Clipper, Vol. 2, No. 13, October 1945

              dækt ÆMFTf
kjtwjm. /«/mviiii^/i/*
CLIPPER
LATIN AMERICAN DIVISION
VOL. 2—NO. 13
451001
Copyright, 1945, by Pan American Airways, Inc.
OCTOBER. 1945
Pan American’s/ tranquil Clipper (lights over Latin America probably seem humdrum to this group of former United States Army Air Force pilots, for it used to be guns, tanks and wounded that they flew over the blazing battlegrounds of the world instead of PAA’s high-priority passengers and essential cargo. First to serve aboard the international airline’s Clippers, the five are among more than 100 AAF pilots offered employment by PAA. Left to right, they are: Wendell Boettcher, Samuel L. Crane, Howard McDaniel, Harold E. McCarty and William Goolsbee.
:-------
Former AAF Pilots Take to Air For PAA
Fresh from the hazardous hardships of military flying in every corner of the world battlefronts, 32 U. S. Army Air Force pilots have laid aside their AAF uniforms and decorations to pilot the swift and safe Clippers of Pan American World Airways over the untroubled lands of Latin America.
Their flights are taking them to Cuba, Mexico’ Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and other countries in Central and South America. But a group of these seasoned veterans, assigned to planes which PAA operates under contract to the Air Transport Command, will fly cargo to Casablanca, North Africa, and speed back to the United States with war-weary soldiers and wounded.
The majority of the pilots are captains, with a few majors and one lieutenant-colonel. Their overseas’ service averages a year and a half. Some flew P-38’s on photographic reconnaissance; others B-17’s and B-24’s, while a number transported paratroopers, cargo and wounded in unarmed aircraft over blazing battle zones.
They are among more than 100 AAF officers pilots who have been offered employment by Pan American. The rest will go to work for the international airline when permission is granted by their commanding officers. All will retain their commissions and be on inactive duty.
The first quintet to take their places as first officers in the cockpits of the Clippers, typical of the entire group, had previously feared that they wouldn’t get a crack at commercial aviation.
Though their objective was identical, nothing could be more dissimilar than their prewar backgrounds. Before aviation became their profession they had been, respectively, a high school teacher, a mortician, a statistician, a prospective lawyer and a college student.
But the overseas experiences of these Continued on Page 6
Original Caribbean Clipper,
Once Queen of Aerial Highways,
Ends Glorious PAA Career
Once hostess to the great and near-great of the Caribbean and later a powerful weapon in the United Nations’ war for freedom, the original Caribbean Clipper of Pan American World Airways has ended its long and useful career.
The Clipper, a four-engined S-40 Sikorsky flying boat, now is anchored in Bis-cayne Bay at Miami, Fla., property of a Miamian, to whom it was sold after 13 years of faithful service plying the airlanes or in training aerial navigators for the United States and Great Britain.
Today, her 55-foot hull and 114-foot wingspan rest proudly in memories of achievements that began in March, 1931, and carried steadily forward through August of 1944, when her latest and last PAA chore as a flying classroom was ended and the Clipper was trundled off to pasture until sold.
Before that unhappy event, the Caribbean Clipper had logged 12,829 hours in the air, mostly between Miami and Havana, Cuba, but with occasional side trips as far south as Buenos Aires, and nearly three years of constant usage in training aerial navigators how to get around the heavens.
Many of those students who learned their lessons aboard the Clipper, whose markings “NC 81V” were familiar throughout the Caribbean, have been flying in fighting craft off Japan and elsewhere in the Pacific, and many saw service in the battle of the Atlantic and over Germany.
Hundreds of airmen were trained in the Clipper as a flying classroom under the general direction of Charles J. Lunn, PAA superintendent of ground training, to go forth in the uniforms of England and America to win their battles in distant lands.
It’s a far cry from the initial flight in 1931 from the picturesque beauties of Pan American’s international marine base at Continued on Page 2
LAD AERIAL TRAFFIC SOARS TO NEW HEIGHTS
Aerial traffic of the American republics increased steadily during the first half of 1945 as compared with the same period in 1944, on the 50,000 miles of Latin Ajn-erican- routes served by Pan American World Airways, an achievement made possible by greater utilization of available, warscarce equipment.
Wilbur L. Morrison, vice-president of PAA in charge of all Latin American operations, noted in disclosing the figures for the first six months of the year that Clippers were operating at 97.4 capacity, an increase of about 10 per cent over 1944.
During the six months just ended, PAA’s Latin American gateway cities, excluding the United States’ ports of entry and exit, handled almost twice as many passengers as the five major North American ports, totalling 181,331 against 98,215 within the continental United States.
Miami led the field, however, with a total of 70,282 passengers in and out, closely followed by Mexico City, which recorded 54,089 and Havana, with 42,110 in the first half of 1945. Heavy increases over the same period in 1944 were recorded by all major gateways except Mexico City, with 1944 totals as follows: Miami, 56,-578; Havana, 26,743, and Mexico City, 55,179.
While passenger traffic increased approximately 25 per cent, airexpress shipments jumped almost 50 per cent during the half-year, moving upward from 7,125,-525 pounds in 1944 to 10,347,298 pounds for the same period in 1945.
Shipments through major Latin American gateways rose from 4,722,460 pounds in 1944 to 6,132,220, while United States Continued on Page 2
Luckhardt, Ramirez Turn Traveling Professors
Operations and Communications employees at Pan American airports throughout the West Indies and Central America are sure to be more and more weather-wise. PAA now has two traveling meteorologists on the fly, giving intensive courses.
Replacing Eugene Deason, who is now stationed at the Miami Meteorology school, are Robert L. Luckhardt, also of the Miami school, and Plutarcho Ramirez, from the Balboa Meteorology office.
Employees are learning to send up the instrument-laden balloons used to measure wind velocity, and the care and operation of the generator which produces hydrogen for inflating the balloons. They also learn how to determine ceilings and visibility, identify cloud types, and write accurate reports of local weather conditions.
Robert L. Luckhardt’s West Indies and the Guianas assignment includes Port au Prince, Ciudad Trujillo, San Juan, Trinidad, Cayenne, Georgetown, Paramaribo and Kingston.
Plutarcho Ramirez is including Turbo, Colombia; David, Panama; San Jose, San Salvador and Tegucigalpa in his group.