Viewing page 28 of 162
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
[[news article]] Clipper to Carry 22 Passengers on Ocean Hop Takes Off Tomorrow in Inaugural of European Service Twelve years ago Lindbergh soared across the fog-veiled Atlantic Ocean alone in a tiny plane and thrilled the world with his feat. Tomorrow, in the wake of the great pioneer of the ocean airways, the 80-000-ton "Dixie Clipper," pride of the Pan-American Airways fleet, will inaugurate regular trans-Atlantic passenger flights to Europe. Twenty-two passengers will loll at ease in the "Dixie Clipper" as she roars up from her Long Island Sound base off Port Washington, L. I. FIRST PAYING PASSENGERS They're paying passengers-the first ones for a regularly scheduled trans-Atlantic flight - and some of them have had their reservations since 1931 and 1932. A crew of 11 men will see that their trip is made in all the luxury and safety of a modern ship The aeronautical radio services of five nations will be pooled to make certain everything runs smoothly for the historic occasion-and afterwards, too, on all subsequent trips. HAVE LATEST DEVICES. The latest devices of radio, navigation and flight will be in use. The "Dixie Clipper" will take off at 3 p. m. tomorrow from Port Washington. She is due at Horta, the Azores, Thursday morning and after an hour's stop will continue to Lisbon, Portugal, arriving there 22 hours after leaving Port Washington. The following morning at 8, the "Dixie Clipper" will fly to Marseilles, France, arriving at 3 p. m. On the return trip the big ship will leave Marseilles at 7 a. m. Sunday. Six women are among the passengers, all wealthy and all socially prominent. There is Mrs. Cornelius V. Whitney, Philadelphia beauty, and the wife of C. V. "Sonny" Whitney, chairman of the Pan-American board, who is also flying. SOCIALLY PROMINENT. Also, Mrs. Clara Adams, of Maspeth, L. I., widow of George I. Adams, manufacturer; Mrs. Sherman Post Haight, wife of a cotton mill owner and mother of three children; Mrs. Elizabeth S. Trippe, wife of Juan T. Trippe, president of Pan-American; Mrs. E. O. McDonnel and Mrs. Graham Grosvenor, both the latter being wives of members of the Pan-American board of directors and accompanying their husbands. Other passengers include: Ben Smith, colorful Wall St. operator; Col. William "Wild Bill" Donovan, W. J. Eck, assistant vice-president of the Southern Railway and No. 1 passenger, having put in a reservation in 1931, and John M. Franklin, president of the U. S. Lines. [[/news article]] TIMES New York City Jun 27 1939 [[news article]] [[headline]] FIVE NATIONS UNITE FOR OCEAN FLYING [[/headline]] [[line]] Radio Services Coordinated to Guard Passenger Planes on Atlantic Routes [[line]] NAVIGATION HIGHLY EXACT [[line]] First Paying Passengers Set for Start Tomorrow on Dixie Clipper [[line]] Aeronautical radio services of five nations, coordinated into a single operating unit, will form the communications and directional network to guard the first transatlantic air passengers who will board the Dixie Clipper tomorrow for the first scheduled air transport service between the United States and Europe. Regular, scheduled transatlantic air service for paying passengers will start when the Dixie Clipper takes off from Port Washington. L. I. Fourteen times in seven round trips the Atlantic Clipper has been flown between the United States and European ports with mail and carrying technicians, newspaper and radio representatives and public officials. The take-off is scheduled for 3 P. M. The plane is due at Horta, the Azores, Thursday morning, and after an hour's stop will continue to Lisbon, arriving there twenty-two hours after leaving Port Washington. The passengers will remain overnight at Lisbon and at 8 o'clock the following morning will take off for Marseille, where the plane is scheduled ot arrive at 3 P. M. Returning, the Dixie Clipper will leave Marseille at 7 A. M. Sunday. Twenty passengers have booked passage. There are eleven members in the crew. [[subheading]] Cooperation Solves Problem [[subheading]] Protecting any right that might benefit its own national transport enterprise in the competitive field, no nation was willing to authorize the air transport system of another country to establish air bases, weather bureaus, radio stations or other technical facilities on its sovereign territory. Similarly, the United States would not permit a foreign airline to establish facilities on its territory. The problem was overcome by exchanging the available facilities controlled by one company for those required in the territory of another. In the twelve years that Pan American Airways System has been established it has been required, under American law, to provide at its own expense all airways and base facilities and weather, radio, navigation and other technical aids for flying beyond the borders of the continental United States. On the other side of the ocean these facilities are provided for Imperial Airways in Great Britain, for Air France in France and for Deutsche Lufthansa in Germany by the respective governments through governmental agencies. [[subheading]] Radio Facilities Shared [[/subheading]] Agreements effecting the cooperative exchange have been in force for some time between Pan American Airways and the principal international air transport systems of Europe. It was under these agreements that the survey aircraft of Imperial Airways, the catapult mail planes of Lufthansa and the big flying boats of Air France flew on the western half of their flights over a weather map of the American company, under the guard of its radio stations, and were based and serviced at its terminals in New York and Baltimore. The chance of a Clipper losing its way on a transoceanic flight are considered infinestimal. In almost 300 crossings of the Pacific, Pan American crews have made some 1,800 landfalls, mostly on tiny islands, without a failure. By means of special navigation instruments- a "drift sight" and a bubble octant- navigators take routing sights on the sea below for a check on the plane's course and speed, and use sights on sun and stars for what they call "celestial fixes." But the basic determinant in good weather and bad is radio. It is not, however, anything like the radio "beams" used on domestic airlines, which send out paths of "on course" signals from transmitters at key airports. Such beacons, with ranges in the order of 100 miles, are impractical for ocean use. Pan American's radio engineers studied to devise an error-proof system that would have adequate range for any transoceanic work. They began by confounding previous radio theory, which held that only low frequencies--long waves--could be adapted for direction finding. They found that long waves could not give them the necessary range or dependability, so they studied the high-frequency--short-wave--possibilities. Out of this research and years of practical experience has come an effective long-range directional guide, whose construction and installation is still a closely guarded secret. [[image]] [[image]] [[image subtitle]] Associated Press Photo [[/image subtitle]] When the Dixie Clipper that landed safely yesterday in Lisbon, Portugal, took off from Port Washington, N. Y., Mrs. W. J. Eck kissed her husband good-by and wished him good luck. Eck, of Washington, D. C., was the first passenger to receive a transoceanic flight ticket. He made reservations eight years ago [[image]]
