Clipper, May 17, 1945

              MAY 17, 1945
ATLANTIC DIVISION
Read on four continents and four islands in between
Northern Route Opens; New Staffs Announced
CLIPPER CLUB DANCE, BROADCAST TO CELEBRATE OUR 6th BIRTHDAY
Three time a week service hy the Clippers of Pan American World Airways to Shediac, New Brunswick (Canada) and Botwood, Newfoundland, was resumed this week. The 75 seats available in each direction will help ease presently crowded transportation facilities to Canada.
Vacationists, particularly hunters and fishermen, are expected to find the direct service of principal convenience, although Canadians, American businessmen with interests in the maritime provinces and college students also will he served. Round-trip fares, good for 45 days, have been reduced 25r/c from the year-round rate. To Shediac the round-trip rate is •181, to Botwood $148.50.
Newfoundland officials report that American (Continued on Pane 4)
NEW ADDITIONS to NBA’s stall of flying stewardesses are Joicey Fay Wood and Dorothy Mills. They’re not new, however, to PAA, having recently transferred from EAI) where they've been employed in that capacity for 1 and 1 V2 years, respectively. Present plan's are first to assign the girls to the New York-Bermuda and New York-Botwood, flights. Later in the summer they will cross to Foynes, Ireland.

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This Sunday marks the sixth anniversary of the Atlantic Division — so far as actual transatlantic flying is concerned. It was on May 20, 1939 the twelfth anniversary of Lindbergh’s famous solo hop across the Atlantic — that the Yankee Clipper left Port Washington on the first commercial crossing of the “Big Pond.”
This initial air mail flight—captained hy A. E. “Mike” Laport — will he marked by a special program and display at the monthly get-together and dance of the A & S Club at the clubhouse this Saturday night, May 19, the anniversary eve.
Large-scale pictures of the flight will decorate the stage as a radio dramatization of the first flight and the work behind it is put on under the direction of Ray Colcord, head of the dramatic club. Members of the first flight still with the Division will attend.
Music will be hy Art Paidsen. Tickets are $.60 for members and their guests and $1.50 for non-members. They may be secured from your A & S Club representative.
While the first conquering of the Atlantic by a commercial plane was in 1939, preparations had actually started twelve years earlier.
It was right after Lindbergh’s flight that PAA opened an air mail line between Key West, Fla., and Havana, Cuba. Over this tiny 90-mile airline, they struggled with the basic problems of all international air transport — matters of operating privileges and permission to establish bases in foreign territory.
By the middle of 1928, the American drive southward was assuming real momentum. Col. Lindbergh joined Pan American as Technical adviser. Juan Trippe and C. V. Whitney had been able to enlist the unanimous support of our swiftly growing aeronautical industry, a nation-wide backing of industrialists and financiers who appreciated the national importance of their aims, and a far-sighted interest in international air transport from the U. S. Post Office. That summer, bidding in competition against a substantial list of rival companies, Pan American won the basic air mail contracts vital to an American airline operating abroad.
During 1929, 12,014 miles were added to its original international route. By 1933, the route length of 30,982 miles was approximately equal
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CAPT. “MIKE” LA PORTE REMINISCES
There are many young ones in the company who know nothing about the first transatlantic air mail trip, so we tracked down Captain “Mike” La Porte to get a first-hand account of the crossing. Mike, captain of the ship, glowed as he recounted the highlights of the flight.
“We took off from Port Washington and were timed-up to make contact with the Aviation Building at the World’s Fair it was Aviation Day out there. You know, we were the only ship authorized to fly over the Fair, hy the way. There was quite a crowd of notables and we flew about 800 or 1000 feet above.
“'Then Mr. Hinckley, chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Authority, through a short wave radio hook-up, spoke to us: ‘On behalf of the City of New York and the aeronautical groups and officials gathered here, Captain La Porte and you others on the plane, we salute you. This is an auspicious moment, not only in aviation history, hut we believe in the relations between the Ij'nited States and Europe.’” (Actually, Mike couldn’t remember the salutation verbatim and had to refer to his file on the trip.)
Mike replied: “Everything is fine. We are ready to go on. We are now about to proceed to Europe, Sir.” The first scheduled transatlantic mail Clipper was on its way.
The flight went off smoothly. “Blue-coated officers went about their duties as casually as though they had been flying the North Atlantic for a hundred years,” according to Col. Carroll Cone, then Manager of the Atlantic Division, now Assistant Vice-President. Col. Cone was one of the three official observers, all PAAers. The others were: William K. McKittrick, at that time Atlantic Division (illief Steward, and Fred l.aidlaw. Pan American’s postal representative.
Mike continued his story: “Carroll Cone had a friend on hoard the S. S. Washington, which was about 200 miles north of our track. Lester Gardner, who was Chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Aviation. We called the Washington hy e.w. (dash method) and told the officer we’d like to contact them over radio telephone we had Mr. Cone on board the Yankee Clipper and he’d like to talk to Gardner. The contact was made and at the lime it was the longest plane-to-sliip conversation ever held.
“When we arrived at Horta,” continued Mike, “there was a great to-do. We were greeted hy the governor and a reception party; sailing and fishing boats sailed around the Clipper and serenaded us, girls presented flowers. Incidentally, it was the longest lay-
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