Imperial Valley press., 1928-02-15
FLYING COMPANY
MEN GUESTS OF
LOCAL CHAMBER

Members of the official party
which has accompanied the "Alba-
tross," the giant Zenith Aircraft
corporation monoplane, to the val
Icy for it's effort to set an endur-
ance flight record were guests of
tie FL Centre Chamber of Commerce
at the weekly luncheon meeting
held at the Barbara Worth Hotel
at noon today. The party included:
Sterling Price, president of the
Zenith corporation; Alvin X. Peter
son, general manager of the corpor-
alton and one of the pilots; Dudley
Steele, representative of the Rich
field Oil company and Lieut.. Will
liams of March Field, Riverside.
Each of the visitors said few
words during the course of the
rleeting. Price was called upon first
and declared that in the Albatross,
he believes he has one of the larg-
est, if not the largest ship of it's
type in the world today. He said that
he was sure that it will shatter the
world s endurance record now held
by German pilots. He said that in
so doing he believed Imperial Val
ley will be made the mecca for en-
durance flights in the future.
Peterson was next to take the
floor. He told the members of his
many experiences as flyer during
his 10 years in the air. He set forth
various amusing and interesting
points of his career, going quite
thoroughly into the Alaskan mapping
expedition in which he was a MEM
Der of the Byrd party. He told of
4 certain point in Alaska where
there is an average of 196 inches of
rain each year. While he said it
could hardly compare with the sun
shine of the valley it took all the
joy out Of fishing, by his own ex
perienee, he declared, he had taken
81 trout in A. minutes.
Lieutenant Williams outlined
briefly the future of aviation. He
declared in bringing flying up to
the present point that several years
ago flyer was unable to stay up
for more than three or four hours
without encountering engine trouble.
Today flyers do not even eontem-
plate engine trouble. He then point
ed to Col. Lindbergh 8 statement
carried in yesterday 8 papers relat-
i've to the many thousands of miles
the Esprit of st. Louis has flown
without encountering engine trouble.
"This can be expected in the fu-
ture and greatly eliminates the dan
ger of transportation by plane,
declared Williams, in closing.
Urges Proper Facilities
Steele then took the floor and
talked on the possibilities of the
valley as an aviation center. He
said that it had all the qualifica-
tions needed for the establishment
of one of the best fields in the
country for both speed and endur-
ance flying.
"You people are passing up
great bet in not having the proper
facilities furnished here to care for
the aviation activities that are sure
to come your way
All VI the Speaheis APieooeu aP
probation for the cooperation and
which have been accorded
them during their stay in the valley
thus far.
President Watson assured the
guests that the people of the valley
would do all in their power to make
the flyers feel at home while here
and to assist in every possible man.
ner their efforts to set new
worlds endurance flight record.
"We feel confident that you will
do it, he declared in ending his
talk to the flyers.
A meeting of the board Of direct
ors will be held at 1880 o'clock to-
NIGHT.