Clipper, Vol. 2, No. 6, November 1954

              Vol. 2, No. 6	Published by and for PAA Employees at N. Y. and Washington, D. C. System General Offices	NOVEMBER, 1954
PAN AM JETS OPEN SEASON
Air Transport Ass’n Group To Attend
CALENDAR GIRL
Pretty Margaret Stones, a hostess for Panagra since 1949, claims to have flown as many miles as there are Pan American 1953 wall calendars, a whopping 550,000 to be exact. Margaret, a British citizen currently residing in Lima, Peru, has the calendar opened to the month of November because this has been designed as “Visit Peru” month.
JOIN YOUR “COUNTRY COUSINS” ON FRIDAY
All city slickers and country cousins will be cuttin’ capers at the Skyline Club’s Barn Dance on Friday, November 12, in the Skyline Terrace on LIC’s ninth floor starting at 9 in the evening.
Music provided by Leo Dryer will keep mambo and doazie doat addicts jumping all evening long.
Betty Evans, GAO-Tab’s chairman of the ticket committee, reports that ticket sales have picked up and are expected to do so right up til the last minute. But, she advises, “Get your tickets now, they’re only $1 for Club members and $1.50 for non-members, all your friends are going.” Dress is optional since the Barn Dance set up is strictly an informal atmosphere.
Club representatives on each floor are selling tix.
Princess Hotel Changes Managers
A joint announcement last month by Bryon E. Calhoun, President of Intercontinental Hotels Corporation, and and Mr. John A. Dilliard, stated that the operation and representation of the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda will be assumed by Mr. Dilliard on December 1, 1954.
Mr. Dilliard operated the hotel previous to 1953, at which time IHC undertook the management.
Both Mr. Dilliard and Mr. Calhoun stated that the change would in no way interrupt the high standard of operation and service that have been maintained by IHC.
“Built-In Tail Winds” Used Extra Month
For the third successive season, “Strato” Clippers of PAA are making scheduled non-stop flights between Japan and Hawaii in the Pacific jet stream. The first flight began November 1.
In the past, the jet stream schedules had lasted through March, but, this year, because of advanced knowledge of weather forecasting and operational techniques acquired during the last two winters, PAA will be able to extend the 3800-mile nonstop flights— longest in commercial aviation— throughout April.
A new type of General Electric turbo supercharger currently being installed on the engines of PAD’s fleet of 17 double-decked Clippers, will permit them to “get upstairs” in a much shorter time—up to the altitudes where he “built-in tail winds” of the jet stream reach higher velocities.
Use of the jet stream cuts an estimated seven hours from transpacific flight times, and, last February, the Clipper Queen of the Pacific made the trip in 9 hours 18 minutes, achieving an average ground speed of more than 425 miles an hour. During this flight, made at around 25,000 feet, Captain John H. Kelly reported tail winds which averaged 133 miles per hour and for one hour reached a velocity of 175 miles per hour.
PAA, only airline in the world to maintain regularly scheduled flights in the jet stream, was awarded the 1954 Frye Airline Performance Trophy for this operation.
“New Horizons”
Sets Record
PAA’s travel book, “New Horizons,” edited by Jerry Whitted, Traffic and Sales, has set an all-time sales record for a world travel book.
Costing $1.00, some 80,000 copies of the book have been sold since it was issued in its handy pocket-sized format last July, and 250,000 have been sold since it was originally published in 1951. Statisticians for Simon & Schuster, the publishers, called the sales a record for such a book.
“New Horizons,” which is continually revised to keep it up to the moment, was originally published in magazine size. In July, completely revised and expanded to include information on 84 countries and colonies served by the airline on all six continents, it was issued in the new format.
It contains all the information the traveler needs about the country he is visiting—the climate, the local electric current, the customs, what to see, do and wear, and a host of other information, including what to eat and what to bring home as souvenirs.
Copies for PAA employees are still available at the ninth floor Skyline Store for 70 cents plus tax.
The Pan Am Jets, company-sponsored wheelchair basketball team composed of PAA employees, will open the season officially under the Pan American banner with an exhibition game against the New York Spokesmen on Thursday evening, November 18, at 8 PM, in the New Utrecht High School Gymnasium, Brooklyn.
The game will also feature the first appearance of the uniformed girl’s cheering squad leading an enthusiastic crowd of team supporters. Expected to be present in the 1,200 seat gym are 50 members, and their wives, of the Air Transport Association, in town for the Annual Financial Committee Meeting. The exhibition is being sponsored by a Brooklyn civic group, the Banner Civic Association, Inc., and tickets are on sale at PAA for 50 cents each. More than 250 tickets have been sold at PAA so far and a like number have been sold in Brooklyn, insuring plenty of vocal support for the team.
The Jets consist of the nucleus of two former teams in the Eastern Wheelchair Basketball Division, the Brooklyn Whirlaways and the Queens Charioteers. The Whirlaways finished second in the Division last year and went
on to the finals of the National Wheelchair Basketball Tournament, losing out in the last minutes of play by one basket. The Charioteers were fourth in the East and gained a spot in the tourney last year. Members of the team, all working in GAO, are Saul Welger and Pete Acca, Pax. Rev., John Basile, Gus Contes, Mario D’Antonio, Jerry Evensen, Joe Foley and Joe Vitta, Tabulating, and Danny Vaccaro, Records.
Bill Condon, GAO-Pax. Rev., who coaches the team insists that the Jets have the makings of champions and, given the support of PAA employees at the games, should go all the way during the season.
Judging from recent scrimmages, the Jets appear to be at peak season form. They recently overcame a fifty-point handicap against a team composed of PAA employees to trounce their opponents by a score of 98 to 66.
Tickets will be on sale from now until the night of the game, price is 50 cents. Details on directions to the game, and further announcements, will be distributed.
All employees who possibly can make it, are urged to see the game. There are many thrills and surprizes awaiting you. If you haven’t had the privilege of seeing regular basketball played on wheels, you should, if you have seen it, we know you’ll want to go again and again.
Mario D'Antonio (in uniform) leans over to congratulate Tony Lofreddo, of Pax. Rev., for the game put up by the boys from GAO. Identifiable in the picture are, left to right, Jim Furey, Tab., Mario D’Antonio, Joe Vitta, Tab., John McDougal. Refunds, Tony Lofreddo, Joe Coniglio, Pax. Rev., Gus Contes, Tab., Tony Mucci. non-PAAer, and Haig Kazarian, Records.