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[[newspaper article]] N.Y. EVENING SUN JUN 28 1939 ------ Here Today; Europe Tomorrow ------ Dixie Clipper Launches Passenger Service Between Old and New Worlds. ----- A century ago a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean took three weeks if the voyager was lucky, and Heaven knows how long if he wasn't. Ten years ago it took five days on the crack liners, provided the weather was favorable. Yesterday it took, at the very minimum, three and a half days. But today it takes twenty-four hours, one whole day; even less with a favoring wind. At 3 P. M. Eastern daylight savings time, the Dixie Clipper, Pan-American flying boat with a wing spread sixty-two feet greater then the over-all length of the Santa Maria, Christopher Columbus's flagship, will taxi over the surface of Manhasset Bay and lift into the air with the first paying passengers ever flown by airplane across the Atlantic Ocean. The great ship, covering the 4,650-mile southern route, will arrive at Horta, in the Azores, at 7 A. M. tomorrow (Horta Time0, will remain there one hour and then continue on to Lisbon, Portugal, arriving at 5 P. M. (Lisbon time) the same day. After an overnight stop at Lisbon the Clipper will make the last hop, in Marseilles, France, arriving there at 3 P. M. Friday (Marseilles time). She will have aboard twenty-two passengers, sixteen men and six women, including W. J. Eck, assistant to the vice-president of the Southern Railway, whose name followed that of the late Will Rogers on the trans-Atlantic reservation list and who got the first airplane passenger ticket issued for an Atlantic crossing. Fourteen Test Flights Made. Pam American clippers have already made fourteen flights across the Atlantic, carrying mail and official observers. The Yankee Clipper, flying the northern route, arrived at Foynes, Ireland, 13 hours, 28 minutes out of Botwood, N. F., several hours before the time set for the Dixie Clipper's departure. The Yankee Clipper, however, has aboard no ticket purchasers. The Dixie Clipper will receive cannon salutes from the Knickerbocker, Port Washington, Columbia, and Manhasset Bay yacht clubs, all of which are located on the bay, as she taxies to position for taking off. The Port Washington High School band will play and Capt. R. O. D. Sullivan, in command of the clipper, will have in his possession letters of greeting to the people of Horta, Lisbon and Marseilles from the Port Washington Chamber of Commerce. They were given to the senior master of Pan American by Capt. John J. Floherty, acting president of the chamber. Capt. Sullivan and a crew of men will man the forty-one-and-a-half ton Boeing flying boat. All of them are experienced flyers, and all have made at least one trip over the Atlantic. Nor is the crew alone in its claim to air-going experience. Most of the passengers are veterans of the airways, and two of them plan to continue around the world by plane from Marseilles. One Julius Rapaport, an Allentown, Pa., attorney, is making his second attempt to circle the globe by air. The first one was frustrated when the dirigible Hindenburg crashed in flames over her New Jersey landing field. This time he can go the whole way on regular routes. Another Veteran. The other, Mrs. Clara Adams, is a veteran first flighter. She was on the passenger list for the first Pacific flight by an American air line, the first Bermuda flight, the first Atlantic flight of the Graf Zeppelin and of the Hindenburg. If her close connections work out, she will be back in New York within three weeks. The Dixie Clipper, in the meantime, will leave Marseilles at 7 A. M. Sunday on the return trip, and is scheduled to arrive at Port Washington at 7 A.M. Tuesday, Eastern daylight time. Thereafter the air line will run scheduled flights over the southern route, with planes leaving Port Washington every Wednesday at 1 P. M. and over the northern route with planes leaving the Long Island town every Saturday at 7:30 A. M. More than 600 tickets reservations are now on file, and more than 300 persons sought places in the Dixie Clipper's capacious cabins for the first flight. The twenty-two who are aboard are those who were first on the reserved list. The fair is $375. It didn't cost that much in Columbus's day. But then it took longer and it wasn't so comfortable. It took Columbus seventy days, or 840 hours, as against the Clipper's twenty-two hours. [[/newspaper article]] [[newspaper article]] JUNE 38, 1939. NEW YORK TIMES, -------------- CLIPPER OFF TODAY ON HISTORIC FLIGHT --------------- Regular Passenger Service to Europe to be Started by Pan American Line --------------- 22 BUY FIRST ---------------- Veteran Air Travelers on List --Sister Plane Renews Its Voyage to Ireland -------------- A goal and a dream that have occupied the thoughts and stimulated the imagination of men the world over since the first successful airplane flight will be realized today at 3 P. M. when the Pan American Airways' Dixie Clipper, with twenty two paid passengers aboard, takes off at Port Washington, L.I., for the first regularly scheduled commercial passenger flight across the North Atlantic by airplane Besides signalizing the beginning of regular air passenger service between this country and Europe, the flight will mark man's serial conquest of the last, and commercially most important, of the earth's oceans. It is now possible for the traveler to circle the glob on scheduled airplanes. A crew