London Show

Twenty years ago this week Louis Bleriot, Frenchman, flew the first airplane across the English Channel, from Calais to Dover.-* Just now Louis Bleriot is in Paris receiving plaudits for the anniversary. From Paris he will go to London for more plaudits and a pleasant sight--a model of his plane prominently displayed in the historical aviation exhibit of London's International Aero Exhibition, which the Prince of Wales opened last week.

The London show is remarkable for its great number of light planes. The transport and military planes there seem entered only as samples of what is being accomplished in aviation. The small planes are dressed up to stimulate sales. Many are being bought at sight. The Exhibition is a sales opportunity which U. S. manufacturers seem to have foregone. The only U. S. plane on show was a trimotored Ford.

U. S. aviation manufacturers, despite their scant representation at the London shew, have not been laggard in their foreign business. They sold abroad $2,485,070 worth of aircraft, $618,470 of motors, $846,500 of parts during the first five months of this year, according to a government compilation announced last week. The total, $3,990,050, was almost triple the $1,461,328 aviation exports of the same months in 1928. Canada, Mexico and Chile were the largest plane buyers; Germany the largest buyer of motors. Canada of parts.

* First air crossing of the Channel occurred in 1785, in a hydrogen-filled balloon piloted by Jean Pierre Blanchard.