In the 1930s, the federal government advanced the gospel dream that someday everybody would fly their own personal planes. Behind this effort was Eugene Vidal who, as director of the Bureau of Air Commerce, promised the public a $700, all-metal, miniature airliner. Here Vidal stands next to Waldo Waterman's Arrowplane, one of the prototype aircraft his agency subsidized in trying to implement the dream of wings for all.

Credits - © 2002 Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum, Neg. No. 79-10069