Classroom clipper, Vol. II, No. 2, November 1945

              November, 1945	Published by Pan American World Airways	Vol. II, No. 2
COMMERCIAL AIR TRANSPORTS ONCE DRAFTED FOR WAR
NOW BACK TO CIVILIAN LIFE FOR TRANSOCEAN FLYING
ATLANTIC SURVEY—Pan American Clipper takes off from LaGuardia Field and passes over Capetown Clipper at the beginning of the survey flight for land plane commercial service to London. Pan American Clipper is a Douglas C-54E, Capetown
Clipper a Boeing B-314.
Douglas C-54 to Fly Commercially on Atlantic Route; Lockheed Constellation to Follow
Current progress in world-wide air travel was highlighted in recent weeks by:
(1)	Survey flights for commercial service on the trans-Atlantic route by converted Army C-54E four-engine, land air transport craft.
(2)	The placing of orders in quantity for 4-engine, 300-mile-per-hour Constellations also land type air transports.
Both the C-54 and the Constellation are transport types originally developed for scheduled air transport service, drafted for military service before they had had an opportunity for debuts commercially, and now being discharged, as it were, to return to civilian life.
Ability of the Douglas C-54 to carry out the ocean flying assignment until larger aircraft can be delivered was demonstrated last month by the Globester of the Army’s Air Transport Command in a 6^-day flight around the world to inaugurate the new ATC globe-girdling military air service. Six different C-54’s flying in pony-express relays, and manned by 13 successive crews, completed the world-encircling journey in complete accordance with schedule and plan.
The C-54 is the military counterpart of the Douglas DC-4, originally designed for commercial service and ordered by Pan American World Airways and other lines. When war intervened, the commercial orders were side-tracked, and the production lines turned out a huge fleet of C-54’s, most of them with the hard, unyielding bucket seats which became so familiar to world-hopping G.I.’s. A few were provided with appointments more nearly approximating the comforts of a scheduled air line craft, and these were given the designation C-54E.
The Army now has released a number of C-54E’s and C-54’s to the air lines for regular commercial use. Extensive alteration is required for the bucket seat type C-54’s.
Following the completion of the first survey flight—New York to London and return—by a commercially operated C-54E, Pan American World Airway re-established twice-weekly service between New York and London, Clippers on 15-hour schedules at a fare of $275 one way, $495 round trip. (Service by the Boeing 314 flying boats inaugurated in 1939 has been limited since the beginning of War to routes from the United States to Foynes, Ireland, and to Lisbon.)
The C-54 will carry 40 passengers on the US.-Europe flight during the interim period that it is to be used in this service. Later it will be replaced by the larger and faster Lockheed Constellations which will make the journey in 12 hours with up to 50 passengers.
Pan American World Airways has ordered twenty-three Constellations from the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, and deliveries are scheduled to begin in November. Other lines which have announced they will operate Constellations on various routes include Pan American Grace Airways, Transcontinental and Western Air, Inc., Eastern Air Lines and American Air
40-PASSENGER CLIPPERS WILL FLY AT 450 M.P.H.
An order for transocean Clippers capable of cruising at 400 miles per hour, and attaining a top speed of 450 miles per hour, was placed last month by Pan American World Airways.
To be known as the Rainbow Clippers, the new transports will be manufactured by the Republic Aviation Corp., builders of the famous Thunderbolt fighting planes. They will be faster than any existing airplanes except military pursuit ships. The Rainbow Clippers will cross the Atlantic to London in 9 hours with 40 passengers, plus mail and express.
Lines.
The Constellation in coming months will become a familiar sight on transcontinental routes of domestic air lines, and Pan American plans to use it on a projected cross-country route from New York to California if this route is certificated by the Civil Aeronautics Board.
The Constellation’s wing span is 123 feet, and it has an overall length of 95 feet. Gross weight of the airplane is 86,250 pounds. Power is supplied by four Wright Cyclone-18 engines each capable of developing 2200 horsepower. The engines are of the same type as those of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress.
Cruising speed is 300 miles per hour— five miles a minute. The cabin is supercharged for comfort of passengers and crew, so that even while the plane is flying at 20,000 feet altitude or higher, air pressure within the cabin is equivalent to normal air pressure at 8,000 feet.
Like the C-54, the Constellation proved itself in military transport service during the war. Among many achievements credited to the plane was the flight of an Air Transport Command Constellation from New York to Paris in 14 hours and 12 minutes, followed a few weeks later by the flight of a sister ship from Washington, D. C. to Burbank, Calif, in the record time of 8 hours and 44 minutes.
Despite these capabilities, the Constellation’s successor for transoceanic service is (Continued on page 4)