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Universal. Train (Santa Fe) between Los Angeles and Garden City, Kan., plane between Garden City and Cleveland, train (New York Central) between Cleveland and Manhattan. Time, 60 hours; fare $250. Service began in mid-June.
Standard-Southern Air Fast Express. Plane between Los Angeles and El Paso, train (Texas & Pacific) between El Paso and Sweetwater, Texas; plane between Sweetwater and St. Louis; train (New York Central, Pennsylvania or Baltimore & Ohio) from St. Louis to Atlantic Coast ports. Time, 58 hours; fare, $215. This service made its first run the same day as the Santa Fe-Universal-N. Y. C. Last week it began regular trips.
Transcontinental Air Transport. Plane between Los Angeles and Clovis, N. Mex.. train (Santa Fe) between Clovis and Waynoka, Okla.; plane between Waynoka and Columbus, Ohio, train (Pennsylvania between Columbus and Atlantic Coast ports. Time, 48 hours; fare, $345. Last week a demonstration run was made. Regular service begins July 7.
These systems go through the Southwest where year-round transportation can be maintained easily. Elsewhere in the country the hurried traveler can splice his own air-&-rail way by hopping from iron horses to "tin geese" (see TIME, May 27).
Flights & Flyers
Fifth Worst Accident's Cause. The cause of aviation's fifth worst heavier-than-air accident, the wreck of the Imperial Airways' City of Ottawa in the English Channel fortnight ago (TIME, July 1), was the splitting of two small connecting rod bolts. An inquiry board decided last week that the bolts were "fatigued," a metallurgical term which means that the crystals of the metal had been strained out of their most useful shape and arrangement, in this case probably by motor vibration. Planemakers took note of the necessity for tireless bolts.
Keystone Patrician in Service. The biggest plane in this country is the Keystone Patrician, an 18 passenger. This spring it hopped between the coasts and borders, proving its stamina in all sorts of weather. Last week it went into its first regular passenger service, on the Colonial Airways New York-Boston run. Fare: $34.85.
Spaniards Rescued. A lingering hope drove the British airplane carrier Eagle to search last week for the Spanish trans-Atlantic aspirants, Commander Ramon Franco and his companions, missing a week (TIME, July 1). The Eagle found them 100 miles southeast of the Azores, where they had planned to land. In a fog they had overshot the islands. Spanish Premier Primo de Rivera cried with relief at the news.
Other famed ocean rescues: Harry G. Hawker and Commander Mackenzie- Grieve, picked up between Newfoundland and Scotland, May, 1919; Commander John Rodgers and crew, near the Hawaiian Islands, September, 1925 (see map, p. 12); Ruth Elder and George Haldeman, near the Azores, October, 1927; Commander Francesco de Pinedo and crew, between Newfoundland and the Azores, May, 1927.