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Four THE AIR LINE PILOT September, 1947 World's Biggest Bomber Crash Lands Safely [[image]] —INP Soundphoto The world's largest land-based bomber, an Army XB-36, sits helplessly in the middle of Fort Worth Army Airfield, its sting crippled by a defective landing gear that forced it into a crash landing, only one of the many possible mechanical failures as modern day planes become larger and more intricate. The giant plane, backbone of the U. S. contemplated global air force, was brought down to a safe belly landing after twelve of the fourteen crewmen aboard bailed out, while the plane circled the air field for several hours before attempting the hazardous landing. The XB-36 was on a routine test flight. Colonial Sets Safety Record (Continued from Page 1, Col. 2) air line which has hung up such a big safety record. One award was for completing the year 1946 without an accident and the other was the highest honor of the Council bestowed for "distinguished service to safety" for 16 years without a fatality to passenger or crew members through April, 1946. In the upper photo, Mr. Janas is presenting the Distinguished Service Certificate to Branch T. Dykes, vice-president of operations, while other members of the staff look on. Dykes dates back to the early air mail days in Maywood, Ill. He's no amateur, either, this fellow, Branch. Others in this group (l. to r.) are: Ted Volz, general foreman of line maintenance; Edward Werzyn, superintendent of communications; Carl Rach, director of flight operations; Mr. Dykes; Jeanne-Marie Baumer, stewardess; Fred Smith, chief pilot; Ned Dearborn; and air line Captains Robert Silver and Bruce Macklin, both of Local Council No. 28, Colonial. In the lower photo, Mr. Janas (at left) is shown accepting the distinguished service award from Mr. Dearborn, while in his right hand he holds the Council's Certificate of Safe Operations for 1946, an award presented to Colonial Airlines for 12 consecutive years. More recently, the Quebec Safety Council, in ceremonies held in Montreal, Canada, presented Mr. Janas a silver cup for "the world's record" of 17 years without an accident, marking the first time that Canada has so honored any air line. Mr. Janas, whose son, an ex-naval flyer, is also a line pilot and a member of ALPA, gives much of the credit for Colonial's record to the pilots and points with pride to the fact that thirteen of the company's pilots have in excess of a million miles of flying, three of them over two million miles. Mr. Janas has not only proven himself a leader in air safety, but in all his dealings with his pilots has proven himself a man's man, an air line executive who knows what it is all about, and one of commercial aviation's real leaders. BART COX NAMED ON ICAO GROUP Captain H. B. Cox, ALPA's official member on the President's Special Board of Inquiry into Air Safety, has been named by the State Department to membership on the delegation which will attend the International Civil Air Organization (ICAO) conferences in Paris on September 23 for the purpose of discussing the temperature accountability formula which the U. S. air lines will put into effect on October 15. Captain Cox's appointment was made on the recommendation of James M. Landis, chairman of the interim safety board. [[image]] FLOORS, PLEASE Up, up, up, straight as an arrow, like an elevator ascending an invisible shaft, goes this helicopter to provide the photographer with an unusual shot as it hovers over the first floor setback where it completed its errand—the delivery of groceries—a few moments later. While the helicopter has not reached the "one in every garage" stage nor replaced the family car like the more visionary once dreamed, they are no longer an oddity and their commercial utility is increasing rapidly. They're finding their place in the aviation scheme rapidly in a supplementary rather than competitive role to conventional planes, providing themselves readily adaptable to rescue work, airport-to-city shuttle service, and many other duties such as the one taken over by the rotor-bladed craft in this photo, substituting for the delivery boy. Yes, it is a strange and expanding world in which man is turning to the air for new ideas as his last frontier and his greatest chance for human progress. Strike Appears Imminent on AOA (Continued from Page 3, Col. 5) tion of company regulations as at present (4) veiled inclusion of a "no