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[[image. caption: 1929: The Monomail came into its frame carrying both mail and limited number of passengers.]]

[[image. caption: 1932: The "Flying Boats" which gained game as PAA Clippers began pioneering over-water operations.]]

[[three inlaid images, one in each text column.]]

Starting with Pitcairn Mail Wing Single - Engine planes carrying a maximum payload of only 600 pounds, Colonial has grown to today's fleet of Douglas DC-3's, DC-4's and New Type L-749 Constellations equipped with the most modern communication and safety decides, capable of carrying payloads of over 20,000 pounds.

Colonial has carried more than 2,000,000 passengers for a total of over 600,000,000 passenger miles, without serious injury or fatality to a passenger or crew member. This involved over 700,000 landings and take-offs and is a measure of the contribution of Colonial's pilots to its record or twenty-four consecutive years of safety.

Colonial's motto is "Safety Is No Accident" and with the joint efforts of Colonial's team, we will continue this record for a long time to come.

We salute the Pioneers of the aviation industry; the men and women who have contributed to the technological advances which have brought the industry to its present state of development, and the pilots who have kept pace with the remarkable progress since the first powered flight only a short fifty years ago.

Ralph S. Damon
President, TWA

In fifty years of progress since the Wright brothers' first flight, man has had to take giant steps in order to keep up with rapid developments in the machines and technology of aviation. Today's modern transport plane is more than just a development of the old pusher plane that soared over the sands of Kitty Hawk. It involves a whole new concept of aerodynamics.

And the men who have followed the Wrights into the air have, throughout the years, developed a progressively new concept of flying, too. Today we find them not only technically capable airmen but ambassadors of goodwill for the scheduled aircraft industry.

Back in the early days of flying, pilots were regarded as reckless daredevils and stunt men. This testing of men and machines was a necessary out-grouth of the industry's fast development and there is no doubt that these "stunts" had experimental value. The great pool of scientific knowledge which exists today in the aviation industry is due, in part, to contributions by thoughtful pilots. No one was in a better position to see the need for refinements in aircraft and flight aids. Throughout the years, they worked with governmental agencies, manufacturers, and the scheduled airlines' engineering and maintenance departments to bring about changes in aircraft and engines, and improvements in radio, instruments, and accessories. They helped to develop flight plans, flight logs, cockpit checks, and weather forecasts—all in the interests of greater safety, and thus, greater progress.

All of these things have helped to popularize flying, to make it the widely accepted mode of travel that it is today. And as we face a fyture in which developments are likely to be even more astounding technically than those of the past 50 years, we can be secure in the knowledge that the scheduled airline pilot will continue to have his passenger's comfort ans safety at heart at all times while working for the progress of our industry.

C.E. Woolman
President, Delta-C&S

It has been my privilege to watch the development of airplanes since the first world air meet in 1910, and I am constantly amazed at the improvements.

But all the progress in engineering and manufacturing would have been in vain if the pilots had failed to keep pace with the increased speed and complexities of the new aircraft. They, individually and as a group, have more than justified the confidence and trust placed in them by the traveling public.

A fact we all face is that the millions of miles flown in the regular everyday business of transporting people and cargo to all points on the globe rarely makes the headlines. Pilots at Delta-C7S have some of the most impressive logbooks in the entire industry and we are extremely proud of them. They pilot DC-6's, Constellations, Super-Convair 340's and DC-3's with equal skill. Soon they will take off in the giant DC-7 and fly faster than they ever have before in a piston-powered aircraft.

Airline pilots have given the aviation industry and the world scores of wonderful stories that have withstood retelling many times—stories of skill and courage; of determination and devotion to duty. To list their important con

PAGE 10 THE AIR LINE PILOT