Munsey's Magazine, August 1927

Winging Through Richard Howells Watkins's complete novel follows Rockley Sutherland, a young aeronautical engineer designing experimental aircraft at a Long Island flying field. When his father Spencer Sutherland, president of the Seven Rivers Railroad, cuts off his laboratory's payroll, Rock must travel to New York to confront him. Spencer pressures his son to abandon theoretical aviation work and prove commercial viability. He offers a six-month ultimatum: generate $25,000 in revenue from aerial transportation services, and he'll fund transcontinental air lines; fail, and he'll invest his fortune in a high-speed experimental railroad instead. Rock, believing aircraft represent superior transportation technology, accepts the challenge, determined to demonstrate aviation's commercial potential against his father's railroad-industry skepticism.