Marten Gerritsen stated:
Airplane use is not surprising, seamless 4130 tubing was especially develloped for airplane construction, and Reynolds tubing stems from the same period
In 1971, I spent some time with my uncle, a United Air Lines pilot in Seattle. With his airplane background, and a lot of contacts at both Douglas and Boeing, he told me that "Boeing is planning on producing bikes, the tubing is just their thing, and they will end up with a better product than is available right now." I waited and waited until I settled on 531-equipped Follis. Seattle at that time, in the BM years (before Microsoft) was home to a rough-and-tumble economy, somewhat revolving around Boeing orders, and when the orders and the economy were down, they were indeed contemplating on catching some of the bicycle boom themselves.
Ken Wehrenberg, Hermann, MO USA