Clipper, Vol. 14, No. 7, July 1955

              Par Amerlcan World Airways
Volume 14
JULY, 1955
No. 7
1939 — 30,000 Atlantic Crossings —1953
Clipper Speed, Power Doubled In 16 Years Of AD Operations
In the 16 years Pan American World Airways has required to log 50,000 crossings of the Atlantic, the passengercarrying capacity, speed, and power of the Clippers used have doubled.
The Boeing flying boat, which inaugurated the overocean service on June 28, 1939 (the best in the business at the time), could carry a maximum of^;
35 passengers across the Atlantic at a speed of 150 miles an hour.
Its four engines developed 6,000 horsepower.
The Douglas DC-7B, which took off from New York on the anniversary flight on June 28, had 71 tourist class passengers aboard and flew at 353 miles an hour.
Its four engines generate 13,000 horsepower.
Range, Fuel, Weight
A comparison of other specifications shows the present day Clipper surpasses its predecessor in range, 5,000 miles plus, compared to 4,275; fuel capacity, 6,260 gallons to 4,200; and weight, 125,000 pounds to 82,500.
The DC-7Bs, like the Clipper
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Flying For Elite Duly Has Ceased
A Chicago window washer, heading for Berlin to visit his relatives, climbed aboard an outbound Clipper in New York on May 1, 1952, and thereby became the leader of a new type of transatlantic traveler.
The window washer and the 87 who left with him were on Pan American World Airways’ inaugural tourist service to Europe. There (Continued on Page 2)
In 1945, Pan American instituted land planes on its transatlantic services. Here, taking off from La Guardia Airport on the first transatlantic route check flight by a commercial land plane, is a Pan American DC-4 Clipper. Symbolically, the camera caught the newest (at that time) transatlantic plane as it flew over one of PAA’s flying boats which had served to link Europe and America for six years, before and during the war, from the time of Pan American’s first scheduled transatlantic flight in June, 1939.
-----SAFETY AWARD— j
A 1954 Aviation Safety \ Award was given to Pan Ameri- < can World Airways last month, \ for flying 5,143,672,000 passen- j ger-miles last year without a > fatality to passenger or crew > member.	?
The citation marks the sec- > ond consecutive year that Pan > American has operated with- $ out a fatality. The safety $ awards are based on official < records of the Civil Aeronautics < Board.	\
Airborne Radar Gives Smoother, Faster Flights
Two million dollars worth of radar equipment, enough to equip its entire fleet of long-range DC-6s and DC-7s, has been ordered by Pan American, it was announced last month.
The weather-probing radar will offer passengers smoother, faster and safer flights when heavy weather is encountered.
The equipment will be installed on Pan American’s present fleet of 48 DC-6Bs, the seven DC-7Bs now being delivered, and on the 33 DC-7Cs scheduled for delivery beginning early next year, just as quickly as deliveries of the radar can be made.
Extensive Tests
The airline decided to buy the radar after its pilots had put the equipment through an extensive series of tests in all kinds of weather conditions. More than 2,000 actual flying hours were logged on radar-equipped DC-6Bs flying between the United States, Europe and South America.
The system to be used by Pan American will be the AVQ-10, a lighter and more sensitive cousin to the military model. It will allow the pilots to “see” the weather ahead for 150 miles from scopes mounted in the pilots’ compartment.
Armed with this advance weather information, the crew has ample time to determine the least turbulent channels in the cloud
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50,000th Comes On Anniversary Of First Transatlantic Flight
--—----------------^ A Pan American DC-7B. newest
Super-Sevens Joined Fleet During June
The Super-7 Clipper, adapted from the luxury DC-7 by Pan American and Douglas Aircraft for over-ocean, non-stop tourist class service, has been put into the transatlantic schedules of the airline in time to add more than 30 per cent in passenger capacity during the booming summer season.
The Super-7 Clipper is the fastest, most comfortable of any alltourist plane, and has a greater range.
Carrying a full load of 71 passengers and 6,300 pounds of bag-(Continued on Page 2)
of all over-ocean planes, took off from New York International Airport at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 28, as PAA Flight 062. Eleven hours later it arrived at Orly Airport, Paris, having completed the airline’s 50,000 crossing of the Atlantic.
It was just 16 years prior to that flight, on June 28, 1939, that Pan American completed its first transatlantic flight, using a Clipper flying boat, a Boeing 314. That flight was from Port Washington, Long Island, to Foynes, Eire, on the River Shannon.
During the intervening years, between the first and 50,000th flight, Pan American had flown 2,021,483 passengers a distance of 200,000,000 miles across the ocean—the equiva-(Continued on Page 8)
For list of stations contribut- ¡; !; ing to this issue, please see / page twelve.
Harold E. Gray, then a Pan American captain, is shown here as he appeared in 1939, after making one of the first transatlantic flights. He is being congratulated by Lt. Col. Francis Shelmerdine, director of British Civil Aviation.
At Clipper press-time, Pan American World Airways had completed 50,000 Transatlantic crossings