"When I'm sittin' on a hot griddle and my pants get hot, I get off before I get burned." With this cracker-barrel observation, North American Aviation's President James Howard ("Dutch") Kindelberger last week announced that production of the Navion, North American's entry in the light-plane market, had been abandoned.
To Dutch Kindelberger, the embarrassing fact was that he himself had fashioned the griddle, to keep his plant cooking after the wholesale cancellation of war orders (TIME, April 15, 1946). But Navion production had lagged because of delays in engine deliveries. When the planes finally came out, North American had no...
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