Pan Am clipper, Vol. 2, No. 2, May 1976

              Volume 2 Number 2
Pan Am’s Clippers are getting a facelift—inside and out. After the paint remover has had time to soften, this 747, positioned in the giant maintenance dock at the Jet Center at JFK, will be cleaned down to bare metal, then receive a coat of primer and paint. Painters Ernest Mustacaros, top, and Robert Smuzinsky work on the plane. See Picture Story, back page.
Pan American goes to court over MIA-LAX route award
SP service inaugurated
Pan Am brought the far-flung cities of the world closer together last month when it inaugurated nonstop 747SP service to Tokyo from Los Angeles and New York.
Pan Am is the first airline to put the route-shrinking SP—Special Performance—aircraft into scheduled service.
Clipper Constitution, with Captain Jake Marcum at the controls, made the historic Los Angeles-Tokyo Flight 3 on April 25, while Captain James “Neil” King commanded Clipper Freedom on its trek from New York to Tokyo, Flight 801, on April 26.
The New York-Tokyo nonstop route slashes 3 hours and 45 minutes off Pan Am’s previous scheduled flight times as the SP negotiates the 6,574 miles in 13 hours, 30 minutes. The return trip is even faster—11 hours, 30 minutes.
The SP—47 feet shorter than its sistership—seats 44 first class and 222 economy passengers in its four main cabins. Seating has been increased from 14 to 16 in the enlarged upstairs lounge for Pan Am’s first class dining room service. Galleys on the main deck have been relocated away from traffic areas.
Top cruising altitude of the SP is 45,000 feet with a maximum speed in excess of 600 miles per hour. The SP’s fuel capacity, 49,110 gallons, is only slightly more than that of a
747, but advanced design characteristics of the aircraft and engine performance give the SP one-third greater range.
Flight 801, thrice weekly service, leaves Kennedy Airport at 12 noon on Monday, Thursday and Saturday, arriving in Tokyo the next day at 2:40 p.m. after crossing the International Date Line. Return Flight 800 leaves Tokyo on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 6 p.m., arriving in New York the same day at 4:30 p.m.
From Los Angeles to Tokyo, Flight 3 leaves daily at 12:30 p.m., arriving at 3:45 p.m. the following day. Return Flight 8 leaves Tokyo daily at 6:15 p.m., arriving in Los Angeles the same day at 12:05 in the afternoon.
Pan Am has added three SPs to its fleet of 32 standard-sized 747s and by the end of the month expects to have taken delivery of the two others it has ordered.
In the weeks prior to the inauguration of the New York-Tokyo and Los Angeles SP flights, the long-range jets were flown on an “aircraft switch” basis on various routes to familiarize cabin, cockpit and ground crews with the new aircraft.
Pan Am has gone to court in its fight to have the Civil Aeronautics Board reconsider award of the Miami-Los Angeles nonstop route to Western Airlines.
The Company asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review the decision. At the same time, Pan Am requested the CAB to reconsider its decision and reopen the case. Pan Am also asked the CAB to stay the effectiveness of the award to Western, pending judicial review if the petition for reconsideration is denied.
Attorneys for Pan Am said in the petition to the CAB that “there is a
basic question of equity and fair play” in that the CAB has again denied Pan Am domestic route authority. For the last 30 years, however, every domestic trunkline carrier has been extended overseas on routes pioneered by Pan Am.
The petition also pointed out that data which led to the award was outdated. For instance, the CAB failed to recognize that Pan
Am can offer an attractive and profitable Miami-Los Angeles service with the new Boeing 747SP (Special Performance) aircraft. In addition, the longer range of the 747SP will enable Pan Am to provide the only one-stop Miami-Tokyo service by any carrier, because of the aircraft’s ability to fly Los Angeles-Tokyo nonstop.
Continued on page 6
Pan Am gets public support in reconsideration request
See story, page 2
Liberty Bell attempts global speed record
Some 130 aviation buffs and adventurers were set to take off on May 1 on another Pan Am first—a round the world flight setting world speed and distance records for commercial aircraft.
The 40-hour 22,864-mile flight, named Clipper 200-Liberty Bell Express, was to make only two stops on its New York to New York globe-girdling trek—in New Delhi and Tokyo.
The flight is designed to show the long-range and technical superiority of the 747SP and was to be monitored by the National Aeronautic Association, the United States representative of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale which governs world aviation speed and distance records.
Passengers came from all over the U.S., including Maui.
One man, Talbert Abrams, of Lansing, Mich, was making his fourth Pan Am “first flight.” In 1958, he was on board Pan Am’s first 707 flight from JFK to Paris; he flew on the first round the world jet flight in 1959 and in 1968, Abrams was with Pan Am on its first New York-Moscow flight.
Not all the passengers are such experienced travelers, however. Eleven-year-old Joseph Rosovitz’s only previous flights have been from his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio to Minneapolis and Chicago on 727s and 737s. Joseph, who will be traveling with his father Joseph, Sr., has been study-Continued on page 6
Seawell asks legislative action for U.S. international flag system
Chairman Seawell has called on Congress to take legislative steps to assure that the privately owned U.S. international flag system of airlines can compete with foreign carriers owned and supported by their governments.
In testimony before the Aviation Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, Seawell
Joey Rosovitz wants a Pan Am 747SP to add to his model airplane collection. That’s understandable, since the eleven-year-old from Youngstown, Ohio, was to be a passenger on Clipper 200-Liberty Bell Express as it made its attempt for world speed and distance records. Joey was traveling with his father, Joseph Sr.
said that the basic long-term problem for Pan Am is “a U.S. Government policy which has chosen to regulate our international flag system in the same way, on the same basis and measured by the same criteria as our domestic system.”
“It hasn’t worked,” Seawell continued, “and it won’t work.” Seawell said Pan Am has done a great deal to become viable on its own, “but now we need some new government policy.”
“Basically we have had to solve our own problems,” he said, noting that in 1975, Pan Am cut its losses almost in .half.
In one of his strongest public tributes to employees, Seawell went on to say: “In our case we benefited from a very strong cooperative concerted effort by the Pan American people. Undoubtedly that was the single most important ingredient in that amalgam of effort that we conducted.
“I think it is fair to say that the people of Pan Am adopted a bicentennial spirit a year or two early, and it continues.
The Subcommittee was hearing comments on the Ford Administration’s Aviation Act of 1975. Seawell cited a number of amendments which Pan Am would propose in that legislation:
—The Act be adjusted to reflect the special economic, political and
Continued on page 7