Republic Aviation History

NOIES ON RMUBLIC AVIATION HISTORY

tt

_ - lgggbl*rs, Lv_l a!_1p3*-09regl3!1qg -r,r-a_d l te -o_+"9+ lt .9It -Fe.F_r,*Ur*12J1. w,Lrfn was lncorporated i-n Del_awg1g py* ilajor Alexander P. de Seversky as the Seversky --**-.---**l-*.

Allcraft

Corp;.._-

I?q9:_9g iSJSgEkxr-s$s-9Lj}S*f-9g-t--sol.qrf,u].".p*ell-y*g"Lsuxes:s-avreiiglr y:e__b,prsin*c"q-q$_Fl_""&qe"sieen{_ellgnded th-e

Avlallon

l4ipsli:r-I*:*_1::9:l"I_^*g_e"

Later he pursued. postgraduate studies

9-9e",1"--1t-.S9v-astopoJ.. "!nnerl{ in aeronautlcs at the Imperial Naval Academy. From 1915 to 1918 he served as

the chief of the Ba1tic Pursuit Group of the fmperial Navy and as inspeetor of

for the Petrograd Distrlct of the N"oy. In 1916 he received the Imperial Nava1 Prize for the most meritorious aviation invention of the f,earl

naval aircraft

* _I1::*gjg".rig .qr,!g tfr_e Bol.e_[sr.l] Iev-o1u-tj-on-made*its aims e.ppsle-nt, Seversky became a test pllot for the U,S, Army Air Corpo ard served in this position from 1918 lnto 1920. The folloning year he was named a consulting

in

aeronautics to the U,S, War Depa$gmentr J1 f-lZZ_lg e1.l,_abt-ished the- Seversky Aero (or Aeroplane?) Corp. and his Whors Wtro biography notes that

e.ngineer

until 1935. By'tJ:en, the biography reports, he had 7r0O0 hours of flight experience.

he retained thts connectlon acquired

Between L922 and.1931 worked some

with Spery

of the early

Gyroscope

-* the dates are not at present availabls * trs Company where he assisted in the developmont of

bombsights used on

militazy aircraft.

.[ccordtng to Mrr Hgrace, Taylgll severqky.g[p1-med to have done so41e .in*. dependent work on an improved bombsiglt._

a dispute with sperry and eventually

zation, Seversky Aero, with the

!9 f!' seid to have become involved in

left that company to form hls

announced. purpose

and patents on instnrments, landlng gear and

- ftOrO -

of

own organi-

deyelop11tg. geyqral tnygntio.11q

airplane accessories.

Repub-lc History Notes

--

2

in 192?r_g!1ng*-*C1!gls at College Point, L.I.e because in the June Lr 191+3 issue of the Republlc Aviatlon News there is a story stating that tlone of the predecessor co-mp_p4i-."p o{* , :....

Apparently, Seversky had establlshed Seversky Aero

-

Repub-Ilqt! had.moved

to

Farxdngdere-.nine years bef,ore,

This article states that the Seversky Aircraft

or i-n r9]-ll1

.

p.9-.1p*-.occupied

part of

buildings on the north side of Conklln Street at ttre present loeatlon of Republlc and

that

space was shared

Englneering

craft

Co.

ln

these buildings with Grumnan, Ranger. and Kirkham

Klrkham Ls understood

to be the predecessor of Llberty Air-

Companyr ?hese buildings.had apparently been used

prior to this

time

by an organization knotm as Amerlcan Aircraft Corp. Thus by a quirk of fate, the space vlow surrounded by Republic bruildings is the corporate cradle of a considerable Arnong

part of UrS, aviation. those reported as maklng the move from College Point to Farmingdale

Kartveli

were Alexander

being

listed in

191+3

The Severksy

1ng

<'* to airffit.

An

and George W. Eowler and Adolph Nord, the

as members of the

Traffic

two

Departmentr

Aireraft Corpr wBS intez'ested in a nunber of patents relat-

These includedr

aerial filling

derrice

for aircraft Sklds for aircraft to be used on ice or snou

Landing gear

rlTesting apparatus, tr undescribed Amphibian landing gear An

latter

aj-rcraft anchor, presumably for amphibian c.raft

An rlimprovement

in landing

Variable speed drive

geartl

for calculator

for aircraft Range finding and flight directing

mechanlsnr

Sighting control

- IIOfA -

apparatus

.

