Word: ludington
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...Charles Townsend Ludington, socialite of Philadelphia, $8,000 might be the price of a small cabin cruiser such as he sails on Biscayne Bay. For his young brother Nicholas ("Nikko") Saltus Ludington it might buy a few new mounts for his large stable of hunters. For either brother, it would be hardly more than pin money. But the $8,073.61 profit which showed on a balance sheet upon Brother Townsend's desk last week was as exciting to him as a great fortune. It was the first year's net earning of Ludington Line, plane-per-hour passenger...
...practically sole financiers of the company the Brothers Ludington might well be proud. But they would be first to insist that all credit go to two young men who sold them the plan and then made it work: brawny, handsome Gene Vidal, West Point halfback of 1916-20, onetime Army flyer: and squint-eyed, leathery Paul ("Dog") Collins, War pilot, oldtime airmail pilot...
...Ludington Line might never have come into existence had there not been a shake-up two years ago in Transcontinental Air Transport, which was losing heavily. The shake-up shook out Collins, who was general superintendent, and Vidal of the technical committee. Angry, because they felt that T. A. T. had publicized their discharge as a sort of burnt offering to disgruntled stockholders, Vidal & Collins saw a chance to square accounts. Together they had developed the germ of the plane-per-hour service. If they could start such a line in the East, they might compete with Eastern Air Transport...
...were forced down to 7½? per gal. Pilots were instructed to taxi on one motor instead of three. . . . Result : Cost per mi. was 37?, while other operators of tri-motors were having difficulty in getting under $1 per mi. At the end of the first year, September 1, Ludington had made 8,300 trips, about 28 per day; carried 66,000 passengers (average load 66%) without injury. In the whole year there was no crackup (though four days after the anniversary a pilot smashed a ship and injured himself, after discharging passengers). On occasion, sudden squalls would force planes...
...Ludington Line is something of an annoyance to the Post Office Department with its offers to carry mail for 25? per mi., less than half of what is paid Eastern Air Transport...