Pan American air ways, Vol. 8, No. 9, October 1937

              Volume 8

OCTOBER, 1937

No. 9

DAY-OLD CHICKS FLY ON CLIPPERS 10,000 PER WEEK
“ C h ick P u llm an s” w ith S p ace for 1 0 0 SpeciallyC on stru cted

OUT OF COCOON

DEPOSITS OF GOLD IN BOLIVIAN ANDES FREED BY PLANE
O n ly By A ir C an H ea v y M ining M ach in ery Go F rom La Paz to T ipu ani

LEAVE MIAMI DAILY
No F ood or W ater R equ ired W h en Journey N o t O ver 7 2 H ours

1,000,000 LBS. TO GO
P lan e W ill C arry a T o n P er Trip F in ish in g A ssig n m e n t In A b o u t 1 0 0 F lyin g D ays

M IAM I. — One of th e m ost strik in g instances of how the airp lan e, speeding sw iftly over ancient tra d e rou tes th a t once took weeks and even m onths to tra v e rse , has changed the tempo of m odern commerce— and how Y ankee ingenuity has capitalized its possibilities to build up t h r i v i n g f o r e i g n m arkets fo r staple A m erican products — lies behind the sto ry of th is co u n try ’s la te st e n tra n t into the big-column figures of foreign tra d e —baby chicks. Today, day in and day out, scarcely an a irlin e r leaves th e P an A m erican term inals a t M iami, on the east, or Brow nsville, Texas, on the w est, w ithout a special ca rg o hold filled w ith downy little puffs of fe a th e ry chicks, all less th a n tw elve hours old, destined to some f a r off p o rt around th e C aribbean or f a r down on th e southern conti­ nent. T his m onth th e to ta l export figure of baby chicks shipped out of th e U nited S tates by a ir has alread y passed the 1,000,000 m ark. A nd th e new in d u s­ try , represented by these baby chick shipm ents, is c l o s e l y ap proaching th e m illion-dollar m a rk in value. The sto ry be­ hind th is unusual business is p a rtic u la rly in teresting. One of the staple articles of diet in all countries south of th e U nited S tate s— and the p rincipal m eat portion of the public diet—is chicken. Y et, probably now here in th e w orld were chickens so tough to eat, so difficult to raise, so ineffici­ en t as egg-producers, as in these southern countries. The difficulties and cost of modern tra n sp o rta tio n h a d w o r k e d ag a in st them . The first c h i c k e n s w e r e b rought to the new A m erican c o l o n ie s f r o m S p a i n a n d P o rtu g a l n early fo u r hundred years ago. They w ere sta n d ard sto c k -ty p e g r o w n chickens, b rou g h t by th e hold full, and did well on th is side of the ocean. As th e colonies de­ veloped f r o m p i o o n e e r i n g fro n tie r outposts into settled Continued on Page 3

The Atlantic Clipper and the South Seas Clipper, first two of six 43-ton flyingboats under construction for Pan American Airways at the Boeing A ircraft Company's Seattle plant, are about to emerge from their indoor dry docks. W orld's largest transport aircraft, these giants have accommodations for 77 passengers, can carry 50 across either Atlantic or Pacific. Some 2,000 technicians are currently employed in their production. The first of six is expected to be ready to fly shortly after first of the year.