Repubric History Notes

Irl

th

e +*1-Ugl_-pl_o;ip9

-::".T::Ijll$ Itowns

ft

n-llglaf!

e

--

J

l,ts" "plt-}i sh ed wh_i]g e {{ o-rts were under way to

c_g_IP*r-r"

ttre statement

is made that the company arso

a nurnber of patents and appltcations related. to an aerial bombsight.rl

was stated.

ttrat certain rights to this

to the U.S.

License Ln L925

mechanism had been granted. under

Governnrent.

This sane prospectus also 1lsts the

company as ownlng

or being respon-

sible for the development of Test tanks for pontoons and hulls of seaplanes and amphibians Devlces to make possible landings A

tailspin

in restricted

areas

parachute

Crash protector

for

cockpJ.t

Aeria1 tozpedo

that about 1930-31, or possibl-y.before ttrat tlme, Seversky had become interested in the possibillty of . actrrally-manrrfactrrrI"11, Hgracj_I-el1]"gr-rqca11.s

ing

airpS.anes as

well as developing accessories

and deviees

for

ttremr

)

He settled upon the idea

the then conventionar found

ln all eircraft He also becane

of buirding an a1r-metar plane inp_tg_a{ 9l__w-ing

wooden braees and

stnrtsr

rei_$.I.rg.gnd*canvas -f,.aygtlugg.

construction,

interestej in tfr" potential of an amphlbian plane

would have specially constnrcted wheels

rithin

1ts floats so that

lt

which

couLd also

land on the groundr

At about this tlrne, according to l{rr Tay}or, Seversky had built an air_

jl,"::: ,i1co:try1a9f8

these

charactelirlll:

ustng rhis as a demon"features, strator, he devoted mqch of his tirne to arJir-"r" to pu"uor, ,ni* .....,. "rcri;;tirg he hoped to ilterest.in baekr.ng hi.s colnan-r_ financialryr

-

tBor€

and

-

Republic History Notes

. trflhen

ff

Alexander

l+

ATEJMNDER KARTVT,II

Seversky formed Severllry

"

--

Alrcraft Corpr ln 1931r he had been Jcined

Kartveli as assistant ehief

engineer.

. Mr. Kartveli, by birth a Oeorgian Russian, was edueated in Czarist milltary sehools as an artillery officer. Uhen the Bolshevik Revolution cut short his military career, he

made

his

way

to Paris in

1919

to contlnue his

military sludies .{gr his nattve Georgia whieh had then not bee4 _ineqrypf-qlqd"lnto..!h9--j9-.-qet U.nioni There hls lnterest in aviation began and steadily iacreased as he became convinced

military

lteapons

that aircraft were to

become

the all-important

of the futarre. He attained the degrees of Aeronautieal Engineer

fron the Ecole Superi.eure drAeronautique and Electrlcal Engineer frorn the

Ecole

drElectricitie. He entered the grori.ng French aircraft, industry, whlch then led the world in avlation d,evelopment, and participated ln ttre design and devefopment of milltary airplanes for Avions Mlehe1 Wibault, Bleriot AeroSuperieure

nautique, Societe Avions Bernard Ferbois and Societe de Telemecanique.

Kartvelits efforts centered

more and more upon

the increasing use of

for aircraft production. Convlnced that al1-meta1 airplanes held the secret of aviationls ultimate advance,ment, he came to the United States in LgZ? and., after a brief assoclation with the Columblan Alr Line, became asFociated in 1929 with the Fokker Aircraft Corporationl In 1931, in Joining Seversky Aircraft Corp., he beeame assocj-ated closely metal as the ideal material

t^rith Seversky y!.to harbored

slmilar convictions about the future of al}-rnetal

aircraft.

Their work together produced the designs and prototype of the Severslgr Amphibian which MaJor Seversky began

in

1931

to use as a demonstrator

f.grrpggs_1b-]e,investors. This was an all-metal anphibian - fiOIe -

first

of

monocoque design.

