Word: compassing
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...this sour note was concluded last week the experiments by the Department of Commerce with the Kruesi Radio Homing Compass for transpacific flying (TIME, March 25). The resignation was that of Major Chester Snow (Reserve), Department of Commerce aeronautical expert in command of the test flights. It was written some 300 mi. out over the Pacific in the Douglas transport which the Department had chartered from TWA for the tests. The wealthy son of a Washington real estate owner, Major Snow had wanted to fly all the way to Honolulu but Director Eugene Luther Vidal of the Bureau...
Unfortunately, there are no broadcasting stations out in the Pacific. Director Vidal's Douglas was to determine: 1) whether land stations on both sides had sufficient range to make the Kruesi Compass practicable in transpacific flying; 2) whether ships' transmitters could be used in lieu of broadcasting stations; 3) whether it would be practicable to anchor miniature seadromes at intervals over the Pacific, use them as 24-hr. broadcasting stations. Estimated useful range of the Kruesi Compass over water was 700 mi., out-&-out maximum 1,500 mi. The windowless Douglas, manned by Army blind flying experts, took...
...having revolutionized long-distance flying, is at 38 neither rich nor famed. Born in Switzerland (his father was a butcher), he studied engineering at Zurich Polytechnic Institute, arrived in the U. S. 15 years ago. In California he worked under Dr. Frederick August Kolster, famed "father of the radio compass," at Federal Telegraph Co., Palo Alto...
There he met Herbert Hoover Jr., went over to Western Air Express when that company made Junior Hoover its chief radio engineer. It was while working there in 1930, under Junior Hoover's supervision, that Geoffrey Kruesi invented the Homing Compass (TIME, Dec. 29, 1930). Lacking funds to develop it, Western Air Express soon dropped Inventor Kruesi from its payroll. In 1931 he was hired by the Army, has lived modestly in Dayton ever since...
...Army has spent some $100,000 perfecting the Kruesi Compass, has made it a compact unit which weighs less than 45 lb., fits in a small box. Patent rights are owned by the U. S. Government, manufacturing rights by Fairchild Aviation Corp., which paid Inventor Kruesi a modest advance royalty. Last week the Fairchild factory at Woodside, L. I. was working day & night to fill an Army order for 500 Kruesi Compasses. From this $150,000 order, Inventor Kruesi will receive not one penny. Reason: He is a Government employe, may not profit from Government expenditures...