1929 - Transportation

Transportation

General Motors president Alfred P. Sloan Jr. opposes a suggestion by Lammot du Pont, 49, that Chevrolets be equipped with safety glass (see Duplate, 1927). GM's Cadillacs and La Salles have recently been equipped with Duplate glass, but Sloan points out that Packards have not been equipped with safety glass and their sales have not suffered. "I do not think that from the stockholder's viewpoint the move on Cadillac's part has been justified," writes Sloan, who has rescued GM from the brink of insolvency and is creating the modern corporation, with an independent board of directors and executive and finance committees, decentralizing decision making for divisions that must meet financial benchmarks.

General Motors announces in March that it has bought 80 percent of the stock in Germany's Adam Opel AG for $26 million and holds an option for the remaining shares (GM will exercise the option in 1931; see 1924). GM has agreed to let Opel enjoy autonomy, retaining the brand name Opel, and not to assemble GM cars at Rüsselsheim. U.S. management takes over officially October 18 (see 1935).

GM's Chevrolet Division introduces a six-cylinder model and advertises that the new Chevy costs no more than a four-cylinder car.

The Cord L-29 introduced by E. L. Cord's Auburn Automobile Co. is the first motorcar with front-wheel drive to enjoy wide sales (see 1926). It will remain in production until 1932.

The Model J Duesenberg is a "real Duzy" (see 1926). Designed by Fred and August Duesenberg for E. L. Cord's Duesenberg, Inc., the costly 265-horsepower luxury car can go 112 to 116 miles per hour and will be built until 1936 for affluent Americans and Europeans.

Ford introduces the first station wagon, equipping a Model A with a boxy wooden body that provides extra space for cargo and passengers.

The first mobile home trailer goes on sale at New York showrooms. Aviation pioneer Glenn H. Curtiss has devised it for Hudson Motor Car.

U.S. auto production tops 5 million with minor makes accounting for 25 percent of sales (General Motors alone produces 1,333,154 vehicles). U.S. motorcar ownership reaches 23 million, up from 7 million in 1919, but the production figure of 5 million will not be reached again for 20 years (see 1932).

The Ambassador Bridge opens November 15 to span the Detroit River between Michigan and Ontario (see Peace Bridge, 1927). Built in 2½ years, it has a 1,850-foot center span that makes it the world's longest suspension bridge to date (see Windsor Tunnel, 1930).

The MG sportscar is introduced by Morris Garages (see 1912). Designed and built at Abingdon, England, it has an octagonal emblem that will become symbolic of British sportscars and it will remain in production until 1980.

Scuderia Ferrari is founded at Modena December 1 by former Alfa Romeo racing driver Enzo Ferrari, 31, with a few partners to sell Alfas in three provinces (Scuderia means stable, or racing team).

Automotive pioneer Karl F. Benz dies at Ladenburg, outside Mannheim, April 4 at age 84; carburetor (and Mercedes-Benz) designer Wilhelm Maybach at Stuttgart December 29 at age 83 (motorcars bearing the Maybach name have been produced since 1922 and will remain in production to 1939).

United Aircraft & Transport is created in February by aeronautical engineer and designer Chance Vought, now 38, who merges his 12-year-old Chance Vought aircraft manufacturing firm with Pratt & Whitney Aircraft and Boeing Airplane (see 1931; United Airlines, 1931).

Curtiss-Wright Corp. is created by a merger of American Wright Co. with Curtiss Aircraft (see 1909; 1910).

London's Heathrow Airport has its beginnings in Richard Fairey's Great West Aerodrome, used mainly for experimental flights (see 1946; Croydon, 1920; Gatwick, 1936).

The Graf Zeppelin that was launched last year completes the first round-the-world flight of any kind. The dirigible carries nine commercial passengers 19,000 miles in 21 days, 7 hours.

Indiana-born Binghamton, N.Y., inventor Edwin A. (Albert) Link, 24, files a patent application April 14 for a "pilot maker" and organizes the Link Aeronautical Corp. to market his trainer, a mechanical device that can be used in place of actual flying time to teach rudimentary pilot skills. Some amusement parks acquire the machines for use as coin-operated rides, Link will organize the Link Flying School next year and guarantee students that they will learn to fly solo for only $85, but he will enjoy little success (see politics, 1934).

Vincent Bendix founds Bendix Aviation; he will merge his various aviation, motorcar, and radio equipment-making firms into the new corporation (see 1912; Bendix Trophy, 1930).

Delta Air Lines begins passenger service June 17 under the name Delta Air Service with three six-passenger Travelaire monoplanes powered by 300-horsepower Wright "Whirlwind" engines flying at 90 miles per hour between Dallas and Jackson, Miss., via Shreveport and Monroe, La. Delta was organized late last year under the leadership of former agricultural extension service county agent C. E. (Collett Everman) Woolman, 39, who pioneered in using airplanes to dust cotton crops with arsenate of lead and calcium arsenate in order to protect them from boll weevil damage.

Pan American Airways starts daily flights between Miami and San Juan, Miami and Nassau, and San Juan and Havana (see 1927; 1935). Pan American consultant Charles A. Lindbergh opens a route through Central America to the Panama Canal Zone. Pan Am acquires Cia Mexicana de Aviacion, wins a mail contract to Mexico City, and by year's end has routes totaling 12,000 miles, up from 251 at the end of last year (see 1930).

Lieut. "Jimmy" Doolittle, U.S. Army, takes off from Mitchel Field on Long Island September 24 for a 15-mile "blind" flight using only instruments (see Doolittle, 1922). Retained by copper heir Daniel Guggenheim to develop new aircraft, he carries the world's first altimeter, designed by German-born engineer Paul Kollsman, 29, who has found a way to translate barometric pressure into feet and last year founded the Kollsman Instrument Co. at Brooklyn.

Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. is founded December 6 by Huntington, L.I.-born engineer Leroy "Red Mike" Grumman, 34, and New York-born production supervisor Leon "Jake" Swirlbul, 31, who met 5 years ago at New York's Loening Aeronautical Engineering Co. Loening has sold out to Keystone Aircraft, whose management announced last year that it would move operations to Bristol, Pa., and has become part of the new Curtiss-Wright Corp. Loening veteran William T. Schwendler, 24, is chief engineer for the new company, whose founders rent a garage at Baldwin, Long Island (see 1930).

U.S. commercial airlines fly 30 million miles, up from 6 million in 1927, and carry 180,000 passengers, up from 37,000.

The S.S. Bremen goes into service July 10 and sets a new transatlantic speed record for passenger liners. The North German-Lloyd line vessel crosses from Cherbourg to New York in 4 days, 17 hours, 42 minutes, cutting 3 hours off the record set by the S.S. Mauretania in 1910.