Transport: Weak Legs

When the retractable landing gear on one of Imperial Airways' three new luxurious, 22-passenger Frobishers jammed over Croydon Airport last month, its passengers jauntily drank a toast in champagne "To disaster—if it comes!" A mechanic got the wheels down pn that occasion.

One day last week, with wheels down, another Frobisher dropped down on roomy Croydon. Its legs collapsed, and it slid ignominiously to a stop on its belly. This time the passengers, 21 of them, were plain scared, thoroughly shaken up. Imperial imperturbably grounded the 234-mile-an-hour ships to get the bugs out of the landing gear. At week's end the ships...