Clipper, Vol. 3, No. 10, July 1946

              PAK AMERICAN
CLIPPER
LATIN AMERICAN DIVISION
VOL. 3—NO. 10
460703
Copyright, 194.6, by Pan American Airways, Ine.
JULY, 1946
To meet the swelling demands of inter-American commerce for high-speed transportation, Pan American World Airways has acquired 28 additional DC-4’s which will bring increased services at lower costs to the southern hemisphere.
Houston Slated as New International Gateway
Key officials of Pan American World Airways have been in Houston to inspect airport facilities and hold informal discussions with city authorities on plans for converting the Texas oil capital into one of the nation’s leading aerial gateways to Latin America.
The PAA group flew to Houston from Miami June 17 aboard a special Clipper to confer with Mayor Otis Massey, Chamber of Commerce President C. E. Naylor, Col. C. C. Scott, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce aviation committee, and other city and civic officials to determine requirements for establishing the Houston airport as a new terminal for two direct aerial links with leading Latin American trade and tourist centers.
The twin routes, both of which will be flown by giant new four-engine, 55-pas-senger Clippers, are expected to funnel more than 100,000 passengers through Houston annually by the end of 1947 and to make the city an international clearing point for hundreds of thousands of dollars in new trade between the two Americas.
Houston’s role as a new international gateway will require airport facilities for immigration, customs and public health authorities. Such facilities are not required for domestic operations.
The two new PAA routes, granted May 22 by the Civil Aeronautics Board in Washington, will provide direct service from Houston to Mexico City and Panama by way of Brownsville and Tampico and across the Gulf of Mexico from Houston to Merida, Yucatan, then across the peninsula to Guatemala City and on down Central America to Panama.
Both routes will connect at Balboa with established PAA routes across the north coast and down the east coast of South America to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires and with the west coast trunk line Continued on Page 10
Excited Group of Homesick Spaniards Bound for Lisbon In Unprecedented Flight
Excited and carefree as a group of neighbors on a holiday outing, 45 jubilant residents of Mexico left for Lisbon aboard a giant four-engined Pan American World Airways Clipper on an unprecedented 6,000-mile visit to their native Spain after an over-night stop in Miami, Fla.
Ranging in age from an eager-eyed three-year-old to an equally thrilled businessman Continued on Page 9
Bound for Lisbon, members of the crew of the NC88888 are ready to go aboard. Master Pilot Horace Brock is followed by First Officer Douglas Moody, Stewardess Gloria Smith, and Steward Manuel Alvarez. Additional crew members on the Lisbon flight were Charles J. Lunn, navigator; Lionel Thomas, radio operator, and Paul H. Snyder, flight engineer.
EXTENSIVE EXPANSION PROGRAM PROGRESSES
Twenty-eight more Douglas DC-4s have been acquired by Pan American World Airways as part of an all-out expansion of service along its 50,000 miles of Latin American air routes.
The 28 new Clippers, coupled with 21 other DC-4s already being placed in operation, will give PAA’s Latin American Division a fleet of 49 of the four-engined sky giants, 11 of which have been assigned to national affiliates in South and Central America.
Acquisition of the 28 additional Clippers coincides with plans announced by Wilbur L. Morrison, PAA vice president in charge of Latin American operations, to usher in a new era of safer, speedier and more luxurious air travel in the southern hemisphere at materially reduced fares.
“The speed, range and improved passenger accommodations of the DC-4 make it an ideal plane for use in Latin America,” Morrison pointed out. “Our enlarged fleet of these four-engined Clippers will make it possible to increase services along some routes as much as- 500 per cent.”
The giant new Clippers soon will begin daily direct flights from New York to San Juan and on down to Buenos Aires, making the entire trip in 38 hours. The flight from Miami to Buenos Aires by the coastal route now consumes 72 elapsed hours.
Pan American is also putting finishing touches to plans for fast, through flights from Miami to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires; for non-stop service between Miami and Panama; for direct, one-stop flights between Miami and Venezuela, and for direct service linking Houston, Tex., and New Orleans, La., with key South and Central American trade and tourist centers.
The new DC-4s will be used to replace twin-engined DC-3s on all existing Latin Continued on Page 4
Clippers Transplant College Classroom
Twentieth century versions of the Magic Carpet transported an entire college classroom to picturesque Guatemala early in June for one of the most unusual summer schools in educational annals.
Between 25 and 30 students of Florida Southern College at Lakeland left Miami on Pan American World Airways Clippers for five weeks of study and travel in the northernmost of the Central American Republics.
Their expedition marks the first transplantation of an entire Florida classroom to a Latin American country and the first mass movement of such a student group by air.
Accompanied by six instructors, the undergraduates will use the housing and laboratory facilities of Iowa State College’s experimental station at Antigua, some 40 miles west of the Guatemalan capital, as a base of operations for numerous field trips to study the language, culture and customs of the predominantly Indian population.