Pan Am clipper, Vol. 3, No. 2, February 1977

              
TRPcase sent back
Pan Am asks interim
Atlanta,Texas startup
Bilateral
Anticipating lengthy proceedings in reopening of the Transatlantic Route Case, Pan Am has asked the Civil Aeronautics Board for immediate permission to provide direct London service to Houston, Dallas/ Fort Worth and Atlanta.
The White House in late December returned the transatlantic route recommendations, which would have provided the three cities with London flights, to the CAB for reconsideration.
Noting that the reconsideration process could be long and drawn out, Pan Am said that unless it is granted interim rights, improved air service between the three Southern Tier cities and London could be months and months away.
Charles Lindbergh’s first airplane, restored recently by the Long Island Early Fliers’ Club, was a major attraction in President Jimmy Carter’s Inaugural Parade. A number of Pan Am employees, members of the club, rode the float, which was pulled by a
Pan Am truck. Waving from the rear cockpit is George Dade, former President of the ciub and the man who purchased the plane a number of years ago.
Lindy’s ‘Jenny’ in Carter Parade
By Merle W. Richman
When Charles Lindbergh’s first airplane, a Curtiss “Jenny,” passed the reviewing stand in the Inaugural Parade in Washington, it was because of hours of work by a group of Pan Am-ers who donated their time to make the arrangements.
The men—Henry Anholzer-Manager Facility Planning at JFK and Stan Brill, Jack Burke, Ernest Smith and Emil Feruldi, all of Technical Operations—are members of the Long Island (New York) Early Fliers Club which recently completed restoration of the aircraft (Clipper 77, January issue). They also assisted in disassembling the aircraft for its movement from New York to Washington and reassembling the plane on the float which was drawn by a Pan Am tractor. Two other Pan Amers, Frank Lehanef and Vito Nico-lettea, JFK Motorpool, drove the tractor.
Joint venture
The float was a joint venture of several organizations, including the Americus, Georgia, Chamber of Commerce, Friends of the Nassau County, New York, Museum where the plane will be permanently exhibited, the Long Island Early Fliers Club, and Pan Am.
Lindbergh originally purchased the plane as surplus in 1923 at a U.S. Army depot in Americus. Four years later, in 1927, Lindbergh made his his-
toric solo Atlantic crossing in the Spirit of St. Louis. The 50th anniversary of that famed crossing will be celebrated this year.
Americus, just a few miles from President Jimmy Carter’s hometown of Plains, sent the largest single contingent to the January 20 inauguration ceremonies.
The Jenny was mounted on a trailer with a swivel platform so that the airplane, which has a wing spread of 44 feet, could be rotated to pass the restricted clearances along the parade route.
The Jenny is one of the most famous of all antique airplanes. It was the primary training plane of World War I, and was also the airplane used in the first scheduled airmail flight on May 15, 1918. The Jenny, acquired by the Long Island Early Fliers Club, took three years to restore and was the very aircraft in which Lindbergh made his first solo flight.
Lindbergh eventually sold the airplane and in 1927, a subsequent owner crash landed it in Iowa, where a farmer stowed
(Continued on page 2)
' ^ James H. Maloon, Executive
Vice President-Finance and
Development, discusses Pan
Ara’s improving financial
status. See interview, page 7.
Okinawa and Taipei flight schedules resume
President Ford, with an oblique slap at the Civil Aeronautics Board, approved the Pan Am-Trans World Airlines swap of transatlantic and transpacific routes. It cleared the way for resumption of Okinawa and Taipei service that Pan Am had been forced to suspend for six months.
“Happy days are here again,” cabled Director Okinawa Allan Topping. He said the White House announcement triggered a flood of telephone calls asking for bookings on Pan Am flights.
The President’s action allows the two carriers to keep the route exchange in force until March 2, 1978. Both carriers expressed disappointment authority had not been extended until 1980 as they had asked.
The route exchange agreement first went into effect in March 1975. Under terms of the agreement, TWA gave up its major Pacific routes and ceased service to Frankfurt and all points east of Tel Aviv on its North Atlantic routes, as well as ending single-plane service in the Baltimore/Washington-London market.
1 Pan Am suspended service to Paris, Vienna, Nice, Barcelona and Casablanca, and its service on certain routes to the Azores and the Iberian Peninsula. It
also gave up single-plane service in the Los Angeles/Chicago/ Philadelphia to London markets.
The exchange was put into effect after approval by the CAB.
The approval, however, was challenged by Northwest Airlines on grounds the CAB acted beyond its authority, including not holding a public hearing and not submitting the case to the White House.
The U.S. Court of Appeals sent the case back to the CAB (Continued on page 2)
Because the United States-United Kingdom bilateral air agreement does not provide nonstop operations from these cities, single-plane, single-carrier service can only be provided by extension of existing flights between the U.S. and London.
In its petition to the CAB, Pan Am said it is “in the unique position among U.S. flag carriers, of being able to meet the need for immediate and vastly improved service between these three Southern Tier cities and London. No combination carriers, other than Pan Am and Trans World Airlines, are authorized to serve London on a North Atlantic route, and the Board has already found that ‘Pan Am has a more substantial stake’ in Texas-London and Atlanta-London traffic than does TWA_______”
Pan Am said it was prepared to begin the service immediately —using 747s—and provide daily flights between Atlanta and London via Washington, and initially, service via New York be-(Continued on page 8)
Pan Am to CAB:
Saipan needs service now
Pan Am has asked the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board to allow it temporarily to connect Saipan with Japan on flights already operating between Tokyo and Guam.
Pan Am said there is “an immediate need” for such service and proposed an initial schedule of three roundtrip flights a week, on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
Pan Am noted that although Continental Airlines was awarded the Saipan-Japan route, it has not been able to institute service because of continuing airport congestion problems at Tokyo and Osaka and because
the Japanese Government has denied Continental authority to operate pending new agreements in ongoing U.S.-Japan bilateral negotiations. These problems would not preclude the prompt service proposed by Pan Am.
Further Pan Am said that the CAB itself was aware of the situation when it confirmed the award to Continental. The Board then stated that “we are prepared to examine whether or not we should take any further action—through the use of our exemption power or otherwise— to remedy any short-term difficulties which the market may (Continued on page 8)