Clipper, Vol. XV, No. 1, January 1958

              PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH

CLIPPER
LATIN AMERICAN DIVISION
ACCESSORY SHOP PICTURES
. . . Pages 4 and 5
VOL XV, No. 1
MIAMI, FLORIDA, JANUARY 1958
580107
Passengers and Cargo Set New Record
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Latin America Feels Effects Of Up-Swing
Improved Service
Cited as Factor; Profits Dwindle
Records in air passenger and cargo traffic set by Pan American World Airways in 1957 marked an increasingly stronger beat in the economic pulse of Latin America.
. . ...

There She Goes
Pan American's No. 1 Boeing 707 jet takes to the air on her maiden flight. Piloted by Tex Johnston, Boeing's chief test pilot, who was a guest of the PAA Management Club recently, she flew for 7 minutes in rain storm.
Boeing 707 On Brief Hop
Pan Am’s First Jet Airliner Takes Off on Maiden Flight
Pan American’s jet airliner No. 1 has spread its wings.
Its maiden flight was just a five-mile hop — not enough to ruffle the pinfeathers of the big bird from Boeing. The 707, to be delivered to Pan American late in 1958 or early in 1959, is designed to fly nearly a thousand times that far without even taking a deep
More Service Is Scheduled To Caribbean
Anticipating the annual southward migration of chilled northerners to the sunny Caribbean, Pan American is increasing service to practically all the islands from U. S. gateways, beginning January 17.
New Clipper flights will give San Juan, Puerto Rico; Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic; Port au Prince, Haiti, and Jamaica more frequent and better service. At the same time air travel between the islands of the Lesser Antilles and Miami is being condensed from an overnight journey to an easy day’s trip with inauguration of a new service, cutting seven hours from the schedule between Barbados, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Antigua, the Virgin Islands and the Florida gateway.
The improved service gives Puerto Rico 111 flights a week to and from New York and Miami,
Ten trips a week will be flown Continued on Page 7
PAA Clipper Sets New Speed Mark
A new non-stop flight record has been set between Maiquetia Airport, Caracas, and New York City, on January 8.
Flying a DC-7B, Capt. Robert Angle covered the 2,250 miles in 6 hours, 3 minutes at an average speed of 378 miles per hour. The former mark of 6 hours, 36 minutes, was set August 25, 1957, by Capt. Raymond J. Dupill.
Captain Angle said he had a 150-mile tail wind from about half way between San Juan and New York and about 46 miles per hour tail wind south of San Juan. He flew at an altitude of
22,000	feet. The clipper arrived at Idlewild Airport at 4:35 p.m. with 35 passengers and a crew of eight aboard.
breath.
The Boeing aircraft became the first American commercial jet transport to take the air with a seven-minute trip from Renton Municipal Airport, adjacent to the Boeing factory where it was built, to Boeing field, near Seattle, Washington.
“This first production 707 jet transport comes up to all our ex-Dectations,” said A. M. (Tex) Johnston, Boeing chief of flight test, after landing. “The developmental program with the 707 prototype has certainly paid off.”
The maiden flight of the first commercial jet was made with combination sound suppressor-thrust reversers on all four of its engines.
Jet Airliner No. 1 will be based at the Boeing flight center in Seattle for company flight tests and Civil Aeronautics Administration certification flights, before being turned over to Pan American.
The second Boeing 707 is nearing completion at the Boeing factory in Renton. It will be moved out of the factory early in 1958 wearing the blue-and-white colors of Pan American.
Pan American, first U.S. airline to get jets, has ordered six of the Boeing 707’s and 17 of the very long range Boeing 707 Intercontinentals which can fly more than 4,500 miles with a full payload.
In addition, it is buying 25 Douglas DC-8 jetliners, scheduled for delivery beginning late in 1959.
Pan American’s total investment in its jet airliner fleet is about $269,000.000.
2.000	‘Firsters’ Want 189 Seats
The urge to be “first” hasn’t changed in 30 years.
Pan American already has applications from more than
2.000	persons for passage on the first commercial jet Clipper flight to be operated in 1959.
Applications for the airline’s first flight from Key West, Florida, to Havana, Cuba, on October 28, 1927, totaled more than 1,000. Eight persons won seats when passengers eventually were carried.
When the first giant Boeing 707 jet goes into service on Pan American’s overseas routes some time next year, there will be space for from 124 to 189 passengers depending on the configuration of the aircraft— whether tourist or first class.
