Transport: Trip No. 20,000

United Air Lines made news last week when it celebrated its 20,000th cross-country flight. On that day all its planes were ceremoniously flown over their scheduled courses by pilots with more than 1,000,000 miles of air experience. Pioneer in long-distance night flying with passengers, United operates 23,000 miles of scheduled flights daily, carries more passengers than any other U. S. airline. Its midcontinent airway saw the first U. S. airmail service and was for ten years the only transcontinental air route. First airline to use planes built exclusively for mail & passengers. United likewise was first to inaugurate through multi-motored passenger plane service from coast-to-coast, first with a less-than-20-hr. schedule.

News not of United’s choice or making was the suit filed against it last week by one George A. Hughes of Lincoln, Neb. for alleged infringement of his patent on dihedral (up-tilted) wing design. To prove that he invented flying principles used by United, Plaintiff Hughes offered to have onetime Colorado cowboys testify they amused themselves in the 1890’s by plugging Hughes’s flying models full of holes with six-shooters.