strike" clause, which has never appeared in any ALPA agreement and which under the Railway Labor Act is superfluous. Quite obviously the far-reaching implications contained in these company-promulgated changes—not a single one of which hinged upon any issue in existence at the last meeting—could not be acceded to by the UAL pilots and the company's refusal to withdraw them automatically threw these negotiations into a stalemated state. Pilot conferees at these meetings were: Clayton Stiles, of Local Council No. 52, UAL-New York; J. G. Murray, V. M. Williams, and R. D. McKillip, of Local Council No. 12, UAL-Chicago; S. J. Nelson, of Local Council No. 34, UAL-San Francisco; R. L. Spickelmier, of Local Council No. 33, UAL-Denver; UAL Master Chairman J. L. Crouch, of Local Council No. 27, UAL-Seattle; ALPA President David L. Behncke; and R. L. Oakman, of the Statistical and Research Department. Representing the company were W. J. Addems, director of flight operations; C. V. O'Callaghan, assistant director of flight operations; C. MacElwaine, of the UAL legal staff; and H. N. Eskeldson, of the Airlines Negotiating Conference. As the September issue of the AIR LINE PILOT goes to press, the task of amending the agreement of American Overseas pilots is still unfinished. Briefly, these current negotiations started on April 1, 1947, and first became stalemated in the now famous but futile move of the ATA to stalemate all negotiations and destroy all existing pilots' employment agreements. After this ill-advised controversial maneuver on the part of the ATA ended in failure, negotiations were again resumed with AOA. The conferees who have participated in these negotiations for the company during these lengthy drawn out proceedings are as follows: Emil Jarz, personnel director; J. Y. Craig, flight superintendent; H. R. Harris, vice-president and general manager; E. G. Hamilton, assistant to the vice-president; and C. A. Hodgins, L. P. Morrison, and G. W. Clark, of the Airlines Negotiating Committee. The pilots have been represented by Chairman Emery Martin, R. C. Folwell, B. O. Spark, J. F. Scott, and B. W. Phillips, all of Local Council No. 29, AOA; President David L. Behncke and Karl J. Ulrich, of ALPA's Employment Agreement Department. Intermittently, during this period of five months and 26 days since these negotiations were first initiated on April 1, 40 days have been spent in conference. Finally, on June 27, mediation was invoked but was destined to failure for the reason that the representatives of the company sent to the conference table had no authority to act. C. R. Smith, president of AOA, sent in his junior officials, as is his custom, while he sat in the background and played hard to see while directing the moves of his front men. Because of the nature of the treatment received by the AOA pilot conferees, a decision was made not to arbitrate and a strike vote was taken on August 17, 1947. In mid-September the company contacted President Behncke and suggested further discussions in an effort to complete the agreement. President Behncke responded post haste and went to New York on September 18. He worked with the vice-president in charge of operations, Harold Harris, for nine days, and finally everything was agreed to that had previously been in deadlock; but while the contract was in the process of being written up, lo and behold, James Y. Craig, director of flight operations, AOA, injected another stalemate in the form of a grievance case. The proposition was essentially this: "We'll sign what we agreed to, provided you will fork over your rights on any Railway Labor Act and grievance-settling machinery and UNPRECEDENTED give us what we want for a decision in this grievance case." This stalemated the procedure, and Mr. Behncke returned to Headquarters on September 27. As the matter now stands, a strike appears imminent on AOA. Another high-light happening for the month of September was the rendering of a decision by the CAB approving UAL's acquiring of Western's Route 68, from Los Angeles to Denver, and at the same time, taking away from the Western pilots who were flying this route, their jobs and seniority rights. The decision of the CAB flies in the face of all past precedents and against every determination made by ALPA on the protection of pilots' positions and seniority in the event of the purchasing of one air line by another. The first meeting of ALPA's Executive Board passed the following resolution to