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Clement Melville Keys, 52, is president of T. A. T., Inc. He had been an investment banker to whom Glenn Curtiss went for advice. The two became firm friends and later Mr. Keys bought the Curtiss Company. He sold out to John North Willys, automobileman, who found the airplane business hard sledding. Mr. Keys again took over the company in 1920 and reorganized it as the Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Co., Inc. He developed slowly at first, realizing that surplus war materials were crowding the market. Meanwhile he experimented with pursuit and observation planes, perfected them; and soon U. S. Army and Navy contracts boomed his production. The Curtiss Falcons were so swift and so sturdy that the British Army upset its usual domestic policy by purchasing several dozen of them. Last summer, Mr. Keys toured Europe by air, observed much that will help T. A. T., Inc.
Flexible are the plans of T. A. T., Inc. It has not yet announced contract awards for either planes or motors. No one manufacturer will be given a hog's share of the contracts. Curtiss, Ford, Fairchild, Glenn Martin, Ryan and others are possible plane builders. Wright, Pratt & Whitney, Curtiss, Ford are possible motor builders. As T. A. T., Inc., expands, it will include railroads other than Pennsylvania and Santa Fe in its network.
* The National Air Transport Co. has been carrying occasional passengers between New York and Chicago in its mail planes for $200. But it takes only one passenger at a time, and he must sit in an open cockpit with his feet surrounded by mail bags and express packages. He leaves Hadley Field, N. J. at 12:15 p. m., arrives in Chicago at 7 p. m. He can also fly to San Francisco for $200 with the Boeing Air Transport Co., in a 2-passenger cabin plane leaving Chicago at 7:50 p. m., reaching San Francisco at 4:30 p. m. next day.
† Col. Lindbergh refused an offer of an executive position with T. A. T., Inc., but is friendly to its directors and may act later in an advisory capacity.