of trifles and had wishes that a child in our country would find impossible to fulfil. It has happened a few times that a passenger in the air has asked the crew to stop the plane immediately. He's had enough and wants to get out immediately. It was only with difficulty that his fellow passengers were able to calm him down. We later had to remove the door handle inside the cabin because of repeated attempts to force the door open during the flight. From the very beginning, the Shah himself showed great interest in aviation and a great deal of understanding. He always actively helped us over all difficulties, and if he succeeded at all, in a very short time by Oriental standards, despite all the hindrances from competing companies to conclude the agreement on air traffic in Iran, this is mainly due to him. At first he appeared several times a month at the Tehran airport. Everything had to be explained to him in detail. At the same time he took the opportunity to see how brave or cowardly the lords of his entourage were. They were like the general in Enseli and most Europeans. Although flying had its charms, it was something so foreign and new that not everyone could easily decide to dare the first flight on the first visit. And so the Shah took great delight in ordering certain Excellencies from his entourage to get into the plane and be whisked away into the air. He was certainly shaking inside, like us, laughing at these lords' attempts to back down and find excuses. But with the gravest air the King refused all subterfuges, until these unfortunates had no choice but to board the plane, pale and in a bad mood. Of course, all these Excellencies were afterwards, since nothing really happened to them and the pilots had been instructed to rock them as gently as possible, the best propagandists for the aviation industry, which was so heavily protected by the Shah. And everyone could tell at home, full of manly pride, how wonderful it had been and how brave they had shown themselves. There really were some strange saints among the passengers. But also among the pilots. Among them was a foreigner who went on to have a very well known, if not famous, name. He was an excellent pilot, a very good mechanic, an excellent photographer and a most excellent businessman. We only really found out about the latter when he was in Tehran. In 1923, this pilot had successfully carried out the first flights over the Arctic Ocean with a machine from our company. The following year he planned a propaganda flight to Persia; it would have been the first time that the long distance from Europe to Central Asia had been bridged by air. At the end of 1924 the time had come. Our factory had placed at the disposal of this pilot an excellent machine with everything that went with it, as well as the necessary funds and all connections, which should enable him to fly smoothly over the various states. He received a wide range of the equipment he needed from many companies. this included the best cameras, films, precision watches, scientific instruments, linen, combinations, binoculars, weapons, canned goods, specially prepared chocolate, thermos flasks and a host of other useful things, all as gifts, of course. In return he was to name his patrons in the books he wrote after a successful expedition and in the lectures he gave. But the flight from Zűrich to Persia did not create a record. It lasted more than two months, as various adversities arose, above all a forced stay in Turkey caused several weeks to be lost. In Tehran we had had no news for a long time and had almost lost hope of seeing the plane soon. We were also no longer very interested in the arrival, because the huge delay meant that there was nothing more to do with this "record flight" in terms of propaganda. On a beautiful, clear, cold winter's day, we celebrated the wedding of one of our pilots. Count von der Schulenberg, with his well-known hospitality, insisted on inviting the whole party to lunch at his embassy after the wedding. Into the midst of this merry celebration, burst our record flyer, dirty, cold, tired, annoyed. He had not been able to find Tehran on the flight from Baghdad the previous afternoon and had made an emergency landing in the desert not far from a village about forty kilometers south-east of the city in order to get his bearings. He had damaged the undercarriage and propeller. There was nothing left but to hike to Tehran with a guide, first on foot, then by donkey, to get help from us. But it was only what the man did a few weeks later, before his return journey, that ranked him among the number of strange saints in our memories. He sold everything, absolutely everything, with the exception of what was on his body, at high prices to us, our servants, Jewish junk dealers. The most improbable deals came to him there. It goes without saying that he could easily get rid of cameras, weapons, binoculars, but we were all amazed when we saw
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