govern the purchase by United of Western's Route 68: "RESOLVED, That in the event of a merger, acquisition, consolidation or any other form of the acquiring by one air line of another air line or a part thereof, that the air line pilots flying on such air line or portions thereof at the time such event occurs are considered as being acquired with the air line or portion thereof and their respective accrued seniority rights remain as their possession and continue to accrue as their possession after such ownership and moreover, that such pilots and copilots flying on such air line at that time cannot be dealt with unfairly and their continued employment with the purchasing company endangered or prejudiced in any manner. "The number of pilots affected by such event should in no case be larger or smaller than the normal number of pilots used in that operation at the time this event is approved by the C. A. B." WAL Negotiations Representatives of the Western Air Lines pilots conferred in another attempt to complete an employment agreement with the company in the company offices, Burbank, Calif., on September 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 with additional conferences scheduled to be resumed on September 15. Considerable progress was made at these meetings with the com- (Continued on Page 5, Col. 3) Boy Makes Good Varied is the word for the career of J. H. Luke Williamson, who recently settled down in a semi-administrative job as assistant chief pilot of Delta Air Lines after 12,000 logged hours of flight time as stunt [[image]] pilot, "aerial salesman" for the Army Air Forces, and more recently an air line captain on the Chicago-Miami route of Delta Air Lines. Like flying itself, Luke has settled down considerably since the time he first began piling up the two million miles of flying he has to his credit today. Williamson, who is 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighs about the same as a first string Notre Dame tackle, and has just about as much drive, was one of the stunt flyers the Army picked in 1932 to help Claire Chennault "sell" the Air Corps to the public. Captain Williamson, Chennault, and Haywood Hansell as "aerial salesmen" toured the country on what amounted to a government sponsored barnstorming tour and were credited with developing the most deadly set of fighter and pursuit tactics in the world. During the war, he served as theatre commander of Chennault's air transport planes, flying supplies to anybody and everybody who needed them, anywhere in China, Burma, India, or the Malay States, returning to civilian status and Delta Air Lines in October, 1945, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. As an active air line pilot and active member of ALPA, Williamson belonged to Local Council No. 71, Delta-Miami. RESIGNATION [[image]] MATTHEW M. GOUGER MATTHEW M. GOUGER, PERSONNEL DIRECTOR OF TWA, WHO TOOK OVER IN THE DAYS OF THE COMPANY'S STRIKE-STRAINED EMPLOYEE RELATIONS AND GUIDED IT TOWARD ONE OF THE BEST EMPLOYEE-COMPANY RELATIONSHIPS IN THE INDUSTRY, HAS RESIGNED HIS AIR LINE POST TO TAKE OVER A SIMILAR ONE WITH THE GLENN L. MARTIN COMPANY AT BALTIMORE, MD. AS PERSONNEL DIRECTOR OF TWA, MR. GOUGER WAS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR INAUGURATING A WORKABLE PERSONNEL PROGRAM THAT RESULTED, AMONG OTHER THINGS, WITH TWA'S MOST RECENT PILOTS EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT NEGOTIATIONS BEING CONDUCTED IN RECORD TIME. PILOTS WHO WORKED WITH MR. GOUGER CREDIT HIM WITH SINCERITY AND HONESTY—"A GENTLEMAN NOT ONLY OF THE SPOKEN WORD, BUT IN SPIRIT AS WELL." BOILED DOWN THIS MEANS, "HE'S A RIGHT GUY." THE AIR LINE PILOTS, WHOSE RESPECT MR. GOUGER WON, WISH HIM THE UTMOST SUCCESS IN HIS NEW VENTURE AND ARE CERTAIN THAT THE QUALITIES WHICH EXEMPLIFIED HIM AT TWA WILL CARRY HIM FAR IN HIS NEW JOB. On Other Side, The Human Side They're really very human after all, this rare breed of men called air line pilots, and, believe it or not, beneath their cool, calm, calculating exteriors, they are made of flesh and bone and very warm blood coursing through their veins instead of slide rules, check lists and computors. The trouble of it is, about the only time anyone has every admitted that these men in the cockpit are human is after they are dead and the "pilot error" exponent begin their clamor that they are very, very human after all. But day in and day out, the human side of the pilots are selling the air lines through little