Clipper, Vol. 11, No. 10, October 1954

              Mobilizing all available manpower and equipment, PAA’s Western Division more than tripled its Mexico City-Hous-ton traffic during the American Air Lines pilots’ strike in August.
The record-breaking performance drew praise from PAA exec-tives. Edwin Drescher, LAD manager, sent a letter to Houston station and flight personnel commending them for “an outstanding job in handling the extra sections operated during the strike.”
PAA representatives in Mexico
City and officials and employes of Compania Mexicana de Aviacior (CMA) also won congratulations for their part in the successful operation.
During the four-week strike period, PAA flew 72 extra flights between Mexico City and Houston. The total number of passengers on both regular and extra flights hit a record high of 8,902, compared with 2,347 passengers handled during August a year ago.
Cargo handled by Houston dur ing the strike period totaled 163,-497 pounds, more than three times ffie normal monthly figure.
This unexpected and abnormally high volume of traffic was handled without a hitch in a smoothly co ordinated operation. Heading the Houston operation were Station Manager Ernest J. Smith; Capt James A. Maxwell, jr., western sector chief pilot; Richard J. Wills, sector flight service superintend ent, and David R. Taylor, distric sales manager.
Prominent on the Mexico City end were Francis S. Adams, managing director for LAD in Mexico; Glenn Dennis, traffic sales representative; Harry Rammer, ground operations representative, and the entire CMA
traffic cargo, sales and operations staff.
Drescher, in his letter of commendation, said:
“The Houston station and flight personnel did an outstanding job in handling the extra sections operated during the recent AAL pilot strike. I want to take this opportunity to personally thank you for the many extra hours and additional effort you contributed to make the operation a success This business meant additional revenue for the division, thereby improving your position as well as the company’s.
“There were 38 extra sections
flown during this period, transporting approximately 5 000 additional passengers and 50,-000 kilos of cargo—and every effort was made to operate on schedule.
“It is very difficult to express in a letter or in words the feeling that exists when I see the kind of attitude toward your work and the company that was demonstrated by all Houston personnel.
“Again may I express my appreciation and that of the company for your cheerful, personal cooperation for so excellently performing these extra duties?”
PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 3
FULL PAGE OF PICTURES FROM ON-LINE STATIONS
VOL 11, NO. 10
Pan American World Air mays LATIN AMERICAN DIVISION
UPPER
OCTOBER 1954
REMEMBER!
The Date — The Place NOVEMBER 6 Crandon Park ANNUAL LAD PICNIC Story and Program on Page 7
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LAD Management Club Gets Top Award
Trippe Chosen IATA President For Term Beginning Next Year
Juan Terry Trippe, President of PAA was named president-elect of the International Air Transport Association. The 55-year-old aviation pioneer was chosen at the annual meeting in Paris of IATA, composed of 67 airlines in 47 countries. He will assume office next year.
Trippe’s election came just a little more than a month before the 27th anniversary of the first flight of the airline he built from a 90-mile Florida-Cuba route to a globe-circling giant.
It culminated a long series of honors that have been accorded PAA’s first and only president by governments, scientific soc?eties and universities for his outstanding contributions to international air transport and world progress.
Trippe’s career in aviation dates to 1917 when he left Yale to join the Navy and won his wings as a naval aviator at Pensacola, Fla. He then organized Colonial Air Transport, Inc., to fly mail between New York and New England. It was not long before the ambitious Trippe proposed to extend Colonial’s service from New York to Chicago and Miami, but he was overruled by the stockholders. Trippe pulled out and founded a new company—Pan American Airways.
Trippe’s many contributions to transportation progress were recognized by IATA in electing him to succeed May Hymans, president of Air France for the 1955-1956 term.
JUAN T. TRIPPE