Republic History Notes

THE

--

5

MOORES

of the earLy principals of the company working together by the stage was set for the entry of a third pioneer who was destined to With two

1931,

shape the destiny

of the young organizatj-on

person who has ever been connected

guished a

Ednard

industrial fami-Iy.

irplane_, grq. po P g: :l* g

ist

$,

or more than any other

with it,

rrn$rlu-r,r 9:*:::!-t*-t*ne-r'i1 3l* the acquaintance

of

as rnueh

-qnd*!--4gJ

.P-t-

I-?*?":::l 3-.1?l:l:-L:::"kv x*-

Mqorer brothers and.

Both men reportedly rode

heirs of a distin-

with Seversky in the new

!i,, " |_i _L3:::_1p b ack in g r The Moore brothers were sons of William li. (,luage) Moore, an industrial-

and investrnent

century

in

!:"" -F:-"_"

specialist

*-*

who had made

assembling and. merging numbers

q-*,

a specialty around the turn of the

of indlvidual

companies

into corpo-

rations which could capitalize upon tLre new methods of manufacturing

distribution then being developed.

Judge *ioore had been

and

especially instnrmental

in the formatibn of the National Biscuit Company and in d.eveloping ttre American Tln plate Company lnto what is nou the Asrerican Can Oompany. He also had irnportant interests in the Bankers Tnrst company of New york clty. r\ \-

\r

NOTEI The followlng statenents need re-checking, being based oD conversations and one brief study of early minutes-of boaid rneetings.

Moore rcade

eompanflr

It

his first investment in ttre Seversky

of $lr000. 0n Dec. 15 of Ure same year, he advanced another $5ro0o, To this he ad.ded $r5rooo in 1932, and gJ0r0o0 in was

amount

By 1936t he had 39y-:l-":-*s,.arp-"$500r000

to seversky and,

vrhen

1g33.

after his brother

-99rrp.ary

$1",:5S-gm!*..-

At this time the Sev3rsky

compan3r

had 30 stockholders, whom the Major

described in an early brochure as lla sna1l group of private individuals.rl

-

mOre

-

11:

Republic Histbry Notes

The

-- 5

ftrst printed annual report of Severst<_1 |tr"glaf_!, Coryg-t-?.!i-ol)_gpf.g,*l-

in 1937 and covered the operations of the -'- L936, '.:.--. _ ..:year - . calendar During L935-36, a nrrmber of ehanges had been effected in the financial strueture of the eorporation.

The number of stockholders was increased from 30 to more than lrO0O follodng authori2ation for the corporation to market an issue of 2001000 shares of par .$1 common stock, ltre stock was listed on the New Iork 6hrb Exchange in 1936, Befunding of t'tre indebtedness of the corporation to the Moores and others occu:red with the issue of this conrmon stock and rith an issue of prefeHed stock to ttre arnqrrnt of q62r000r0@. Details are not available at present on these transactions, nor is it certain that they are required beyond being able to state in the forrnal history ttre date when the preferred indebtedness uas retired and when the par value of the common was changed, In this connectj-on, 1t would also be useful to have the names of ttre ed

original 30 shareholders, if

such a

list is available.

FIRST PLANES AND FIRST

The demonstrator

in

ORDERS

which Major Seversky fl,e1 lhe .$oores appears to

the fr,rp!-pig1]_ane_.actualry buirt by the companya was it tke sEv-l?

There seems to have been a second mod.el, about which no details are

have !9-91

available at this writlng.

An

Was

early prospeetus states:

filk" li*!

p\ne

devetopcd and manufactured by the

Seversky Anphlbian knorm as the :.

ieatures

it ttre SEV-2?

Company 3raq*t4re

SHI-3. This plane has several outstanding

in addition to 1ts exceptional

aerodynamic performaocgrrr

These included a patented pontoon landing gear, enabling the plane to

land' and take

off

on Iand., trater, snow

or icer lts all-metal skjr-stressed

- lnOI€ -

Republlc HlstorY Notes

--

?

to strength ratioi The wings were de3s 3 sontainer for signed. so the structure of the wing itself could be used gasollne, thus elininating the necessity of inserted wing tanks. A novel type of air brake and wing flaps wes said to give an unusual ratio of top speed to

monocoque

wing gave an unusual weight

landing speedr Major Seversky, according to Mrr Horace Taylorl su3ce1!9d. i-1 eet-ting amphibians' this an order from the Republ-ic of Colombia for three of these give a performance $ould seem to.have occurred in L93l+-35, Being required to bond. because

the Colombian Govcrment had' nade advance paSrments, Sewelslcy -:,:k:d

Paul Moore to sign an inde,mnilV

wifh

ttre- p1y9-t1 tu*Pq,n-Il

gre actual bullding of these airplanes

for

oolombj-a was subcontracted

to the l(irkham Engineering comparry which occupied space in the same buildlngs wlth Seversky north of Conklin Street at Farnringdale, as Kirkhan had machi-nery required'

Mr, Taylor ill(irkham

saYst

finally

ended up

with one plane not quite eomplete and fieo

other planes started and no ilo}.e lnonelo The advances h+d and Kirkham seid he cou1d.

