast transport record of 11 hr. 59 min. (TIME, Jan. 28). Last week an obscure American Airlines pilot named Leland S. Andrews climbed into the Doolittle Vultee at Los Angeles, streaked non-stop to Washington to deliver a box of orchids to Mrs. Roosevelt. After a 12-minute stopover he took off again, hopped to Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field in an hour, zoomed the runways and landed at Newark ten minutes later. Elapsed time: 11 hr. 34 min. 16 sec. Average speed: 212 m.p.h. Immensely pleased at beating famed Pilot Doolittle’s record by 25 minutes, unfamed Pilot Andrews grinned to newshawks: “It was duck soup. . . . Wait until I tell Grace!”

Grace is Mrs. Andrews. Her sister Josephine is Mrs. Doolittle.