Target Manhattan

It strikes me as a bit odd that both your husband and Mr. Craycroft had such an abiding dislike of jet-powered planes. Most scientists and engineers are avidly devoted to the idea of progress, and the advent of the jet certainly would have to be called progress, wouldn’t it?

It was rather like a religion with them, Mr. Ski

I see. Well, in any case this lightplane factory in Palo Alto…

Alpine Aircraft Company.

Yes. It produced highly advanced planes, but it was out of business by the begi

We were victimized by exploitive businessmen. The men who invested the capital to build the company were making these investments for tax purposes, as we learned later. They needed losses. They actually couldn’t afford for the company to make a profit. Can you believe that?

Very easily. It’s not unique by any means. Now, from nineteen forty-eight until nineteen fifty-three, your husband and your brother went separate ways, is that correct?

Yes, sir. My husband was with Lockheed. He worked mainly on improvements in the mechanical components of the Constellation. The company was making two jet fighters at the same time-the F-80 and the F-94-but Charles had nothing to do with those. We lived in Burbank, near the plant. In the meantime my brother returned to Alaska and worked for the airline there-in Anchorage and sometimes in Seattle-until the Reds invaded South Korea. He was called up and went to Japan. During the Korean War my husband, in the meantime, left Lockheed and we moved a few blocks to a new apartment in Sherman Oaks. We both went to work for the Knute Special Effects Company. I worked in the office there. In fact, I kept my job there even after Harold and Charles set up their own company to restore airplanes for the movies.

That was ACA-Air Corps Associates?

That’s right. They started the company in nineteen fifty-four. It became one of the most successful aircraft companies in the world.

It lasted some fifteen years?

Mr. Ski

Yes, ma’am. But they were frozen out of it in nineteen sixty-nine?

Yes. They were victimized by greedy businessmen, once again.

Well, as I understand it, there was a dispute about moving into the jet market. Didn’t that have something to do with it?

Yes, sir.

All right, Mrs. Ryterband. I certainly don’t want to open up old wounds of that kind.

I had expected this meeting to be much more painful than you’ve made it, Mr. Ski

Well, I’m afraid the painful part is yet to come. Now, at the begi

Yes, sir. Sam Spaulding was an old friend of Harold’s from the war days. Quite honestly, he worshiped Harold.

So I understand. But there really wasn’t too much for Mr. Craycroft or Mr. Ryterband to do there, was there? They regarded themselves as superfluous much of the time, I’m told. This must have chafed them, didn’t it?

They kept busy, I can assure you. But it’s true they sometimes felt they’d been shunted onto the sidelines. My husband made several forays outside the company, looking for something more suitable.

I wasn’t aware of that.

Oh, my, yes. We visited Beechcraft, Cessna, Ryan, and the Hiller Company. He even went to Canada to be interviewed by an odd little company in Saskatchewan that is building working replicas of the old Ford Trimotors. Did you know that’s still the most efficient airplane of its kind? For its weight and capacity it’s still a good economical craft. That’s why they’re making them again. Harold and Charles contributed a great deal to the design of that plane, you know-back in the thirties.

Yes, ma’am. But I take it none of these job interviews pa

Until just a very few years ago, Mr. Ski

Yes, ma’am. Now, in June of last year Samuel Spaulding died, and control of Aeroflight passed to your husband and your brother?

In a ma

In a ma

They weren’t free to operate the company according to their own judgment, Mr. Ski

Still, Mr. Ryterband and Mr. Craycroft had a proxy from Mrs. Spaulding to vote her controlling stock in the company, didn’t they?

Only in theory. Only on paper. Every time they tried to put a policy into practice, the minority stockholders would go into court. Several times they obtained restraining orders to prevent us from making vitally necessary moves while they pressed in court for a declaration that Mrs. Spaulding was legally incompetent. They never succeeded with that perfidy, of course, but their delaying tactics ruined the company. They all blame Harold and Charles for it, but the truth is they’ve only themselves to blame. They were greedy, shortsighted, and vicious.

Nevertheless, the company went bankrupt. A Chapter Eleven was filed in December of last year, isn’t that the case?

There was no choice. The stockholders were stupid people, Mr. Ski

Was that how Mr. Craycroft and Mr. Ryterband felt about it?

What do you mean?

Did they blame the failure entirely on the judges and the Wall Street investors?

New York City is a pesthole of evil, Mr. Ski

Aeroflight was a sound company until the New York businessmen bought into it. Naturally we blamed it on them-the businessmen and their robed henchmen on the judges’ benches.

That’s a bit melodramatic.

The truth sometimes is.

Yes, ma’am, I suppose it is. One could hardly quarrel with that, in the light of what’s happened subsequently.

In Washington.

Yes, and right here in New York. I’m referring to the incident with your brother’s bomber.

I’ve been waiting for us to get to that, Mr. Ski

I appreciate how painful it must be for you, Mrs. Ryterband.

Thank you. And I appreciate your gallantry. There’s so little of it in the world anymore. Good ma

Well, I think we both understand that this isn’t a criminal hearing, Mrs. Ryterband. Nobody is being accused of anything, not formally. Our sole purpose is to ascertain the truth. Therefore, you can see it wouldn’t serve any purpose for me to be ill-ma