AERONAUTICS: Impetus

A new type of impetus to civilian aviation came forth last week when the War Department sanctioned a Government aviation unit to be established at New York University in conjunction with the Guggenheim School of Aviation, inaugurated there four years ago and expanded last year by $500,000 from Daniel Guggenheim for an aviation building unique* among U. S. universities. The U. S. unit at the school will consist of a regular flying officer detailed, with special equipment, to assist Professor Alexander Klemin, the head of the school, and train the graduates to eligibility for commissions in the Flying Corps of the Officers’ Reserve. Last June the Guggenheim School graduated nine men. This year it enrolls 15. The prospect of practical experience at Government fields is expected to multiply the enrollment by leaps and bounds. Attention turned to four other universities to see how soon they would obtain, or the War Department offer, similar official units to complement their schools of aviation —Georgia Tech and the Universities of California. Illinois, Washington.

*With classrooms, laboratories, aeronautics library and experimental tunnel fortesting models in winds up to 100 m.p.h.