Aeronautics: Cohu for Coburn

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Quiet Graham Bethune Grosvenor was president of wide-flung Aviation Corp. for two years when he was succeeded by hardbitten Frederic Gallup Coburn. President Coburn had served approximately two years last week when suddenly he relinquished the executive office on the 47th floor of Manhattan's Chanin Building to a broad-framed young man with a grin and a pipe. It was not surprising that the name of the president-elect, La Motte Turck Cohu, should be better known in Wall Street than in airway operations. Avco, which has yet to show black ink on a profit & loss statement, is of prime concern to the bankers who underwrote its $40,000,000 financing and who own a large part of its shares.

The formal announcement of Mr. Coburn's resignation reminded observers that he had taken office because of his partnership in the firm of Sanderson & Porter, management engineers. Sanderson & Porter had been retained to effect "the development, in an orderly manner, of the business of the subsidiaries of The Aviation Corporation." Now, said the announcement, S. & P.'s work was finished.

Gruff, bespectacled President Coburn had tied the sprawling transport line of the corporation into the closely knit system which is now American Airways Inc. He abandoned some unprofitable lines and added new routes until it was possible to fly from Montreal to Los Angeles via American Airways. Before he took office Avco had more than 80 subsidiaries (including schools, charter services, factories, sales companies). Before he left there were less than 20. His economies reduced a net operating loss of $2,464,000 for the first nine months of 1930, to $628,000 for the same period last year.*

Hardworking, conscientious President Coburn had his critics in the directorate. Some said he erred in his manufacturing policy. When, last year, youthful Sherman Mills Fairchild retrieved his Kreider-Reisner Aircraft Co. Inc. and aerial camera companies from Avco, the corporation retained the Fairchild airplane factory at Farmingdale, L. I. and proceeded to build a new single-engine mail-&-passenger plane called the Pilgrim. This manufacturing operation, said Mr. Coburn's critics, was extravagant. The plane, they said, is already obsolete. Others found fault with the president's insistence on burdening himself with detailed responsibility (by which he threatened his health). It was, they said, inefficient administration.

To Avco's working personnel, who had developed a deep affection for their president, his departure was a shock. He had just returned from Arizona with a victory over Errett Lobban Cord's Century Pacific Air Lines Ltd. Arizona's Corporation Commission had refused Century a certificate of convenience & necessity to carry intrastate passengers on a route paralleling American Airways. Three days after his return President Coburn summoned all office employes into the maple-paneled board room, gripped the back of a chair, bade them goodby. Said he at the end, "I've had such a good time," and walked out in tears.