Pan American clipper, Vol. 20, No. 6, September 1961

              LHS0344, t e c ) , B o y m

Volume 20

September 1961

No. 6

Atlantic Travel Breaks Record
Pan American Airways’ transatlantic traffic achieved an all-time peak during the four weeks ending July 15. We carried 21 per cent more passengers across the North Atlantic during this period than during the comparable weeks of 1960.
Also, d u rin g July, fo r the second m onth in a row, P a n A m erican ca rried m ore th a n 100,000 passengers th ro u g h N ew York City to and from d estin a­ tions around th e world, th e C aribbean, and South A m erica. In June, fo r the first tim e in its history, P an Am exceeded the 100,000 m ark fo r traffic a t New York In tern atio n al A ir­ port, Idlew ild, w ith 100,047 p as­ sengers. The Ju ly to tal, how­ ever, reached 120,950 p assen­ gers, a gain of n early 25,000 over the to tal fo r Ju ly of 1960. P eak traffic was reported to both E uropean points and to San Ju an , P u erto Rico. The bulk of th e tra n s a tla n tic traffic w as carried aboard 144 je t flights p er week. O ur all-jet scheduled services to San Ju a n were su p ­ plem ented w ith ex tra sections.

A giant dual-level Greyhound Coach Line Scenic Cruiser bus will tour England and the Continent for a month begin­ ning September 29 to remind Europeans of the dollar-stretching travel bargains available when they “See the U.S.A. the
P an Am -Greyhound W ay.” The 40 - foot - long highw ay c ru ise r will v isit 19 m ajor cities including London, B rus­ sels, A m sterdam , B erlin, F ra n k ­ fu rt, Rome and P aris during its 30-day tour. I t will be on ex­ hibition fo r approxim ately six days in the U nited Kingdom ; two days each in H olland and Belgium ; 14 days in G erm any; th ree days in F ran c e; and six days in Italy. T raveling w ith the scenic cru ise r will be Greyhound drivers, P an Am stew ardesses and U.S. G overnm ent rep resen ­ tativ es such as a p re tty “port re­ ceptionist” from the D epart­ m ent of Im m igration. Also on board will be colorful figures every v isito r hopes to see — such as cowboys, fo re st rangers, and A m erican Indians. The dual-level bus is 10 feet 1H/4 inches high and 7 feet 11% inches wide. Up to 43 pass­ engers can enjoy th e view from th e big p ictu re windows. E quip­ ped w ith th e la te st air-suspen­ sion ride fo r th e sm oothest pos­ sible surface tran sp o rta tio n , the g ian t vehicle also boasts a com­ plete re st room and clim atized a ir conditioning. Also included in th e trip will be a rep resen tativ e of the Gray Line S ightseeing Companies As­ sociated, the larg e st sig h tsee­ ing operation in the U. S. A. The Gray Line will tell E uropeans about recreatio n al opportunities in th e U nited S tates, including sightseeing to u rs to fam ous places and about how easy and

STARRY-EYED Scott, 2, gets a lesson in astronomy from his dad, A. Stewart Wilson, a Pan Am second officer and discoverer of Comet Wilson.

Navigator Sights A Heavenly Body
Second Officer A. Stewart Wilson is a man with an eye — and a telescope — for heavenly bodies. In tribute to his keen vision, there’s now a celestial body bearing his name. It’s a comet “just a little to the left of Venus” and it shall hereafter

(Continued on page 10)

'Bosses' S h ou ld Be Told:

Our Silence Not Always Golden
W hen you’re late rep o rtin g to work, you try to explain why to your supervisor. R ight? W hen a flight is delayed, th e personnel involved offer ex­ planations to th e ir supervisors. R ight? How about th e big boss? W hat do we tell him ? All too freq uently, we u tte r a m eaningless p hrase, actin g as if we th in k he isn ’t in tellig en t enough to realize th a t we’re tellin g him nothing. O r perhaps we don’t even offer to explain. I t’s a dow nright in su lt to tre a t th e boss like th a t, and th a t’s no way to tre a t the m an who controls o u r job security. Who is th is big boss we’ve been in su ltin g ? H e’s Mr. P assen g er or Mr. Shipper, th e m an who has h ired us to work fo r him because we offer o u r services, in o ur tim e­ table, to convey him or his fre ig h t betw een various points on th e globe. Unless Mr. P assen g er or Mr. S hipper hired us, we w ouldn’t be operating. So he’s th e boss, and any tim e we’re unable to perform th e services we prom ise to perform , we owe th e boss an explanation, not an in su lt — and rem em ber, silence can some­ tim es be insulting, too. If we explain why we can ’t do w h at we were hired to do, and th e explanation is complete and courteous, the boss will understan d and keep us on his payroll. If we add in su lt to in ju ry by fa ilin g to offer a logical ex­ planation, th e boss may decide to engage an o th er b atch of employees next tim e he has need of a ir tran sp o rta tio n . The people who have m ost contact w ith the boss will be th e ones doing m ost of the explaining. Traffic, F lig h t Service, T ele­ phone Sales, R eservations people. They can ’t explain why such-and-such deviation from tim e­ table is tak in g place unless the people who know get the word to them. The people who know — O perating Crew, O perations, M ain­ tenance, Scheduling, D ispatch, etc. — have th e responsibility of in su rin g th a t accu rate and complete inform ation is made prom pt­ ly available to the explainers. In the P an Am scheme of things, safety is infinitely more im portan t th a n schedule. O ur first object always is th e com fort and safety of our employer. Don’t ever be a fra id to tell th e boss th a t. He knows it, of course, b u t he never objects to being reassu red .

Wilson w ired the news to H a r­ be known as “Comet W ilson.” The Seattle-based n av ig ato r’s vard. L ate r th a t day, H arv ard sci­ nam e assum ed universal pro­ entists phoned W ilson to con­ portions when th e H arvard Ob­ serv ato ry in M assachusetts as­ firm the discovery, to co n g ratu ­ late th e discoverer, and to tell signed it to a new comet. W ilson became a celestial him the heavenly body had offi­ celebrity by sig h tin g the new cially been nam ed — Comet W il­ com et w hile over the Pacific on son. The new comet has a long a J e t C lipper flight from Hono­ tail and th ird m agnitude brightlulu to Seattle. (Continued on page 2) As W ilson tells it: “We w ere flying along a t 29,000 fe e t and I was looking th ro u g h my binoculars from the flight deck of th e 707, looking fo r M ercury. It was about 5 o’clock in th e m orning when I saw th is th in g strea k into the sky. It appeared as a wedge of lig h t and narrow ed to a point — the head of a comet. “I was su re it was a comet —■ I ’ve been looking fo r a new one all my life. It was one of the b rig h test comets th a t has ap ­ peared in my lifetim e. I could h ard ly believe it.” The comet came across E u ­ rope and N orth A m erica and into the Pacific sky, b u t W ilson was th e first to spot it — and DONALD G. BEDDOE, Honolulu Reservations Supervisor, to re p o rt it. was selected “Student of the Year” after being chosen R ushing home im m ediately “Outstanding Student” of the Sales and Service Training a fte r landing in S eattle he woke School course held in Hong Kong in January 1961. Witness­ his wife, told h e r about the ing the happy event are (left) Gordon Corley, Pan Am comet and picked up the phone Reservations and Ticket Office Manager; and Ernest W. to call the H arv ard O bserva­ Albrecht, DTSM/HNL, as Stephanie Loo, special Pan Am tory. Representaive and 1961 Narcissus Queen, adds something B ut th ere was no answ er, so extra special to the presentation.