Clipper, Vol. 2, No. 1, January 1945

              Engineers War On “Bugs” In Deadly Superfortress
Revelation by the Army Air Forces of the ingenious electronic armament of its giant B-29, which has made the Superfortress the world’s deadliest bomber against attacking fighters, has lifted a veil of secrecy which for six months has shrouded the activities of a group of General Electric and Pan American engineers at Brownsville, Texas.
Since last March, this group of experts has been engaged in ironing out the “bugs” in the largest U. S. bomber now in use in military operations. Some of the “bugs” were in the big 2200-horsepower engines of the plane, but most of those eliminated as a result of the tests made at Brownsville were found in the intricate system of defense firepower.
The central fire control makes the B-29 by far the best defended bomber in the air, as attested by the record of enemy planes shot down and damaged by the 20th Air Force in attacks against Japan during the last two months. Remote-control turrets operate the bomber’s multiple „.5 0-calibre guns and the 20 mm. cannon in the tail. Gunners sit at sighting stations, or blisters, inside the fuselage and operate the guns with automatic correcting sights.
The gunner feeds certain information, such as speed of the plane, wind drift, etc., into his computer, frames the enemy fighter in his sight and presses the trigger. The strategically-situated guns blaze away.
This revolutionary gun control technique, developed by engineers of General Electric and officers of the army’s air technical service command, permits the gunner at one turret to control fire from other guns merely by flipping a switch. The turrets are so situated that fire can be concentrated on a single target.
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More Aboard As Clippers Make Stop At Kingston
An additional 140 passengers can be carried each week over Pan American World Airways’ 1,272-mile route between Miami and Panama with the inauguration of daily Clipper stops at Kingston, Jamaica.
Stratoclippers with accommodations for 32 passengers make the English island possession a stopping point on ten round-trip weekly flights between Miami and Balboa.
The new schedule includes a daily departure from Miami at 6:15 a.h., and a night schedule departure from Miami on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 2 a.m.
On the northbound flight the stratoclipper leaves Balboa daily at 1:55 p.m. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday it leaves Balboa at 9:30 a.m.
GOING UP!
Mrs. Dorothy Page, of Dinner Key’s paint shop, catches a contribution from Charles Wightman, going up the ladder, and Lynn Howell. Thanks to Mrs. Page, whose husband is overseas, the DK fund went up, too.
GVs Travel Home by Phone As PAA’ers Give to Fund
Many GI Joes hospitalized in Miami were able to talk to their folks during the Christmas holidays, thanks to P^n American employees in the Miami area who collected $230.71 for The Miami Daily News Heroes Phone Fund.
At Dinner Key employees collected $100.46 for the newspaper’s fund. Mrs. Dorothy Page, paint shop employee, gathered more than $50 one day as she approached all her fellow employees at Dinner Key with the collection jar. Her husband, Chief Petty Officer Dick S. Page, is overseas with the Navy and is at present in Madrid, Spain.
At Pan American Field, the jar, placed at the Panair Credit Union trailer, drew $58 from PAA’ers.
One hundred per cent participation by Pan American porters and cleaners at the field terminal netted $60.50 for the fund. Every employee in the group gave at least $.50, Donald Shrum, building superintendent, reported. Other terminal personnel also contributed.
Press Relations photographers at the Field devised their own mehtod of collection. For every incoming or outgoing phone call not strictly business, the photographer involved had to drop a nickel in the jar. It started as a means of calling attention to unnecessary calls, but resulted in a money-making scheme for the fund. Wives, friends and even photographers themselves, off duty at the time, called in from the outside with a cheery, “Hello, how are you? Drop a nickel in the jar. Goodbye.” The jar contained five dollars by Christmas.
Two dollars from an unknown donor, arrived at the Clipper office with a note Continued on Page 6
LAD FLIES HIGH, SETS NEW RECORD THIS YEAR
An all-time high mark in travel and air commerce for the Latin American division is shown this year in operational figures for the first three quarters of 1944.
Passenger «niles flown show a gain of 22 per cent over the same nine months of 1943, and express ton miles flown represent an increase of 79 per cent.
Substantial gains this year are shown in the number of passengers carried and the number of pounds of cargo transported by air. For the first three quarters, 190,366 passengers traveled between the 300 capitals and trade centers served by Pan American in Latin America. This compares with 157,472 during the first nine months of 1943, or an increase of 21 per cent. Total pounds of cargo carried during the three quarters was 35,724,910, or an increase of 23 per cent over the 29,080,227 pounds transported during the same period last year.
The 22 per cent gain in passenger miles flown meant a total of 179,412,650, compared to 146,436,392 for the first three quarters of 1943, and the 79 per cent gain in express ton miles flown meant 7,528,728, as against 4,204,228 last year.
All of these increases in traffic loads were accomplished with an increase of only 5 per cent in the number of plane miles flown, which reflects a marked rise in utilization of available wartime equipment and increased efficiency in operational procedures.
Give To Help Others Live
Setting $695,000 as its goal, the Dade County Community War Chest opened its campaign Jan. 8 to raise funds for the 22 national war fund agencies and 23 community chest agencies which it combines.
Gifts to go ’round the world, to aid fighting men, soldiers stationed in faraway outposts, held in war prison camps and lying in hospitals, to help the aged, sick and the handicapped in our country and those of our Allies as well as in the liberated nations, to keep war-strained families together, to send clothing, food and medicines to people in the invaded lands.
Pan American employees are asked to give to the Chest the equivalent of 12 hours pay on an income basis. Ten dollars is asked of those earning $2,000 a year; $25 of those earning $3,000; $32.50 of those earning $4,000; $50 of those earning $5,000; $150 of those earning $7,500 and $200 of those earning $10,000. Those in lower income brackets are also asked to give at least 12 hours’ pay. The campaign lasts from Jan. 8 to 26.