Kirrkham had associated

not go on -- and that it

all

been used up,

was Severskyls

fau}t.

with him Clarenee Charoberlaln, one of the early traDs-

atlantic aviators.

ItAfter looking into the matter, $e decided that a suit against Klrkham would do us no good, and we advised Mr, Moore bond ($?) and forget the

and.

in

anrit

advllinc

after a great deal of

MaJor Seversky

the

matter. Mr. l,ioore refused, saying that he did not,

like to default'on contracts tHe t!11_._stgr-te-d

to put up the amount of

he would perforn' monev

to the coruaw

-t?.1.oTP1t-t1nl1nesr" and demonstrated by completed were these troubte,

person (he was probably the only one who could make them

Republic History Notes

-'B

and they were finally accepted perform, as he was a very excellent aviator) :r---*--- paid'll by the Colombian Government and tfre Ualance -__

Thechrono}ogyofthissequenceisnotelear,anddatesareneededr u3!ween.t::*::* ttre basil tI rhe sBv-_l i:s::i1ti"1y:*.1""o": -.1"r i:"ame" tho{gtrt lighl :" .:tt*:""t"a ,fn }uvrng :dditiolal and many other parties whon-he quantitlesr. . lTiE BT-B

TRAINER

s1i19,.!-Bgr. pevqrsktrl -b-egan

It ttrl

to concentrate on getting a Prrrsuit

Air corps which was then using old-fashioned planes with a top speed of about 180 niles cloth-covered, wire stmtted. pursuit

plane contract from the

u's,

Army

per horr.

Ee also learned oped a

that the Air

Cozps was

interested in tralners and devel-

protot;pe which uas called the BT-B'

rdi1g35ttheSE\I-3establishedaworldreeordof230miLesperhourfor than t'he best previous amphlbian record amphiblansl whieh was 39 mph faster artdwascomparabletothebestofthelandplanesof,theperiod.

InLg3S,thecomparryenteredacompetitivebidforU.S'ArrryAirCorps the BI-8 trainefsr The value of the trainers, and obtained an ord.er for 35 of contract rsss $B?Br00o' at wgrk 9n ltl.rer alsisns beyond During this period, .the gompanl was als1 rrthe oduced ttre PrototYPe of the BI-B trainer and th1 lw:3 Amphibran 3* f-: XP-L and *ifit"'V demonstratorrlr }'las th is demonstrator the S'au"rtf.y"'e:cport

-'** .-

-,,-.-P4+_:&%?%&,e*,-*#--

.how was

it

related to the

Thus ''-^@-g-*---'-

first

order

by the end

for

of

P-35?

L935t the Seversky-"Alr9r'rt

99-IF*:---139 -o-b!"Llte'4*L

airpLanes and trad made delivery'

Financeslhoweverlremainedtroub}esomelandtheminutesofaboard 1l c-aqh {r?4 the specify that uaJor sevexsky was to recelve $5tooo

meetlng

q

"

Repr:.blie

conpeny and

History Notes -- I

a salary of $I"?r000 per year, this to cover his erpenses to Lg36,

Hts expense aceounts were to be submltted 1936

The company entered 1936

--

for

approval

of the board of directors;

DECISITE rEAR

with the best prospects in its.short historyl

0f the 3O BI-Bs ordered by the Air Corps,

11 were d.elivered by JuLy of

0n June 16e the tlar Department ordered ?7

of the IP-I

t936; airpJ.anes

*

the

militazy export demonstratorr

Its finances also became less burdensone follor,ring the issuanee of the eormon and preferred stock and the fundlng of indebtedness nentioned previously; By the end of 1935 ttre company cqrld, report that it had completed its first U.S. Government order tor 35 of the BT-8 trainers and had concluded the Colombian e:cport order,

ft also won from the Air

Corps another eompetltive awanl

for ff pgrsuit

airplanes, with spare parts equivalent to an additional eight airplanes, fbr a total price of $1r?0or000i

ft could boast that these were ttte ltfastest rniLltary airplanes yet produced in thls countryrtl In addition, orders were received from the Air Corps for spare parts for the BT-Bs delivered during the year.

