Classroom clipper, Vol. I, No. 2, November 1944

              CLASSROOM CUPPER
November, 1944	Published by PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS_Vol. I No. 2
GIANT NEW CLIPPERS TO CARRY 108 PASSENGERS
ARE PROJECTED BY PAN AMERICAN AND DOUGLAS
Land Planes Flying at 300 m.p.h. In Substratosphere Will Reach Buenos Aires in 21 Hours
Engineers of Pan American World Airways and the Douglas Aircraft Co., are working out the details of a giant substratosphere land plane Clipper which will carry 108 passengers and a crew of 13 at 300 miles per hour on such long distance routes as New York to Buenos Aires and the Pacific Coast of the U.S. to Hawaii, according to an announcement by Donald W. Douglas, president of the aircraft company.
The new Clipper would be built in the Douglas plant in Santa Monica. It would be powered with four engines details of which still are a heavily guarded military secret, but it has been revealed that these giant engines will be of even greater displacement than the present 2,100 horsepower Pratt and Whitney Double Wasps.
Designated the Douglas DC-7, the new Clipper represents the largest aircraft construction project in the history of commercial aviation. The project calls for delivery to Pan American of a fleet of 26 of the new four-engined
land plane Clippers, at a cost of $40,-
000,000.
These million and a half dollar giant Clippers will make possible Pan American’s program of mass transportation, bringing swift, economical travel within the reach of the average man. Spacious pressurized cabins will provide for comfortable travel at an altitude of 20,000 feet.
The immensity of these new Douglas built Clippers is emphasized by the fact that their wings will be longer, from tip to tip, than a 16-story building and large enough for interior passageways for servicing and repairing engines in flight. They will be twice as large as the giant Clippers now flying Pan American’s trans-oceanic routes and seven times larger than the standard DC-3 transports in operation all over the world. They will have many accommodations and conveniences never before attempted in commercial air transportation.
The huge new planes, it was revealed would be used by Pan American in its great Latin American expansion program and possibly in other long distance services. The airline would operate these big Clippers directly to Latin America from New York, as well as
from Miami, New Orleans, and Los Angeles at fares as low as 3%^ a mile. The mammoth planes would carry passengers from New York to Buenos Aires in 21 hours, to Rio De Janeiro in 19 hours, making it possible for the everyday citizen to spend 12 days of his two weeks vacation abroad.
Although dates of delivery to Pan American will depend upon progress of the war and government decision on production and manpower priorities, most of the engineering has been completed and the basic airplane of this size is actually under construction at the Long Beach, Cal., plant of the Douglas Company.
The new Clipper will have two spacious cabins, one accommodating 72 passengers and the other 36, besides a modern galley equipped for serving full course meals, dressing rooms, toilets, cargo compartment, flight deck and compartment for pilots. There will also be large storage compartments for food and electrically operated stoves and refrigerators will be included in the modern equipment.
Thermal de-icing systems, built into the wings and other surfaces, will make comfortable all-weather flight possible at high altitudes.
NEW CLIPPER—Engineers of Pan American World Airways and the Douglas Aircraft Company are completing plans for the new land plane clipper illustrated in this photograph, which shows a model of the new airplane against a backdrop of an airport scene.