Interesting how it seems every oil company of the 1930s sponsored a pilot for publicity purposes. P-p-pardon the alliteration.
LTM,
Don
Don,
I initially noticed that oil company connection too, when first looking over the book's eBay listing and figured that it appeared to be a bit of a 'vanity' or 'celeb' type publication of its' era.
I read the pages that were posted on the eBay listing for the Jimmie Mattern book and it reads a lot like one of those grocery store checkout 'celeb' mags, hoping the whole book has a bit more substance though.
But am guessing that there might be a few AE and/or FN references therein, can't hardly go wrong for $12+s&h, eh? I noticed similar marketing tie-ins in the early '60s working in a gas station after school.
For a large part of the 20th Century, business entities like oil, autos, alcohol, tobacco, etc., had a pervasive influence in American culture [and elsewhere]; just look at old movies and tv shows. Hey, I kicked tobacco in my early 20's, never drink much, and doing my [slow] best to go alt-energy with EV transport and tools, solar and wind.
Those early pilots, and many others, had to dance with the promoters with the deep pockets; flying was and is an expensive avocation. After all, Amelia Earhart and G Putnam lined up much of their own aviation financing in a similar fashion.