Word: fonck
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Finding the right plane is a puzzler; "Rene Fonck, France's World War I ace, has just crashed on the take-off at Roosevelt Field in a trimotored Sikorsky biplane, and two of his crew members have burned to death. Lindbergh distrusts the heavy, intricate, three-engine craft of the day: too much could go wrong. But his backers are cautious; they urge him to go to the renowned Fokker Co. A three-engine plane for such a flight will cost $90,000, the salesman tells him. When Lindbergh mentions a one-engine job, the salesman's voice...
Died. Colonel René Fonck, 59, France's top air ace of World War I (in 32 months of aerial combat he got credit for 75 kills, unofficial credit for 51 more); of a cerebral hemorrhage; in Paris. A national hero after the 1918 armistice, Fonck turned to civilian flying, narrowly escaped death when his S-35 crashed on the take-off of a 1926 transatlantic attempt. Back in uniform in 1939, Colonel Fonck led a fighter group until France fell, in 1942 disguised himself as a Trappist monk and helped organize an escape route through Belgium for downed...
...Mick" Mannock (73 kills), U.S.'s Raoul Lufbery (17 kills). Other aces survived to make their marks on the brave new world: Eastern Air Lines President Eddie Rickenbacker (26), "Billy" Bishop (72), World War II commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, France's Rene Fonck (75), who collaborated with Vichy, Hermann Goring (22), a celebrated suicide...
Face Lifter. Extremely shy, Mrs. Dodge had no liking for publicity. One of the few times her name appeared in print was in 1926, when she spent $50,000 backing a French flyer and famed War I ace, Captain René Fonck, in a transatlantic flight that never came off. Another was in 1930, when she paid a record-high fine of $213,286 for failing to declare the full value of trunksful of clothes and jewelry that she brought home from France. She was still largely unknown when in 1938 a U.S. Treasury report showed...
...Rene Fonck, 50, World War I French Ace of Aces (75 German planes) and World War II Vichy collaborationist, tried out a new role. R.A.F. Sergeant George Cole, back from a parachute landing in Belgium, told the story. Knocked unconscious by his jump, Cole awoke in a monastery where he was silently waited on for three days by monks sworn to perpetual silence. Finally he was driven back to his base by a non-silent, keenly airminded monk who began questioning him closely about the air war. Flyer Cole said that his robed driver was ex-Flyer Fonck...