Net & Gross

In the flying business a successful forced landing is one you can walk away from. In 1932 big Detroit Aircraft Corp. made a landing that was distinctly not successful. No investor aboard walked away with his pocketbook intact. One of Detroit Aircraft's subsidiaries was Lockheed Aircraft, absorbed in 1929. Although its sleek Vegas and Orions were the fastest commercial jobs in the air, Lockheed had to go into receivership. Grass grew around its two-acre plant at Burbank, Calif., and the factory had only one employe--a watchman who had started working for Brothers Alan and Malcolm Loughead (later changed to Lockheed) and saw no reason to quit because he was not paid. That was in 1932. Today, Lockheed Aircraft Corp. is a different story.

One of the smart young men who prowled around among the aviation industry's crack-ups in 1932, looking for a wreck to repair and fly, was Harvardman Robert Ellsworth Gross. After a venture in 1928 with Stearman Aircraft Corp. (which he sold to United Aircraft and Transport Corp. within a year after he bought it) and another with Viking Aircraft, which had a not-so-happy ending in the 1929 crash, he had plenty of ambition but little money in his pocket when he learned that Lockheed was for sale.

For $40,000 (which he raised among friends and business associates) Gross bought Lockheed, had the grass cut, put the watchman back on pay and went to work. From Stearman he hired brilliant, witty M. I. T.man Hall L. Hibbard to head his engineering department. In charge of sales he put smart Carl B. Squier, who had sold Lockheeds for the old company in every corner of the earth.

From the Burbank plant soon came Lockheed's first bimotored, all-metal plane, the Electra, a speedy airline job, then the Lockheed 12 and finally the 14, rated in 1937 the fastest multi-engined commercial plane in the world. This year the Lockheed plant turned out the two-engined P-38, one of the world's fastest pursuit ships. Lockheed is now working on a new Electra and the four--engined Excalibur, scheduled for test flight-next summer.

When aircraft companies published their reports on the business of 1939's first half, Lockheed's was one of the most interesting. Three of the big makers--Curtiss-Wright, Douglas and North American-- showed net profits ranging from 27% to 200% over the first six months of 1938. Boeing, still charging off development expense on its big four-motored jobs, showed a net loss of $183,550. Martin, slowed up in production while it tooled its factory for a 215-plane French bomber order, netted $967,624 (31.7% under 1938's first half) but looked forward to a whopping second half in 1939 as production got under way.

Lockheed last week showed sales up 145.8%, from $5,111,699 to $12,565,117, profits up 236.9%, from $151,074 to $508,860 and little Lockheed is no longer little: its plant covers twelve acres instead of two, it employs 6,800 men and it turns out between 30 and 40 ships a month, for airlines, corporations, individuals and governments (including Britain, which has ordered 250 Lockheed light bombers). As striking news as any was Lockheed's backlog of unfilled orders: $26,372,385. Fortnight ago this was upped another $4,845,000 by an Army order for P-38&.

A steady growth in airline traffic has kept the big U. S. airplane builders busy. But on top of this Adolf Hitler's threat to Democracy has brought them enough business to make a boom in itself (latest: a thumping $56,713,000 in orders from the U. S. Army). This makes airplane building unique among U. S. industries in 1939. It has virtually enough orders on hand to keep it busy for an entire year. Its only difficulty is that it has to plow back profits for expansion. Backlogs of the chief companies :

Glenn L. Martin (bombers and patrol boats), $53,000,000; Curtiss-Wright (pursuit planes), $47,000,000; Douglas (commercial liners, bombers), $40,000,000; North American (scouts, trainers, bombers), $32,000,000; Boeing (commercial liners, bombers), $19,000,000; Consolidated (bombers, patrol boats), $17,500,000.

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