courtesies, generosities, and services above and beyond the duty of piloting a modern-day air liner—a mammoth task in itself—and proving themselves the air lines' best embassies of goodwill. Typical of this side of the air line pilots, few incidents of which are reported, are the recent actions of Captain James Imeson, of Local Council No. 3, TWA-Kansas City; and Captain Bernard Hill, of Local Council No. 28, Colonial; Captain Imeson for an offer to fly a mercy flight without pay, and Captain Hill for the assistance he rendered an aged woman passenger. High in Praise Also typical of the air lines pilots' modesty and disdain of unusual credit for the performance of his duties, no one would have known of Captain Hill's actions unless the woman, Mrs. Henry E. Baskervill, of Richmond, Va., had sent the following letter to Colonial Airlines: "On July 23 I flew in a Colonial airplane from Burlington, Vt. to La Guardia Airport, N. Y. A few days before I left Burlington, I had a brief, but acute, pain in the region of my heart. The doctor assured me that it was nothing (Continued on Page 8, Col. 5) September, 1947 THE AIR LINE PILOT Five TECHNICALLY SPEAKING RADAR EYES FOR AIR LINES? A reliable and practical electronic obstruction warning device for all air line aircraft is more important today than ever before, as our airports and air lines become more crowded with air traffic. [[image]] The safety value of a pair of electronic eyes, peering far ahead of a plane to warn the pilot of obstructions in his path of flight, is readily obvious and hardly open to dispute. The goal is recognized by all, the main differences of opinion arising from the means of attaining this goal and the engineering of the instrument which will be the means of attainment. Research along this line should be encouraged and continued. One of ALPA's recent recommendations along these lines was: "It is believed that the ultimate desire for the safe operation of air line aircraft under instrument conditions is the installation of a perfected infra-red television sending and receiving set mounted in the nose of an airplane, which would show a complete picture of the terrain ahead of the pilot at all times. Means for pointing out thunderstorms by radar, or other means, should be provided also. This installation would actually mean instrument landings would be obsolete. Landings would be made CFR with all traffic obstructions and airports clearly visible to the pilot at all times. It is believed that the major technical data is available for construction of such a system. It remains only for the assembly and perfecting of this project to take place." Although its efficiency, reliability and practicability has yet to be proven to the satisfaction of all concerned, one of the most notable steps in this direction has been development of the Howard Hughes' automatic terrain clearance instrument, being demonstrated in the accompanying photo by Capt. John B. LeClaire, of TWA, to James M. Landis, chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, and also to the Special Board of Inquiry into Air Safety. Although it is too early to determine whether the Hughes' radar device is the answer to this still puzzling problem of air navigation, it should be a stimulus to research in this field so vital to both safe good weather flying and the still out-of-reach goal of all weather commercial air operations. PROPELLER DEVELOPMENT NEXT Airplane engine development, which has made rapid strides in recent years, has reached the stage where propeller design is being modified to keep abreast of it. [[image]] First came the multi-bladed "windmill" propeller, and recently the so-called "egg-beater" propeller, so named because of the illusion created by its two four-bladed sets of contra rotating props, was unveiled in England. The "egg-beater" plane was among the new planes shown for the first time at Britain's recent naval flying display at Lee-on-Solent, near Southampton. It is a Westland Wyvern, single-seat torpedo fighter powered by a single 3,500 horse power Rolls-Royce engine. Although this type of propeller is of little interest to air lines, it has several definite advantages in this military plane, enabling the plane to use a large percentage of the engine's tremendous power to best advantage, as well as absorbing some engine torque because of its contra-rotating blades. UNIVERSAL ALTIMETER SETTINGS A new procedure, which advocates universal setting of altimeters