Word: wichitas
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...tall, slender Kansan flew to New York to show the wartime British Purchasing Commission a light, twin-engined plane he hoped to sell as a trainer for fledgling pilots. Before he could close the deal, Dwane L. Wallace, then only 28 and president of the Cessna Aircraft Co. of Wichita, Kan., was asked for some financial data on his company. The bank balance, said he, was $3. Without batting an eye, persuasive President Wallace explained that he had a good line of credit, landed a $6,800,000 contract for 640 R.C.A.F. Cranes (modified Cessna...
...credit for Cessna's new planes and its soaring business goes to President Dwane Wallace, who took over in 1934 from his uncle Clyde Cessna (the company's founder). Since its founding in 1927, the company had not made much money. But Wallace, who graduated from Wichita University with a degree in aeronautical engineering, knew how to build a speedy, airworthy plane. His first Cessna Air-master could cruise at 140 m.p.h.; private U.S. flyers bought 212 of them in six years, and Wallace was able to stay in business...
...resigned from his law firm to become Boeing's president at $50,000 a year. By surface indication, Bill Allen was taking over a soaring giant of the air world. Boeing employment still stood at almost 30,000 in Seattle, 17,000 at the two plants at Wichita, Kans. Sales for 1943 and 1944 were over $1 billion, and profits were almost $10 million. But this was an empire built on war contracts and things were happening to war contracts...
...election, a big B-29 contract was canceled, and one Wichita plant had to be shut down. The next day, another sweeping cutback hit Seattle as well. New President Allen went home and muttered dazedly to his wife: "My lord, the roof has fallen in." In 60 days, $1.5 billion in contracts were canceled, more that 38,000 workers laid off. Bill Allen remembered the grim joke North American's James H. ("Dutch") Kindelberger once told him on the boom-or-bust character of the industry: "If I stub my toe and fall while running to lay off people...
...organization. Most important of all were the contests. Beginning with semifinals, in which 40 quartets and 22 choruses participated, the convention ended with a wall-rocking sing-off for the quartet Medalist prize. In Constitution Hall (dubbed Harmony Hall for the occasion) the big finals began with a Wichita, Kans. group called the Orphans. Dressed in blue tailored coats and pants and red bow ties, the quartet sang a smooth When the Bell in the Lighthouse Rings Ding, Dong. Next came the Lytle Brothers from Sharon...