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Disagreements also ensued over whether to have a co-pilot,

The major drawback of the Monomail was that its design was too advanced for the engines and propellers that were available. The airplane required a low-pitch propeller for takeoff and climb and a high-pitch propeller to cruise. By the time the variable-pitch propeller and more powerful engines were available, newer, multiengine planes were replacing it.

The co-pilot was added.

the plane was designed so that there would be sufficient propeller clearance if a variable-pitch propeller was added later.

The first 247 didn't fly until February 8, 1933, a year later than planned. It went into service with United on March 30, and most of the first 25 planes were delivered during April and May.

The modern twin-engine 247 demonstrated new aerodynamic qualities. It was a low-wing, all-metal monoplane with retractable landing gear and powered by two 550-horsepower (410-kilowatt) Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial engines. Lightweight alloys reduced its weight. It had enough power to climb on one engine with a full load, and it was also the first airliner to use wing flaps. Its final version, the 247D, had variable-pitch propellers and improved performance at higher altitudes to compete with the Douglas DC-2. It had room for 10 passengers, two pilots, and a stewardess (as flight attendants were then called), plus mail and baggage.

Nelle Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama

On November 5, 2007, Lee was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush at a White House Ceremony. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award in the United States and recognizes individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."[15][16]

Having written several long stories, Harper Lee located an agent in November 1956. The following month at the East 50th townhouse of her friends Michael Brown and Joy Williams Brown, she received a gift of a year's wages with a note: "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.

Transferring to the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Lee was known for being a loner and an individualist. She did make a greater attempt at a social life there, joining a sorority for a while.

Many details of To Kill a Mockingbird are apparently autobiographical. Like Lee, the tomboy (Scout) is the daughter of a respected small-town Alabama attorney. The plot involves a legal case, the workings of which would have been familiar to Lee, who studied law. Scout's friend Dill was inspired by Lee's childhood friend and neighbor, Truman Capote,[7] while Lee is the model for a character in Capote's first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms.

When Lee attended the 1983 Alabama History and Heritage Festival in Eufaula, Alabama, she presented the essay "Romance and High Adventure."

In 1944, Lee graduated from Monroe County High School in Monroeville,[2] and enrolled at the all-female Huntingdon College in Montgomery for one year, and pursued a law degree at the University of Alabama from 1945 to 1949, pledging the Chi Omega sorority.

In 1949, a 23-year-old Lee arrived in New York City. She struggled for several years, working as a ticket agent for Eastern Airlines and for the British Overseas Air Corp (BOAC). While in the city, Lee was reunited with old friend Truman Capote, one of the literary rising stars of the time. She also befriended Broadway composer and lyricist Michael Martin Brown and his wife Joy. In 1956, the Browns gave Lee an impressive Christmas present—to support her for a year so that she could write full time. She quit her job and devoted herself to her craft. The Browns also helped her find an agent, Maurice Crain. He, in turn, was able to get the publishing firm interested in her first novel, which was first titled Go Set a Watchman, then Atticus, and later To Kill a Mockingbird. Working with editor Tay Hohoff, Lee finished the manuscript in 1959.

Lee, Harper (1961) "Love — In Other Words". Vogue Magazine. Lee, Harper (1961) "Christmas to Me". McCall's Magazine. Lee, Harper (1965) "When Children Discover America". McCall's Magazine.

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bestseller with more than 30 million copies in print. In 1999, it was voted "Best Novel of the Century" in a poll by the Library Journal. In high school, Lee developed an interest in English literature. After graduatin

She eventually becam

But on May 15, 1930, everything changed when Boeing Air Transport introduced the first female flight attendants. These women, called air stewardesses, attempted to make passengers more comfortable, offering them water, a sandwich, and sometimes chewing gum to help relieve ear discomfort.

Thus, nurses aboard the Boeing Model 80 became the first female flight attendants, for the salary of $125 per month. American Airlines began using stewardesses in 1933, and other airlines soon followed, although Pan American resisted the trend until 1944.

With the introduction of the Douglas DC-2 in 1934 and the DC-3 in 1936, air travel became much more comfortable and somewhat more commonplace. The DC-2 could fly coast-to-coast faster than any passenger plane before, and the DC-3 had both day and sleeper models, allowing passengers to travel cross-country in comfort. By 1939, at least 75 percent of all air travelers were flying on DC-3s. While the earlier trimotors had been plagued by engines that transmitted noise and vibration back to the passengers, Douglas planes added soundproofing to its cabins, ventilation ducts, and structure. Upholstered seats mounted on rubber and padded arm rests further reduced noise and vibration. The planes could also fly higher, around 20,000 feet, (6,100 meters), reducing, although not eliminating, turbulence, and the spar structure made the cabin roomier and easier to navigate than the contemporary Boeing 247, which had an internal spar that passengers had to step over.

nother interesting invention 1930s cars was made by GM . GM introduced the re-styling or face-lift of automobiles. Other automobile producers followed GM with the face-lift strategy. Before this face-lift operation by GM, you already could build your own car together by your own taste and view. But the change in philosophy of car producing throughout the 1930s was in fact that a car should be designed as a whole rather than as a bunch of collected parts. During the 1930s the radiator jacket became more the face of the 1930s cars. Most of the radiator jackets became chromed. Such a chromed radiator jacket looked more attractive and made the car more gloomier. But also other parts of the car, like parts of the wheel protection boards became chromed and also other ornamental strips. The car became to look more and more gloomier throughout the Thirties. The car became a symbol of new prosperity hopes during the depression of the 1930s. The aerodynamic vision also became an important part in designing 1930s cars throughout the Thirties. Aerodynamics and the streamlined design increased as well the volume of the automobiles engine. Streamlining a car also meant that more fuel, which already was cheap in the US, could be saved because of this streamlining.

istorically speaking, 1930 was not a very exciting year for Plymouth - or for anyone else in the automobile industry for that matter. 1929 had been a banner year, the best year ever in the industry's history to be exact, despite the fact that the stock market had crashed in October, plunging the world into the worst depression ever known by man. But the real effects of the Depression were just really starting to be felt. Plymouth entered the market with a car that can best be described as "confusing" - it was almost a totally new car, yet it was very much the same old car it had been in years past - Model 30U. It sat on a new frame, it had a completely revised engine, a new wide band radiator and most importantly, an all steel body; yet with the exception of the new radiator shell, it looked almost identical to the cars it was to replace. And as the model year continued, the car changed ever so slightly, in some cases incorporating items that were being developed for the totally new car that was to replace it, the Model PA. Production of the Model 30U enjoyed a 14 month production run, one of the longest in Plymouth's history. But its 1930s cars gave the company some staying power.