With a brighter flnancial future in prospect, the conpany entered into a 20-year contract to buy the buildingsr with floor space of about 25OrOOO square

feet, then standing on the site north of Conklin Street as well as the 12?-acre flying field adiacent,to the p1ant, The purchase also lncluded a seaplane base and hangar

at Amityville, with an additional

3Or0OO

feet of floor

spac€r

Thts real estate transaction was a Z0-year rental-purehase arrangement whlch cost the company leis per year for ttre first eight years than it had been paying

Bepublic llistory Notes

ln straight rental on the same property. It also provlded. for rental of of the property to airottrer tenant, further reduclng the costr Thus, the company had acqrrired a

--

IO

some

home.

ltre yearL936 was a notable one also for the companyts produets" them during the periodl the SEV-3 and the lP-L established si.x new world

Between speed

recordsl

I, 2,

Arnphlblan record between New york and Miaml.

3* l+.

Amphibian record between Mj.ami and Havanar

5.

6,

Land, prane

Land plane record between New orleans and Mexico

(No

aetails or

Land.

plane record between }iiami and Havanal

One hundred-kirometer cLosed course amphlblan record.

record between

speeds

New

york and

New

0rleans.

clty,

of these records are given j.n sources examined

to date.)

of the year, the company began to set up a complete experl-mental shop in the field hangar and was btrying the latest d,evices and laboratory equipment for tt.

The board of directors hras Seversky, Bobert Cr Hardy, Toward the end

Paul Moore, Bobert -D. patterson Livingston P1att, Wil-liaru Rhinelander -*.- -..-.*-.--. - .,"_-t_ Stenart .

'--*9

Igfec-e-.

N.r-

-lalrrorr

The followlng HARDI

ls

lcnown about those

not now on the board.

at owen & Otis (wh:ich had assisted in financing?). was a friend of Severskyt s., was a member of the Nati.onal Cash

was an attorney

PA?TERSON

in Dayton, Ohio, and himself ran a coal company in Dayton.

STEIiART, a mernber of the well-known New York Clty famtly, was named to the board at the request of JrAr Sisto & Co. which had aided in selling the eompanyrg Regtster family

netr stock issue.

sales of airpranes and parts for the year amounted to $5g8r6e5.94. there was a net ross of $?0r8l+3.lr8, but the total assets of the compeny were valued at $2 r o33r

ol+o,69.

Reo

-o1ic History Notes

--

11

L937

As the company settled,

ln its

own

quarters

in

L93?, momentous events

were taking plaee around the world*

of the League of Nations authorized a blockade of ttre coast of Spain to prevent outside j.nterference in the Spanish Civil I'Iar, although it was well known that the toyalists were using Russian-supplied The

Neutrality

Commission

arms and the Franco forces were being aided by

troopsr The Japanese went tnto

ltallan

and German planes and

China from Manchurlar and the U.S.S. panay

was bombed by Jap planes on the Yangtse

Biver. Hitler

renounced the World

I treaties that restricted German lndustrial aetivity and disclaimed any German gUtlt for that war, Irked, by resolutions eondenning his eonquest of Bbhiopta, Mussolini took rtaly out of the teague of Nations.

Foreign goverrtrnents began to show an interest in the Sevelsky airplanes

War

then availabler There was the SEV-3 dernonstrator, the Amphibianr the Army Fursuit type, an E)cecutive model and a Navy demonstrator

from

built to enter competition for

orders

that branch of the servicer Oddly enorgh, the

flrst foreign order recej-ved by SeveqgkXr calne f.1om

the co*ntry that he and Kartvelt had fred. company cotnpleted and

Convry

-- soviet R*Esla.

During I93? ttre

delivered to Russiars Antorg Trading Company one two-place

Fighter and a second plane which was an amphibian version of this basic

design.