Old-Time Schooner to Aid Clippers on Pacific as Tender for Ocean Air Trade Routes
SEA TTLE.— O ut of th e ro-^> W ashington, a crew of oldm antic past, steeped in the tim e shipw rights are p u ttin g sheer glam our of th a t age of th e finishing touches to th e “wooden ships and iron m en,” proud old queen of th e Pacific comes one of the oldest of the sailing fleet, which w as once ocean’s conquerors — a full- th e schooner “M a rg a re t F. rigged fo u r top-m asted schoon­ S terlin g ” and which, re-ch ris­ er—to the aid of today’s fly­ tened Trade Wind h as been ing C lipper ships of th e air. purchased by th e P an A m er­ Spanning a full century of ex­ ican A irw ays System to serve citing m aritim e history, an as a supply ship to tend the oak-ribbed sailing schooner aerial tra d e routes across the th a t, in h er heyday, fe lt th e Pacific Ocean. Old in type, but tides of seven seas ru sh be­ com paratively young in age, n eath h er keel, is being re ­ th e Trade W ind is a fullconditioned — practically re ­ rigged, four-m asted schooner borne—fo r an assignm ent th a t of 2,000 tons reg ister, b u ilt to her builders could scarcely Lloyd’s “ A ” classification for have dream ed. W ithin a few sailing vessels as a com mercial weeks she will set sail from cargo carrier. B uilt a t V an­ S eattle’s inland h arb o r across couver in 1919, she w as con­ the new aerial trad e routes fo r structed fo r th e A m erican P an A m erican A irw ays, as a trad e, w as launched under the sky-tender fo r th e m odern C lip­ A m erican flag, and th e re a fte r per ships, laden w ith supplies berthed a t S eattle, which has fo r the far-flow n mid-ocean air alw ays been h er home port. stations on the a ir routes to She m ade h er la st voyage in far-off China and over the 1929— and has been laid up South Seas to A u stralasia. ever since, a victim of the de­ A t the U nion D rydock Com­ pression and the final sh iftin g pan y ’s plant, on S eattle’s Lake of ocean fre ig h t trad e to steam . The product of an a r t th a t even in th ese la st two decades has all b u t d isappeared, Trade W ind is considered an o u t­ stan d in g exam ple of th e finest in wooden ships. To rebuild h e r it w as necessary fo r the chandlers to scour th e Pacific Coast from V ancouver to Mazatlan d to assem ble th e p roper help. S tan d in g alongside th e con­ stru ctio n dock th e Trade W ind’s big fir m asts tow er 140 fee t above th e w ater, w ith fo u r g re a t 106-foot s i n g l e - p i e c e m asts p r o j e c t i n g from h er keel beam, and surm ounted w ith 34-foot top m asts up to th e tru ck . One of th ese m asts is b ran d new, a 10-ton single piece of D ouglas fir, 27 inches in d iam eter and 106 fee t long. In place of th e old w e a th e r­ beaten black, h er 2 0 0 - f o o t length of hull is now gleam ing w hite, set off w ith b rillian t green p l i m s o l m a r k , w ith brow n b e n e a t h t h e norm al w a te r line. The 44-foot beam Continued on Page 16

LA PAZ. — A P an Am erican-G race A irw ay s’ tri-m oto red F o rd is th e in stru m e n t th ro u g h w hich a rich flood of gold, locked fo r tw o centuries w ithin th e rugged Bolivian Andes, a t la s t is to be released to become bullion, coins and jew elry. By flying in w ith 1,000,000 pounds of m achinery over a ro u te fro m L a P az to th e T ipuani V alley, the F o rd will enable a m ining com pany to s ta r t la rg e scale operations in th e valley, som ething which has been impossible hereto fo re because m ountain tra ils have offered insuperable obstacles to th e tra n sp o rta tio n of such larg e loads. S ixty miles across th e crest of the four-m ile-high Andes is th e jungle-covered valley of th e T ipuani R iver w here the C onquistadores of th e 16th cen tu ry g u a r d e d a hidden source of tre a s u re th a t found its w ay in a golden flood to the co u rt of Seville n early fo u r hundred y ears ago. U ntold centuries before, th a t sam e g litte rin g stream had poured from th e depths of th is “jungle valley” to th e th ro n e of th e m ighty Inca kings. B ut th ro u g h the p a st two hundred years, now, the golden tra il h as been lost. So inaccessible w as th e site, so treach ero u s th e only pass th ro u g h th e A ndean peaks, th a t only slave labor could m ake th e p roject go. Stories a re still c u rre n t in th e fo lk ­ lore of the little valley of how, a t th e echoing snap of fleshb reak in g lashes, h o r d e s of slaves g ath ered th e little n u g ­ gets into b ack-breaking packs and toiled over th e form idable m ountain pass to th e shores of Lake T iticaca, whence royal llam a carav an s sped th e tr e a ­ su re to th e g uarded halls of th e Incas in far-o ff P eru. Con­ quistadores, in th e ir th ir s t fo r gold, employed th e sam e m e th ­ ods and gold continued to pour o ut of the hidden valley of T ipuani. W ith the end of slavery came th e end of th e “golden Continued on Page 4