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lthough not the only passenger airplane. Boeing had introduced its Model 80 in 1928, which also was designed as a passenger transport.

The Ford's most common variant, the 5AT, introduced in 1928, accommodated 13 passengers in its earliest model and was modified to seat up to 17. With no air conditioning and little heating, the plane was hot in summer and cold in winter, and with no circulation system, its environment was made even more unpleasant by the smell of hot oil and metal, leather seats, and disinfectant used to clean up after airsick passengers.

The Boeing Model 80 had a higher 14,000-foot (4,267-meter) ceiling but was still subject to turbulence.

While by the 1930s, diesel engines were revolutionising rail transport, and giving birth to a burgeoning flight industry, on the sea and on rivers, steam was still king. Unlike with trains and aircraft, large ships remained in service for decades, meaning that many of the ships that transported passengers of the 1930s were built as early as the 1850s, and some ships built in the 1930s remain in service today. The steam turbine, first turned to use in seagoing vessels in 1897, was able to produce far more power than a traditional reciprocating steam engine. By the 1930s, all large ships were being built with such engines, allowing unprecedented speeds. For ships built in the thirties, the most popular fuel for running the boilers was no longer coal, but fuel oil. This meant that modern ships could run with a much smaller crew than earlier vessels. A typical small passenger steamer would have no more than a dozen crewmen, including a few stewards and cooks for the care of passengers. Larger vessels of course could have hundreds of crewmen (The Queen Mary, launched in 1936, had over a thousand), and were almost like floating towns, the crew forming their own community below decks.

When we think of the 1930s, the images of the Great Depression leave the impression that nothing good happened because the entire country was focused simply on survival.  But in the area of automobile development, car designs of the 1930s developed some of the most significant new features for automobiles despite economic hard times. As is demonstrated by the popularity of vintage 1930s cars, some of the automobile designs of this period in history were exceptionally artistic and sophisticated.  It is phenomenal that such forward movement in the 1930s car industry occurred in light of how few in this era were privileged enough to be able to buy any kind of transportation at all, much less a new model that had ground breaking design innovation as part of its feature package. 

The result was that 1930s cars not only saw a leap forward in technical design but the styles that were created for this era of car manufacturing were distinctive and imaginative.  At the beginning of the 1930s cars almost universally were made to a four square design that was nothing if not boring.  But as the decade unfolded, some unique designs that we still identify with classic 1930s cars began to become popular. 

By the end of the 1920s, biplanes were becoming obsolete and manufacturers turned to building all-metal monoplanes. Boeing Aircraft led this technological revolution with welded steel tubing for fuselage structure. This soon became standard in the industry until it was replaced by monocoque sheet metal structures in the mid-1930s.

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.

United Air Lines, a member of the holding company United Airlines and Technology Corporation (UATC), purchased 60 of the planes and soon outdistanced all of its competitors.

The island of Hispaniola, which encompasses both Haiti and the Dominican Republic, was inhabited by hunter-gatherers as early as 5000 B.C. Fruits and vegetables such as guavas, pineapples, cassava, papayas, sweet potatoes, and corn were cultivated by early Haitian tribes, particularly the Arawak and Taino Indians.

It was not long before the first European arrived on the island and began introducing oranges, limes, mangoes, rice, and sugarcane. Slaves from Africa were eventually transported to Haiti to work the sugarcane plantations.

Haitian food is often lumped together with other Caribbean islands as "Caribbean cuisine."

Anger over the cost of food got to be too much for hundreds of people who took to the streets across Haiti in protest in early April, burning tires and forcing businesses to shut down.

At least four people died.

The cost of basic food staples, including rice, beans and corn, has increased by an average of 50 percent in recent months in the Caribbean nation.