SNEAKY SNAKE SLIDES INTO SCHUITEMAKER'S SEAT AT AIRPORT DESK
Down at Paramaribo the life of a chief mechanic is fraught with many hazards and if you don’t believe it just witness the case of Frederik P. “Frits” Schuitemaker.
Frits left his office at the end of the terminal building for a few minutes and forgot to close the door.
Returning a few minutes later he was about to sit down in his chair when he saw a six-foot Redi tere snake coiled around the chaii legs.
Grabbing a broom, Frits had quite a battle with the “bold and impudent” snake, as it was described by Clipper Correspondent Frank A. Small. The scuffle attracted some of Frits’ associates who aided him and the reptile was captured alive. He is of the non-poisonous variety.
Combined Welfare Fund Sets Sights On $48,000 In Whirlwind Campaign
With their sights set on raising $48,000 in five days, solicitors in the 1955 PAA combined Welfare Fund campaign in Miami will stage a whirl-wind drive between November 1 and 5. Workers will seek to establish ☆;
to
a new record for the largest employe contribution for welfare work in Florida’s history. The record currently is held by PAA’s Miami-based personnel with a contribution of $47,317.90 in the 1954 campaign.
Approval of the “one-shot” drive, the only in-plant solicitation authorized by the company each year, was voiced at the organization meeting in September. The PAA
First Flight Anniversaries Are Held In Four Countries
Welfare Fund committee setup the following breakdown for the distribution of funds to be raised in the 1955 drive:
Dade County Community Chest, 85 percent.
Red Cross, 15 percent.
Four welfare organizations were carried on the campaign cards in the 1954 drive. The reduction was made at the request of employes who expressed the desire to write in the names of additional agencies they wish to assist. Space is provided on the new cards for this purpose.
(Please Turn to Page Seven)
Takes Best In Nation Plaque For Fourth Consecutive Year
For the fourth year in a row, PAA’s Management Club in Miami has been selected as the No. 1 club in the nation by the National Association of Foremen. No other club among the hundreds affiliated with the NAF has ever approached this record.
Smash Tocumen Cargo Records
A record smashing total of more than 1,000,000 pounds of cargo was hustled in and out of Panama City’s Tocumen Airport during August by LAD’s efficient and hardworking staff at the airport, Panama City office and in Colon.
The all-time high was set for outgoing cargo—780,039 pounds of it compared with a previous record of 650,448 pounds handled during December, 1952.
August incoming cargo totaled 414.018 pounds for a grand in and out total of 1,194,057 pounds. Between 73 and 85 percent of this careo was handled on passenger Clippers.
The record outgoing cargo re fleets largely a steady increase in shipment of goods to Central and South America by U.S. companies established in the Panama Canal Zone for that purpose.
To accommodate this increased cargo volume, Tocumen has enlarged its facilities, taking over an entire hangar which is being used for maintenance and other operations along with cargo.
Assigned to TUM as statior cargo manager is Arthur D. Sumner, who was formerly in charge of the cargo control desk at Miami.
PAA Club President William Kin-near was presented the plaque during the 3ist annual convention of the NAF in Cincinnati.
The PAA Management Club, organized in 1947, has a membership of 605 in Miami. Its top rating by the NAF was based on the club’s varied educational and civic program.
Also attending the convention from Miami was Robert S. Bush, LAD meteorologist, a past president of the local club and one of the two NAF directors from Florida.
Speaker at the next meeting of the group to be held Tuesday, October 12, at the Coral Gables Country Club, will be W. J. Kane, assistant manager of domestic sales for the Boeing Airplane Co., Seattle, Washington.
Kane has sent on a scale model of the Boeing 707, jet passenger plane, and will show movies of its first flight meanwhile giving a general commentary on the jet giant and its performance. It is now being used as a flying tanker and is supposed to be converted to passenger service.
At the last meeting of the management group, held September 24, John B. Turner, vice chairman of the regional committee of the Boy Scouts of America, presented to Edwin Johnson, Air Explorer Unit squadron advisor, a national standard explorer unit rating.
This is the first to be received by any unit in Florida and the first in region 6 which includes North and South Carolina and Georgia in addition to Florida.
Four countries and colonies in the Caribbean area and Central America in September celebrated the silver anniversary of PAA flights which linked them to the air lanes of the rest of the world. On September 9, 1929, PAA inaugurated service to Guatemala. First flight to Trinidad occurred 13 days later. The following day saw service begin to Surinam and British Guiana.
PAA inaugurated service he's tween Guatemala City and Browns ville, Texas, via Mexico City, in overnight flights by 12-passenger tri-motored Fords that flew 115 miles an hour.
The new route, bringing the Americas closer together, marked a milestone in communications and transportation for Guatemala. It also was a notable achievement for PAA which had begun operations only two years before with a 90-mile route between Key West. Florida, and Havana, Cuba.
In 1930, service was extended southward from Guatemala through El Salvador to connect with the Miami-Panama route. Within another year, Guatemala was linked with nearly all countries of Latin America as Pan American spread its wings ever wider.
Before PAA began its air service, it took Guatemalans two dayr to reach Mexico City by train, bus and canoe. The Clipper flight now takes only three hours. New Orleans, once nine days away, is now
only a five-hour flight by Clipper.
Wilbur L. Morrison, now executive vice president of PAA signed the first agreement with the Guatemalan government giving PAA landing and operating rights.
PAA has aided Guatemala during many critical times. When floods lashed the country in October, 1949.. PAA flew tons of relief supplies into the country. It also loaned the Guatemalan government a DC-3 Clipper "to make aerial surveys of flood areas.
During the critical years of World War II, when ocean shipping was scarce, Guatemalan factories and business houses depended almost exclusively on PAA for replacement parts to kpeD them going.
PAA’s first flight to Trinidad started regular service between Port of Spain and San Juan, Puerto Rico, which already was linked by Clirmer to Miami.
This trail-blazing route, bringing the Americas closer together (Please Turn to Page Seven)
Big Build-Up Ends But Party Goes On To Save CAY's Day
For two weeks Clipper Correspondent Mario de Lepine, at Cayenne, French Guiana, and fellow employees were in the clouds dreaming of the big celebration the PAA and townspeople would have on the stations 25th anniversary.
They were getting things all planned. They were busy mapping out arrangements for a program, for bestowing honors on some of the folks and for combining Cayenne’s silver anniversary with that held at Paramaribo. It was going to be a big event.
It was, that is, until the light broke through the clouds. Mario thought he had better let public relations at Miami in on the deal so he wrote about their plans for the big celebration.
Pubrel pricked their balloon. It was found Cayenne’s silver anniversary should take place in September ... but NEXT YEAR.
However they didn’t miss out altogether for Station Manager William H. Begg decided they needed a boost in morale and invited them all over to his house for cocktails to soften the blow.
Sippin' Soda(?) Through A Straw
THAT SLY LOOK on the face of Lawrence M. Holloway, sector chief pilot at LAD Idlewild, is because you don’t know what he’s sipping through that straw. It’s rum, my hearties, rum. He and his wife Clarissa vacationed at the Caribe Hilton Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Mrs. Holloway is the dancer-actress “Clarissa”, well-known for her roles in the operettas “Rose Marie” and “The Desert Song”. She is scheduled to start rehearsing soon with the New York Latin Quarter Show which goes to Las Vegas in November and opens in New York the following month.

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