Mr. Taylor recalls that at the first rneeting between tlr." .ryig3 r€pr€sentatives and seversky and Kartveli, there was a great deal-..o{ rrarra-"rrar.rrrg back-slapping. The representative of the Russian trad.ing outfit sald Mr. Taylor should not be surprised. and

- flOI€ -

--

Republic Hlstory Notes

ttThese people donl

military offtcers Mueh

t

knou arrything about

who went

ttrey are professional

to schoor and trained togettrerrrr he said.

of the year was devoted to developing

and produetlon machinery required 'BT-B

politics;

IP

trainers ordered by the U.S.

to turn out the &overrunent and

and.

installing ttre tools

XP-L

pursuit planes and the

building the

Navy demonstratorr

Most.of this equipment and the produeti-on nethods required. had to be developed from scratch, as ls the ease wi.th all new alrcraft. ?tris was the

companyt

s first experience wtttr the rigid mles governing

U.$. Army contractsr and the f,inancial problems again began to plague ttre

man-

It cost the company fi225r5\3 to build the aircraft it delivered to the Arrny in 1937 -- but it recej-ved in return only $110roo2. In contrast, a profit taas made on $80160O worth of sales to foreign cotrntries and on $L5rZlf agement.

ln sales to U.S.

cornnercial interestsr

Nevertheless, the development and promotlon

of its

products was contin-

ued wlttrout letup.

*.--9-,i"pt1 3e test pilot

fld il, Fuller won the fanous Bmail t-r11ry fly-

ing a Seversky trlxecutive nod.el frorn Brarbank, Californla, to Clevgland, betterirrg a1I previols reeords for thls historic race.

A few days

later

on Sept. ZLe Jacgueline Coehran broke ttre Womenrs

Inter-

national Three-Kilometer record during the Detrolt National Alr Show _bXi'llfrng the Severslqy dernonstrator at an average speed, of 293 miles an hour. 0n one

lap of the event her Coming

speed was 30b.? mph.

at a tlne

wtren

the best Army pursuit planes flew at about IB0

nph, ttrese were sensational figuresr ?hey marked the beginning of a J.ong co,pany record of consistently advaneing the speed standards of pursuit and fighter

aircraft.

- lllof€ -

R, .blic History Notes -On

Oct. 10, Frank Fu11er, again ln the Scecutive model, flew from

Francisco to Salt Lake City The rlThree model when he

13

San

ln 2 hoursr IZ mtnutes.

Flag[ record

was broken on Nov.

flen from Vaneouver,

Canada,

to

lr by Fuller in the Executive

Agua Caliente, Mexico,

in h hours

and 5h ni.nutes.

On

to

Havana

Dec. 31 Seversky hirnself flew the Rtrsuit ttrpe plane from

in I hours,

'

2 minutes, 11 second-s, breaking the previors

better than 2 hours_1

*h tlg

.Fam9

-gay-, Jacque1irre,Oo9hr44., f1-yi1g

the

s

advanced commercial

!.'ort1s and

york

^..,.".'-.

""co.d

6y

Severol.qy denonstrator

*in uhich she had -e_slabtished her Detroi! recordr-.3pq:"y:t:* lI" dayt

New

_rry-"d

?ll.-

airl.i,ners by speeding from Ner Yolk to lr{iami in L

1! minutee.

Ihese victories and record-breaking promlnence ttrroughout the world They demonslfgllq .!eyq"4

flights brought the conpany into

of avj.ation. eL_1_

ao*_t_

jhg__{qltability of the all_metal

congtrueti_o_!-_pr_eneeredb,L-S-eJ-e_r-qliJ*_e3gI*.r!y_*L*

They were made

in alrcraft of

speclal and unusual features.

standard model

Among those was

in which uere ineorporated.

a basic Seversky ldea

-- a gaso-

line tank which was an lntegral part of t&e wing, so that space already provid.ed for structural purposes eould be utilized for gasoline storage, provlding greater tankage than was possible

with separate fuel tanks tlren in

wj-de

use. lhts

devehpment foreshadowed the long-range characteristics which have been inherent

in every design of the conpany since ttratday approximately Jr000

But despite on

by providing a crtising range of

niles.