Pan Am to Sponsor TV’s Meet the Press
“Meet the Press,” generally regarded as one of the best TV shows of its type, will be fully sponsored during 1958 by Pan American.
In previous years the company has sponsored the program on alternate Sunday afternoons. Beginning Sunday, January 5 through June 29, the show will be broadcast every Sunday at 6 p.m. After a summer layoff, it will be resumed in October.
The program specializes in guests prominent in practically every walk of life from politics to religion and atomic science.
Airlines Face Handicaps as Profits Fall
United States domestic and international air carriers face a formidable handicap as they stand on the threshold of the jet age of commercial aviation.
While total revenue is increasing, the margin of profit is diminishing, being beaten down by increasing operating costs.
This financial plight, occurring at a time when the airlines must find unprecedented amounts of capital to pay for jets, has attracted much comment from business writers of the nation’s press.
The press also has been following closely recent efforts by both domestic and international carriers to obtain relief through fare increases, efforts which thus far have been of no avail.
Aviation Week recently reported that net earnings of airlines have declined sharply in every quarter Continued on Page 6
CAB Curtails Coemp Travel
A new regulation just issued by the CAB has forced Pan American and all other U.S. airlines to alter their employee travel programs.
The provisions of the 90 per cent vacation discount travel plan will remain unchanged insofar as they pertain to married employees.
Those relatives who are now eligible to travel with a single employee under the vacation travel plan must live under the same roof as the employee and must not be paying room and board to the employee.
Employees assigned to an overseas station were formerly permitted to have their parents visit them at a 50 per cent discount rate. Under the new CAB ruling this is no longer possible.
All provisions of the new regulation are now effective.
Despite these traffic records there was a sharp increase in all phases of operating costs and services, resulting in a decline of more than $6 million in net income for the year just ended.
Contributing to the rise of traffic volume over 1956 records were improved services, inaugurated as Pan American passed the 30th anniversary of its Florida-Havana flight in 1927 which first linked the Americas by air.
Clippers of PAA’s Latin American Division carried 1,336,137 passengers during the year just ended, according to preliminary figures which include totals for 11 months plus an estimate for December. This was 120,047 or 10 per cent more than the 1,126,828 travelers counted in 1956.
They flew 1,232,037,000 passenger miles on Latin American routes—97,016,000 more than the
1.135.021.000	flown in 1956. A passenger mile is one passenger flying one mile.
Cargo Volume Up
Even lustier gains in air cargo volume were shown in the preliminary totals. Clippers carried 74,-098,182 pounds, up 18,783,182 pounds or 34 per cent over the
55.315.000	pounds recorded in 1956.
In ton miles flown (2,000 pounds airlifted one mile), the 1957 total rose to 49,418,904, which was 9,833,606 or nearly 25 per cent more than the 39,585,298 ton miles of 1956.
Keeping pace with the booming demand for Latin American air transport, Pan American inaugurated daily flights between Nassau and New York in February, and Barbados was linked to the airline’s global routes in May 1957. Plans have been announced for stepping up service to both these tropical resorts early in 1958.
In April, speedy luxury flights with DC-7B type Clippers were inaugurated down the east coast of South America to Buenos Aires. The same type 350-mile-an-hour Clippers were placed in service between Havana, Miami, Port au Prince, Haiti, and Caracas, Venezuela, merging there with the blue ribbon service down the east coast.
Convairs Retired
Concurrently, Pan American retired the last of its two-engine aircraft, the Convairs, from service, making all its Latin American flights with four-engined airliners.
First class service between South America and PAA gateways at Los Angeles and San Francisco, through Central America, was inaugurated in September. Super 6 Clippers, with both tourist and first class sections on eight flights a week, linked Guatemala; San Salvador; Managua, Nicaragua; San Jose, Costa Rica; Panama; Barranquilla, Colombia, and Maracaibo and Caracas, Venezuela, with the California terminals.
Dual Super 6 service of first class and tourist accommodations also was begun between the same Central and South American cities and Miami.