Aeronautics: Poor Man's Plane

Mass production of a small, safe, cheap (about $700) plane has long been an obsession with Director Eugene Luther Vidal of the Bureau of Air Commerce of the Department of Commerce. Year ago he urged the idea upon manufacturers, found them cold. Last May he took matters into his own hands, asked for bids on 25 small, cheap, safe airplanes for use by the Government's aeronautical inspectors. Last week when the bids were opened in Washington, only one of the 16 submitted approached $700. Safety Air Transportation of Indianapolis offered to build a metal...

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