its

g1ory 1n ttre

air, the company worrnd up the year in the red

tts finaneial statement. trn June, the underwriting

company and

amengement between the

J'A. Sisto & Co. under which Sisto help optlons on 2601000 shares

Bepublic History Notes

Of eapital stock rdas terminated, In

lieu, Sisto

*-

1L

was issued 2O,O0O shares of

this stock. Flnancial results for the year showed. a loss of $1r2IO r5L6.5O -and. it is interesting that the statenent of income i.ncruded $5r3go won by the eompanyls planes

in the air

races

1938

--

of the yearr YEAR OT TROUBTE

For the young company 1938 was what hlstorians call rla tirne of troubLeril as i-ndeed it was

Hitler

for the rest of the worldr of Austria nith Nazi Germany.

proclaimed the anschluss

The

Japanese reached. Canton on the Chlna Sea and stared toward Malayal Burma

and.

final victory in Spaln over the llBepublic&DS.tl While Londoners hastily dug slit trenches in Hyde Park, Mrr Chanberlaln returned from l.tunich with his assurance of trpeaee in our timertt Singapore. Franeo was nearing his

The management was forced

to obtai,n the funds needed to research and development

for

to perform a series of financtal gymnasties

cornplete

its

U.S. Arrny orders and to eontinue

new designs whichp

becomi.ng more and more menacing,

it felt

with the international

would be

scene

certainly required by our

military forces.

Blr September, delivery was completed on the order

airplanes

for

T? p-35 pursuit

frr the UrS, Arrny .Air Corps, with spare parts,

During the same period, another 20 pursuit planes, wlth spare parts, were delivered

for export to European countri.es.

But there was one glimmer of hope. The

final airplane dellvered to the U.S. Army -- No. ?? -- w&s retained at Farmingdale for a series of mod.!fications ln whtch the. Air Corps chieftains were highly interested.r When the modiflcatj.ons were made, this plane

had.

becone the P-l+1r and ttre Army irrvited

bids for construction of an additional aircraft, - ilOfe -

Republic History Notes

--

LS

pursuit planes were constnreted, for entry in another competition for which blds were to be opened early in 1939.

These two &'ro additionaL

Army

experirnentar

craft were turned over to the

Army

for testing

and evaluation

late ln the year.

But the cost of developlng and building these two atrplanes drove ttre conpany deeper i'nto the red. The capitalized, value of enperirnental and development costs was inereased by *365t259t

There were nany nany

less amortization of less ttran g50r000.

hastlly called meetings of the board of directors,

frantlc trips to banks to obtain loans with

meet the

wtrtch

to

continue wort< and

payroll.

At the

of the year, the loss from operations was $553rgt9, and the annual report states that ttl.n large parttr this loss was lncurred in the end

of the Army contract, ln the construction of ttre two e:cperimental in building the P-lrr --and naintaining plant operation, a nucleus

execution pranes,

organization and carryrng on sales promotion activitles, The gloom deepened when

of

the

conpany roas

forced to state at ttre

end

that it had no orders on its books exeept for spare parts, and, speaking of its bank loans, it asserted that there uas no assurance of any further advances. It was at this stage of the company,s history that its financial pioneers di.splayed true frontier courage. ftlne and again drrlng 1938 Mr. Paur Moore had Deeernber

accepted demand notes,

The amo-unt of these notes rose by ttre end

of the year to #Zr3ti+r6gb, of whtch

only S7701000 principaS- anount could be converted into ad.ditional common stoek.

Mr' I'{oore agreed to a complex financiaL reorganlzatlon under whtch he took new demand promissory notes and addtionar stock. Major seversky rerlnqutsh9j the nryqt{gncy and was dlspatehed to Fraqcel al0ng ;;;;ir" ",,u*"* and two nechanics, to investigate possible e:qport orders. %__*_***

-

lltore

-

'{

,iI "^-" I

The management was changed, and

!{r. tr{elLace 1{r fiellett,

senring as vice presldent, $as nomineted

for

who had been

ttre presldency. Calvin Tnresdale

reslgned as secretary-treasurer and a director,

tr'be

succeeded by an &rgIlsh-

bortr accoutttant, Thomes Davlar HtILlam RhtneLander Sterart, the representatl.ve

,of tlre Sisto lntereste; also rent off the bsard of directons. i

and rloseph

S. Powell

beeame nes members

llhe reorgantsatton l

I

I

I

l

I

I

i

I

1

I

I

I

pages

rlohn

.[

Daly

of tbe board"

of finances rras eo lnrrolved that tt reqrrlred

in ttre annual report to e:<p1ain tt to the stockholders.

aeven