Once there were 88 U. S. motor car manufacturers. Now there are 47. Mishaps and mergers reduced the number. Analogous has been the career of the aviation industry during the rapid past three years of its expansion. There are about 350 makers of airplanes, five of lighter-than-air craft, 30 of motors. Those concerns too have had their mishaps and mergers, especially mergers. The majority of them now belong to what until last week were four groups—United Aircraft & Transport, Aviation Corp., Curtiss-Keys, and "Hoyt." Last week the Curtiss and "Hoyt" groups merged.
The name of the latest roc of transportation is Curtiss-Wright Corp. Its net as sets are 70 million dollars. Its chiefs are to be Chairman Richard Farnsworth Hoyt, 41, Chairman of Wright Aeronautical Corp. & sundry others, and President Clement Melville Keys, 53, President of Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Co.
Neither Mr. Hoyt nor Mr. Keys are putting all their properties into the new Curtiss-Wright Corp. The merged units are:
Wright Aeronautical Corp. (Hoyt)
Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Co. (Keys)
Curtiss Airports Corp. (Keys)
Curtiss Flying Service (Keys)
Curtiss Aeroplane Export Co. (Keys)
Curtiss-Caproni Corp. (Keys)
Curtiss-Robertson Airplane Mfg. Co. (Keys)
New York Air Terminals (Hoyt)
N.Y. & Suburban Airlines (Hoyt)
Keystone Aircraft Corp. (Hoyt)
These provide among themselves a manifold sales organization. To them airmen last week felt certain would soon be conjoined three plane manufacturers not yet entirely under Hoyt or Keys control.
Large scale customers for the products of Curtiss-Wright Corp. will be the great transport companies which Mr. Hoyt and Mr. Keys more or less dominate: Aviation Corp. of the Americas (Pan-American Airways), National Air Transport, Transcontinental Air Transport, Pitcairn Aviation, Inc.* Upon sailing for Europe last week Mr. Keys was meticulous in stating that these transport companies would not buy their equipment exclusively from their allied manufacturers.
No unhampered way has Curtiss-Wright Corp. for control of the U. S. air industry, if that is the hope of Messrs. Keys & Hoyt. Redoubtable against subjugation are W. Averell Harriman & Robert Lehman's $40,000,000 Aviation Corp.,†and Frederick B. Rentschler's $25,000,000 United Aircraft & Transport Corp.
Aviation Corp. already has in its hands:
Fairchild Aviation Corp.
Universal Aviation Corp.
Colonial Airways Corp.
Southern Air Transport
Embry-Riddle Aviation Corp. Inc.
Interstate Air Lines. Inc.
United Aircraft & Transport has:
Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Co.
Boeing Airplane Co.
Boeing Air Transport
Hamilton Aero Manufacturing Co.
Chance Vought Corp.
Hamilton Metalplane Co.
Pacific Air Transport Co.
Stout Air Lines Inc.