Word: cot
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Pierre Cot is a scrappy, bespectacled Radical-Socialist of 41 who is generally regarded as one of France's smartest young politicians. He has held the post of Air Minister off & on since 1933. His biggest feat was the merging of five unimportant airlines into potent Air France. Last week his prestige from this achievement was, temporarily at least, forgotten as the result of a fiasco which has been in the making for a year and last week attained its climax...
...publicize the Paris International Exposition, Minister Cot last fall suddenly conceived and as suddenly announced an air race from New York to Paris on May 21, tenth anniversary of Lindbergh's transatlantic flight. Prize was a whopping $135,000 and the race was to be run no matter how bad the weather (TIME, Sept. 7). This suicidal suggestion at once drew protests from airmen all over the world, including Lindbergh, who had not been consulted. Chastened Minister Cot then extended the starting period to a month and closed the race to all but multi-motored planes with radios...
...other than Lieutenant Bruno Mussolini, thickset second son of Il Duce. On his account, the crowds at Le Bourget had all been carefully frisked by police before admission. With scrupulous politeness and notable lack of enthusiasm, they applauded as each plane landed. That night the Paris press gave Pierre Cot his comeuppance, clamored for his resignation...
...immediately distressed because he feared, along with many another, that the event might prove a parallel to the dismal Dole race across the Pacific from California to Hawaii ten years ago in which six planes were lost (TIME, Aug. 22, 1927). Upon Lindbergh's protest, Minister Cot limited the race to multi-motored planes with radios and extended the start to any time in August. But protests continued to fulminate in the U. S., not only from such transatlantic experts as Dr. James Henry Kimball of the Weather Bureau, but from such authoritative groups as the National Aeronautical Association...
...Mollison, sailing from Manhattan where she had been training for the flight: "It is not a stunt flight, and I don't agree with your Commerce Department ruling. They are very far behind the times. . . . The ruling is as good as saying that flying is not safe." Minister Cot managed to remain gracious, denied that he would try to arrange a race to Paris from Buenos Aires or Canada...