Pan American clipper, Vol., 27, No. 5, March 1, 1967

              Historic Auto-Land with Pax at JFK
Aviation history was made at JFK Feb. 27 when a Pan American World Airways Boe­ ing 727 Jet Clipper made a fully automatic approach and landing with passengers on board. Never before has an Ameri­ can-built airliner made an automatic landing on a regu­ larly-scheduled passenger flight anywhere in the world, and never before has any airliner carrying passengers made an automatic landing at a U.S. airport. “Even though our visibility tonight was not too poor,” Captain William S. Ewing of Miami, Florida, told his 98 passengers on Flight 224 from Montego Bay, Jamaica, “the landing would have been exact­ ly the same if visibility had been near zero-zero.” Captain Ewing described the landing, in light snow with a 10-mile crosswind, as “perfect.” The automatic landing sys­ tem, certified on June 28, 1966 by the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency, represents a major breakthrough towards allweather landings. “It aids the pilot—it doesn’t replace him— in landing when visibility is limited,” Captain Ewing said. The automatic landing sys­ tem, developed jointly by the Boeing Company and Sperry Phoenix Company, utilizes the airport’s instrument landing system (ILS) in guiding the aircraft through its approach and landing. The airborne equipment “locks on” to the ILS radio beams and automatically con­ trols the course of the air­ plane, its speed and rate of descent. It has been certified by the Federal Aviation Agen­ cy for landings when the pilot has visual contact with the runway or its lights at a deci­ sion height of 100 feet and has been advised that forward visi­ bility along the runway is at least 1200 feet. If the pilot has the neces­ sary visual cues at 100 feet, he permits the landing to proceed and at a height of 50 feet the automatic landing equipment automatically flares the air­ craft for touchdown by raising its nose. Special runway lighting is required for Category II land­ ings, and few runways in the world presently meet these re­ quirements. A Category II runway is ex­ pected to be in service at JFK in the near future. However, the Federal Aviation Agency has authorized Pan American Boeing 727’s to land there automatically under Category I conditions—a ceiling of 200 feet and visibility of 2400 feet along the runway. The airborne equipment re­ quired for the automatic land­ ing system includes: a fullymonitored auto-pilot; a dual (Continued on Page 10)

Add Berlin Seats
Pan American will add 1024 daily seats on its flights between eight cities in Germany and Ber­ lin effective April 1. Roundtrips will be increased from 35 on the present schedule to 43. The April 1 schedule will bring the daily seat total up to 5504 on Pan Am’s intra-German service. There will be nine daily roundtrips between Berlin and Frankfurt. Other totals include Ham­ burg 8, Hannover 8, Stuttgart 4, Dusseldorf 4, Munich 4, Nurem­ berg 3 and Cologne 3. Pan Am flies Boeing 727 Jet Clippers on its intra-German service and offers the only jet flights between West Germany and Tempelhof Airport in Down­ Volume 27 town Berlin.