at 2992 with suitable temperature and pressure corrections to forestall the possibility of terrain clearance difficulties, is being studied. The problem of setting of altimeters has made itself apparent because of the increase in air traffic and therefor the increase in the hazard of collision between two aircrafts flying at the same altitude because of dissimilarity on altimeter settings. Grievance Deadlock (Continued from Page 4, Col. 4) pany, representing considerable gains over the last conferences which had been terminated on July 15. Few differences remained to be resolved between the company and the pilots with the exception of terrain pay. In view of the company's opposition to extend terrain pay to include the larger equipment, a temporary deadlock developed over this issue, although all other points were agreed upon in substance. Members of the Western Air Lines pilots' negotiating committee participating in the current series of conferences with Western are: L. C. Holtan, R. E. Knowles, L. W. Smith, A. C. Cheney, J. P. Gaskill and S. G. Love, all of Local Council No. 16, Western-Burbank; W. W. Barkhoff and S. J. Cavill, of Local Council No. 23, Western-Salt Lake; and C. M. Horn and M. W. Gano, of Local Council No. 12, Western-Inland. J. C. Christie, of the Employment Agreement Department, acted as ALPA headquarters representative, while the company spokesmen were T. C. Drinkwater, president; E. N. Whitney, operations manager; and J. Rosenthal, of the Airlines Negotiating Conference. Meet with National A meeting with company officials of National Airlines to arrive at a mode of settlement of retroactive pay due National pilots who flew DC-4 equipment from the time it was placed into schedule until the new contract was signed on June 26, 1947, was held in Miami, Fla., on August 28. Acting as the pilots' spokesmen at this meeting were S. E. Stoia, of Local Council No. 73, National-Miami, chairman of the National Airlines pilots' negotiating committee; C. H. Ruby, of Local Council No. 8, National-Jacksonville; and W. P. Kilgore, ALPA's acting executive vice-president. G. T. Baker, president, represented the company. Of the three air lines presently in a status of mediation in their employment agreement negotiations, two of them have been docketed by the National Mediation Board and assigned case numbers. Pam American was docketed on September 5 as Case A-2600, while American Overseas Airlines was docketed on June 27 as Case A-2601. It is expected that a docket number will also soon be assigned and a mediator appointed as the result of the deadlock on United. Grievance Department Now augmented with another staff member and with the time consuming work of the Ardmore Screening Grievance cases, on which the adjustment board deadlocked on a discussion on September 7, behind them, the Grievance and Conciliation Department handled one group grievance, one individual grievance and two license revocation cases during the August-September period. On August 14, J. F. Rice, of the Grievance and Conciliation Department, represented the PCA Master Executive Council in a hearing before the pCA pilots' System Board of Adjustment in Washington, D.C. The case involved the question of whether or not the manner in which the company assigned seniority numbers to certain pilots on the seniority list, posted as of January 1, 1946, was a proper assignment of seniority numbers. The pilot representatives of the Board were H. J. Bernier, of Local Council No. 32, PCA-Detroit; No. 11, PCA-Washington. The company was represented by Trow Sebree, vice-president in charge of operations, and H. J. Reid, assistant chief pilot. J. J. Pfaffinger, of Local Council No. 54, NWA-Western was represented by J. F. Rice in a hearing before A. D. Lamb, Civil Aeronautics Board trial examiner, on August 27, in Seattle, Washington. R. E. Nelson, also of the Grievance and Conciliation Department, represented H. C. Hamel, of Local Council No. 36 PAA-Transatlantic, in a grievance hearing on September 3, in New York, N. Y. The hearing was held before Hugh Gordon, chief pilot of the Transatlantic Division of PAA, and the company was represented by A. L. Terwilleger, chief pilot of personnel. At a license hearing before Trial Examiner R. M. Johnson, of the CAB, George Clegg, of Local Council No. 3, TWA-Kansas City was represented by R. E. Nelson and W. P. Kilgore. This hearing was held in Kansas City, Mo., on September 9. Charles Z. German acted as attorney