of eleven men, headed by Captain R. O. D. //Sullivan, senior master of Pan American's ocean flying boats, will man the forty-one-and-a-half-ton Boeing. All of them are seasoned over-water fliers and all have made the trip over the North Atlantic. Two to Fly Around World Most of the passengers also can be classified as veteran air travelers. Several of them were aboard Pan American planes that blazed trails over the Caribbean and Pacific routs and all are well acquainted with air transportation. Two of the passengers, Clara Adams of Maspeth, Queens, and Julius Rapoport of Allentown, Pa., [[line cut off of top of column]] around the world by regular passenger planes. The Dixie Clipper will follow the route already traveled ten times by the Yankee and Atlantic Clippers. It will stop first at Horta, the Azores, arriving there at 7 A. M. tomorrow. After an hour there it will continue to Lisbon, twenty-two hours flying time from New York. Following an overnight stop in Portugal's capital, the craft will take off at 7 A.M. Friday for Marseilles, eight hours away. On Sunday the clipper will leave Marseille at 7 A. M. for the return trip. It is scheduled to arrive at Port Washington at 7 A. M. Tuesday. Port Washington has declared a "semi-holiday" to permit townspeople and business men to see the clipper off. The eighty-five-piece Port Washington High School band will be on hand and a police escort will accompany the passengers' coaches through the decorated main street. Captain John J. Floherty, acting president of the Port Washington Chamber of Commerce, will present three letters of greeting to the people of Horta, Lisbon and Marseille to Captain Sullivan for delivery. The List of Passengers The passenger list given out by the airline follows: W.J. Eck, assistant to the vice president of the Southern Railway, Washington. Mr. Eck, whose name followed that of the late Will Rogers on the reservation list, holds the first airplane passenger ticket of the North Atlantic. Captain Torkild Rieber, chairman of the board of the Texas Corporation, New York. Colonel William Donovan, attorney, 11 Niagara Street, Buffalo. Roger Lapham, president American Hawaiian Steamship Company,San Francisco. Mrs. Clara Adams, who calls herself a historic first-flighter, Maspeth, Queens. Mrs. Sherman Haight, another veteran first-flighter, 64 East Fifty-fourth Street. J.H. Norweb, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, New York. Louis Gimbel Jr., former director and vice president of Gimbel Brothers, 535 Fifth Avenue. H.L. Stuart, investment banker, Chicago. Ben Smith, financier, 11 Wall Street, veteran air traveler. Russell Sabor, Minneapolis, who has traveled by airplane for business and pleasure since 1923 and has flown in virtually all parts of the world. Mark W. Cresap, chairman of the board and president of Hart, Schaffner & Marx, Chicago. Julius Rapoport, Allentown, Pa., who will continue around the world. Mr. Rapoport has traveled widely by air. James McVittie of Chicago, another veteran air traveler of Chicago. C. V. Whitney, chairman of the board of Pan American Airways, and Mrs. Whitney. Mrs. Elizabeth S. Trippe of East Hampton, L.I., wife of Juan T. Trippe, chairman of the airline. Graham Grosvenor, New York member of the board of Pan American, and Mrs. Grosvenor. [[line cut off of top of column]] E.O. McDonnell, New York member of the board of the airline, and Mrs. McDonnell. John M. Franklin, president United States Lines and member of the Pan American board. The fare is $375 oen way, $675 round trip. JUN 28 1939 ------ HERALD TRIBUNE ------ Clipper Begins Atlantic Travel Service Today ------ Dixie Taking 22 Passengers on First Regular Flight; Yankee Leaves Botwood ------ The Dixie Clipper, a forty-one ton Boeing flying boat of Pan American Airways, will take off from Port Washington, L.I. at 3 p. m. today with twenty-two passengers and a crew of eleven to inaugurate regular trans-Atlantic airplain passenger service. The service will make available to the traveler with $375 for the fare a twenty-two-hour passage across the ocean which Columbus needed seventy days to cross. Following the southern route, the Dixie Clipper will head for Horta, the Azores, for a one-hour refuelling stop, with arrival set for 5 a. m. tomorrow, then make for Lisbon, where she is due twenty-two hours after the Port Washington take-off. The flying boat is scheduled to go to Marseilles the next day, arriving at 11 a. m. Friday to complete the 4,650-mile trip. The plane is to start its return trip on Sunday, reaching Port Washington at 7 a. m. Tuesday. The air line will continue scheduled flights over the southern route with planes leaving Port Washington every Wednesday at 1 p. m., and over the northern route with planes leaving every Saturday at 7:30 a. m. More than 600 persons have applied for reservations on the service this summer, and for the epochal flight today more than 300 sought places in the Dixie Clipper. The twenty-two who will go were the first to apply to the air line for reservations. First on the list until his death in 1935 was Will Rogers, who made his reservation in 1931. His place went to W. J. Eck, assistant to the vice-president of the Southern Railway, who also made an application in 1931. Two of the Dixie Clipper's passengers will go on from Marseilles for around-the-world flights. They are Julius Rapoport, Allentown (Pa.) lawyer, and Mrs. Clara Adams, of 53-61 Seventieth Street, Maspeth, Queens, who is an experienced first-