March 1, 1967

No. 5

Helicopter W ill Link JFK, Teterboro, Westchester
New York Airways will begin helicopter service to Kennedy Airport from Teterboro, New Jersey, March 1 and from Westchester County, N. Y., March 8. Pan Am President Harold Gray called the new services a major step in expediting travel to the airport, and said Pan Am and New York Airways are studying still more helicopter services from points around the city to Kennedy. He noted that nearly two mil­ lion people with an annual pur­ chasing power of more than $5 billion live in the northern New Jersey area that will be served by Teterboro. Presently they must travel the SAO PAULO, BRAZIL—Manuel Rodrigues is Pan Ameri­ surface equivalent of 21 air miles through Manhattan Island and can’s Airport Customer Service Manager at Congonhas Airport, heavy traffic congestion to JFK. Sao Paulo. And to Rodrigues “service” means “service.” Mr. and Mrs. A. F. Davis of Grand Rapids, Mich., were The helicopter will take 12 min­ utes direct or 15 with a stop in winding up a vacation in Sao Paulo and were preparing for the mid-Manhattan at the Pan Am return Pan Am flight to New York. They were staying about 15 miles out of town and had to get up at about 3 a.m. the morn­ THE STRAWBERRIES, not model Claudia Brack, are in­ Building rooftop terminal. tended to convey the Perishable Commodities theme of the Teterboro will have 19 flights ing they were leaving in order to be on time for the scheduled March-April cargo calendar poster. Claudia looks peren­ every weekday to JFK, 15 of early morning departure. A short way out of town a man flagged down the Davis’ car. nially lovely, but only Jet Clipper speed keeps the other them stopping at the Pan Am luscious California delicacies fresh long enough to be en- Building enroute. All will land It was Rodrigues. (Continued on Page 10) He had been trying, without luck, to reach the couple by joyed around the Pan Am system. telephone to tell them the flight had been delayed until noon and that they would be more comfortable waiting in town rather than at the airport. Mr. and Mrs. Davis were astonished that a Pan Am repre­ sentative would attempt to personally intercept them on the open road in order to make their trip easier. Rodrigues explained that after telephoning failed he knew he could meet them somewhere along the road, since it was the only main road to the airport. The ACSM accompanied the couple back to town and then took them to the airport when .their flight Ten years of steadily increasing growth over the 1,101-mile air route between New was ready. York and Nassau was celebrated by Pan Am February 21, when the pioneer airline marked Mr. Davis, an official of the Diesel Equipment Division of the anniversary of service between the two cities. General Motors, was so impressed with this display of Pan Am In the decade the annual number of passengers carried has tripled, with the greatest service that he wrote a personal letter to President Gray. increase recorded during the past few years. Passengers carried between Nassau and New York during 1966 represented an increase of 77 per cent over the 1965 traffic figures. SAN FRANCISCO—The doughty fleet servicemen on “E” Demand for seats on the New By George E. Burns shift here did the impossible and hung up a possible System York-Nassau Jet Clippers in re­ record in a fast turn-around on a military cargo charter for cent months indicates that the “Pan Am’s new coterminal flights between the East and Vietnam. 1967 figures will be far above West Coasts of the U.S. will probably save the company more They did a four-hour job in 59 minutes when the aircraft those of last year. than $1 million a year just in shipping parts and supplies,” At present Pan Am is schedul­ Arch Galbraith, Manager of Supply, said this week. came in late, and enabled it to get out on sked. In the terse words of G. A. Christensen, Airport Opera­ ing more than 3,500 first class It is Galbraith’s job to keep in and economy seats every week stock the parts needed to keep around the system.” tions Superintendent: “Flight 145M09 arrived at Cargo at 1633 local with a load between New York and Nassau the fleet in the air, and to get The company has $54 million of 13 pallets and 1,896 kilos in the bellies, scheduled to turn and more than 8,000 every week parts to where they are needed— tied up in 40,000 spare com­ around to Flight 147M10, with 13 pallets and 3,762 kilos in the between Miami and Nassau. immediately. He is also expected ponents, a third of which are Pan Am has two Clippers mak­ to operate economically. bellies. always in or on their way to or “All doors secured at 1725 and flight departed 1732. ing round trips over the Nassau“As costly as it is to ship parts from maintenance. “Leadmen Jack Ash, Leroy Stenmoe, Bernard Hargreaves, New York route,'plus five round- by air,” he said, “it is still far “The less time the parts spend and crew displayed the utmost in organization and ability. trip Jet Clipper flights daily be- less than building up big inven­ in transit, the longer they are According to New York HQ this sets a System-wide record.” (Continued on Page 8) tories of spares at many points (Continued on Page 9)

Rodrigues Hits Road To Aid P a sse n ...

Celebrate Tenth Anniversary Of New York/Nassau Service
Delayed Four Hours, Jet Is Turned Around in 59 Min.

Co-Terminal Flights Mean Big Savings