for the Civil Aeronautics Administration. AA Board Deadlocks On September 7, the American Airlines' Pilots System Board of Adjustment deadlocked on seven individual and two group grievances growing out of the AA Ardmore Screening program. These cases had been heard by the Adjustment Board over a period of several months following initial company hearings in which the company refused to reinstate pilots dismissed as the result of its Ardmore Program. The deadlock involved decision on the following cases: J. W. Crumby, of Local Council No. 19, AA-Southern, held in Fort Worth, Texas, on July 17; W. B. Moody, of Local Council No. 39, AA-Chi- (Continued on Page 6, Col. 4-5) Ten Year Copilots Become a Reality (Continued from Page 1, Col. 4) pilots would slow down to almost a standstill with the advent of larger equipment. He voiced the same opinion, only more forcefully, at the second TWA Stratoliner arbitration hearings in April of 1945. Again, he drove home the point in his presentation made before the Emergency Board hearings in New York in June of 1946. At this latter hearing many pages of testimony were devoted to the subject, and Mr. Behncke predicted: "Technological unemployment will retard and slow up copilot promotions, and we'll soon have five and ten year copilots." The reaction was what was expected, the same lackadaisical pattern : the opposition led by Ralph Damon, of American Airlines, scoffed at the idea; TWA officials and their $35,000 per-job lawyers ridiculed it; and the never-did-cathc-up-with-the-facts Emergency Board-- Dr. William M. Leiserson, Judge George E. Bushnell, and Dr. John A. Lapp-- fidgetted, slumbered and gazed off in space -- all unimpressed. It is interesting to note how those predictions made in 1941, 1945, and 1946 stack up with what is happening today. The following is quoted verbatim from the July issue, page fifteen of the "B-Liner," news organ of Braniff Airways, announcing service pin awards: SERVICE PIN AWARDS JUNE, 1947 TEN-YEAR AWARDS John Busselle, Station Manager . . . . . . . . .KC E. C. Miles, Inspector. . . . . . .DL Elmer Orndorff, copilot . . . . . .DL R. W. Worthy, Radio Crew Chief . . . . . . . . DL FIVE-YEAR AWARDS Ralph Wardin, agent in charge. . . . . . . . . DL T. H. Frye, copilot. . . . . . . . DL Dan Gerald, copilot. . . . . . . . DL A. E. Palmer, chief meteorologist. . . . . . .DL Take another good look at that list for it points the way to a trend that is occurring on a large scale. Elmer Orndoff, a copilot, received a ten-year award pin; Copilots T. H. Frye and Dan Gerald were-both awarded five-year pins. Again distributions and pre-meditated untruths fall in the face of predictions based on facts and actualities, but the inveterate scoffers will still probably continue to scoff, for this air line world continues to be a strange world . . . a strange world indeed. "TIME OUT" Captain Ernest A. Cutrell, of Local Council No.22, AA-New York is another one of the active air line pilots who have helped carry ALPA's fight for air safety to Capitol Hill and the men who can do something about it. the Senators and Representatives of the United States, Captain Cutrell, former head of the ATC Research Division during the war, who is shown here as he took time out from his air line flying job to push for revival of the independent Air Safety Board, speaks quietly but carries a big stick of technical know-how that has brought him wide-spread recognition as an expert in the field of instrument flying. Captain Cutrell exhorted the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Commision to see that the government and air line industry call "time out" on experimentation and install more existing safety devices in order to reduce passenger fatalities on the air lines. KAMIKAZE GEESE Captain Herschel Clark, of Local Council No.8, National-Jacksonville, who has had a lot of stiff brushes with nature as an air line pilot, has to admit that when a bunch of Kamikaze-minded geese can cancle out a flight, they're entitled to the consolation of a moral victory . . . even if it is over their dead bodies. The geese flew headlong into the DC-4, piloted by Captain Herschel, while en route from Newark to Philadelphia, causing him to return to Southwest Airport and make an emergency landing with his 22 passenger, The impact, with which the flock of geese struck, is evident by the large holes torn in the right wing (visible at left of above photo), the right cowling, and the rudder.