Pan American clipper, Vol. 5, No. 49, April 30, 1947

              PAN AMERICAN
ATLANTIC DIVISION
Read on four continents and four islands in between
Volume 5
April 30, 1947
Number 49
The V. P. Reports—
Atlantic Division personnel will be interested in various statistics which have just become available for the first quarter of 1947. In this quarter we have carried 20,064 passengers as compared with 9,916 in the first quarter of 1946. In March, 1947 we carried over 1,000 more passengers than in- the month of June, 1946, which was the previous high record. In March we completed 98.64 per cent of the scheduled miles.
More important than this, however, we moved up to first place in the number of passengers carried by any airline on the Atlantic, and this is the first time we have attained this position since comparative figures have been available. Incidentally, we did not creep up to first place but leapt up there in the first weeks
if April.
I These operating and sales records result directly from the attention given by each Atlantic Division individual to the production of safe, regular, and courteous service. They are records which we can well be proud of and which, in turn, will serve us well in the coming months during which we expect to further increase our lead over other airlines.
J. H. Smith, Jr.
Two New PAA Speed
Records Chalked Up
On April 18, the Clipper Empress of the Skies, with Captain Guy S. McCafferty in command, raced into Shannon five hours, 55 minutes after taking departure from Gander. Captain McCafferty reported that his top speed during the flight was 402.5 miles per hour, and that he was aided by occasional tail winds of 92 miles per hour.
Two days later, on April 20, the Clipper Eclipse made the 2,940-mile Boston to Shannon crossing non-stop in eight hours, 11 minutes. Captain Donald W. Mitchell, pilot of the Eclipse gave credit to “plenty of tailwind which at times gave us a 64-knot lift.”
>50341, A«L Gox
MAY DANCE
Shine up your dancing shoes! The Pan Am Club is sponsoring a Spring Festival Dance, to be held Friday, May 23, in the Long Island City clubhouse. Jeno Bartel’s orchestra will provide continuous music for dancing from 9 to 2. The tariff is set at $2 per person.
Gladiator Is First All-Cargo Clipper
The Clipper Gladiator, the Atlantic Division’s first all-cargo plane, will inaugurate a new air freight service between New York and Brussels on May 3.
The opening of this cargo run coincides with the drastic reduction in rates for Clipper Express shipments of 100 pounds or more, effective May 2, and signals Pan American’s strong bid for new large-volume business in the express field. Under the new rates, costs to shippers are slashed from 25 to 40 per cent.
S. James Stanfield, Division express-mail manager, reports that in the past Clipper Express shipments weighing over 100 pounds have totaled about two per cent of the total shipments. In reducing its rates for volume shipments, PAA is pioneering a downward trend in air cargo costs and is definitely out to get more of the trans-Atlantic cargo business.
Modified DC-4
The Clipper Gladiator is a DC-4G, specially modified to handle cargo. Its wide doors, measuring eight feet wide by five and one-half feet high, will admit bulky units of all types. Livestock shipments, hitherto limited to peeping chicks, will henceforth be unrestricted and it will be possible to send dogs, horses, cattle and other four-footed travelers. G.I.’s in Germany, who have lost their hearts to German shepherd dogs, are expected to air express their pets home in large numbers.
For the present the Clipper Gladiator will be scheduled for the run from New York to Brussels and return only, but special freight charters will be accepted and more cargo planes will be added to the Atlantic Division fleet if the volume of business warrants the increase. The Gladiator will cross the Atlantic with a full crew, including a purser but without a stewardess, and will overnight in London on the eastbound crossing and in Shannon on the westbound run.
In order to take care of a backlog of cargo destined for Brussels, the Gladiator was also scheduled to make a special flight to Belgium in advance of the May 3 date and at the prevailing higher rates. Nylon stockings made up the bulk of this particular backlog, and Mr. Stanfield reports that nylons and medical supplies now account for a large percentage of all the shipments leaving La Guardia field by Clipper Express.
East Meets West In Calcutta Next Week
East is East and West is West, but the twain will meet on Monday, May 5, in Calcutta, when the Clipper Donald McKay, out of New York, meets a Pacific Alaska Division Clipper from San Francisco. This proving flight, with Pan American and CAA officials aboard, will forerun the opening, of Pan American’s globe-girdling service, scheduled to be inaugurated about June 1.
Capt. Terwilleger	Captain Jacobs
The flight that leaves New York on May 3 and makes connections with the PAD Clipper in Calcutta two days later will be an extension of the regular Karachi schedule. After June 1, it is planned to operate ’round the world once each week, with the Clippers of the two Divisions meeting in Calcutta each Monday.
H. L. Drake	R. G. Cady
Captain Francis I. Jacobs will be in command of the Donald McKay for the Calcutta proving flight. Captain Jacobs, who has been with Pan American since 1933, also piloted the Clipper for the London-Ankara leg of the flight that inaugurated service between New York and Turkey last January.
Captain Albert L. Terwilleger, assistant chief pilot, has been assigned to the Donald McKay crew as first officer, Russell G. Cady will be navigator and second officer, and Captain Donald W. Mitchell will serve as third officer. M. R. Mulson will be first engineer officer; Harry L. Drake, first radio officer; R. F. Folts, second engineer officer; Francis A. Chapman, second radio officer; Violante Gerbi, flight purser, and J. J. Coyle, flight steward.
Pan American officials participating in the proving flight will include Captain C. S. Vaughn, Atlantic Division superintendent of flight operations; Romney E. Pattison, assistant to the superintendent of flight operations, and Martin Garrott, superintendent of line station maintenance. In addition, four air carrier inspectors representing the CAA will be aboard.