Mcallen Daily Press

AVIATION'S SOBER NOW, But Not Its many thrills

THERE was a time when aviation was young and crazy and fliers made their living by seeing how close to dying they could come. Restless young men, just back from the war with no training but how to live dangerously, rounded up a few dollars, bought a jalopy of a plane and went out barnstorming. A dozen times a day they flirted with death while crowds beneath thrilled at their feats and waited for the kill.

Today, aviation is no longer young and reckless: it is the nation's fastest-growing industry. And the young men who pilot the ships are no longer crazy: they're smart, cool and alert, scientifically trained for the job. But the thrill of flying is still there: without it these men might have become bookkeepers instead of aviators.

Continuing its Autobiographical series of Today's America, Cosmopolitan presents in the April issue the personal history of a man who has made aviation his career from the early days of barnstorming to the piloting of a giant airliner today. He describes how the thought of becoming a flier first caught fire when he was only eleven years old, while the other youngsters of his generation were still puttering around with toy trains and blocks and dreaming of becoming locomotive engineers, steamboat pilots, or firemen.

Youth today dreams no more of locomotives, steamboats and fire engines. They build model planes and gliders, instead. They are hungry for the clouds: they want to touch the stars. The author's son himself wants to be a transport pilot someday. His father is perfectly agreeable to the choice.