Col. Roscoe Turner, dandy of the skyways

Roscoe Turner

Colonel Turner's natty regalia has been called, variously, the uniform of the "Roscoe Turner Home Guards," the "Roscoe Turner Grenadiers," and the "Roscoe Turner Centurions." The costume leapt into the public eye after the Colonel dressed in mufti, had gone to call on A1 Smith while A1 was still Governor, and was refused admittance. Hurrying to New York, he designed, and browbeat tailors into making, the elegant habiliments which he always wears: icecream colored doeskin breeches, Franz Lehar boots, sky-blue tunic and cap to match, with double-winged "RT" at the belt, the left breast and the cap. When he next presented himself at Albany, he walked in. Today, the uniform still attracts photographers, reporters, fair maidens, and hackers with money. But unlike other such fancy comic opera caparisons, it covers no phony but one of the most skilled and daring speed pilots of the age.

His waxed mustache, uniform, handsome features and lion-skin coat make him the ideal illustrator's model of Captain Jack Fearless of the Foreign Legion. With this flair for publicity, his brilliant tongue, and dashing personality, he is never without financial hacking for any flight he cares to undertake. The difference between himself and the average glib promoter is that he always delivers the goods, and when he undertakes a flying task for an oil company or a wealthy backer, he drops one little item into the balance that tags him as a true, free-born adventurer. That item is his life.

He began to live his life in the upper layers of the earth's atmosphere as a balloonist and saw service over-seas. He holds the speed records from Los Angeles to New York, and once flew from Detroit to New York in one hour, forty-seven minutes and twenty-one seconds. He finished third with Clyde Pangborn in the dramatic England-toAustralia air race. His latest project is to quarter the globe some time this summer by flying around the equator, and later at right angles to it, around the world over the North and South Poles. Don't let his get-up mislead you. If he says he'll do it, he will—or pay up.

PAUL GALLICO