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First Hearings Held in AA Ardmore Screening Grievance Cases

THE AIR LINE PILOT

Vol. 16 - No. 6
Published by The Air Line Pilots Association, International, 3145 W. 63rd St., Chicago, Ill.

July, 1947

Braniff, Colonial, National, Panagra, NEA Sign Agreements

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MEMENTO OF YESTERYEAR
To aviation's real old-timers, "air mail days" is just another way of saying the "good old days" with their now all but lost memories of flimsy open cockpit jobs, helmet, and goggles, and get-the-mail-through-at-all-cost traditions.  But like the ranks of the old-timers themselves, rapidly being thinned by the inexorable march of time, the recorded and preserved history of this period was rapidly dwindling and much of it dying with the men who wrote it.  Now, however, the United States National Museum, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institute, has begun a collection portraying the history and development of aeronautics to which an entire section is devoted exclusively to the early air mail days.

In connection with this project, the Museum is attempting to collect data, permanent objects, and other material relative to these early days in order to establish a record and build a permanent and accurate display featuring the accomplishments of the flyers of that era and trace the progress of the air mail service to its present status.

Pictured here in photo 1 is the air mail portion of the Smithsonian Institute, while in photo 2 is one of the real old-time old-timers, Fred J. Wiseman, now 70 years old, credited with being the first pilot ever to carry air mail.  Wiseman is shown sitting at the controls of his plane, which he built and flew in 1911.  On February 17, 1911 according to all available data and facts, Wiseman flew letters and papers from Santa Rose, Calif., to Petalume, also in the Sunshine state, in 12 minutes and 20 seconds. But Wiseman, even then, became the father of air mail by only a narrow margin, a similar hop being made in India only one day later.

When the Smithsonian display is completed, it will be the most complete and authentic in the world.  The entire collection, through the medium of original full size aircraft, accessories of technical and historical interest, accurate scale models, and pictorial illustrations, depict the outstanding facts in the history of flight.

Among the first mementos acquired by the Museum was a hangar-like building, which was used as a testing laboratory in 1917, and four of the first planes used by the Army during World War I.  These have since been recalled and replaced by more than a dozen famous airplanes including the immortal "Spirit of St. Louis," in which Lindbergh made his historic New York to Paris light, and the "Winnie Mae," famed globe-girdling plane of the late Wiley Post.  

In an effort to enlarge its collection, particularly with those hard-to-find mementos of the early air mail days, the Museum has recently sent out an appeal
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LATE NEWS

Resignation
  Reliable sources this month revealed that Wallace S. Dawson, CAB Safety Bureau head, had submitted his resignation to the CAB but will remain in his present office until the President's Special Board of Inquiry into Air Safety had completed its work. Alleged reason for Dawson's resignation, which intimates say was submitted some time ago, was to permit him to accept an army commission

First
  The Reconstruction Finance Corporation has indicated that it is amicable to making its first air line loan in the form of a four and one-half million dollar grant to Western Air Lines if the Civil Aeronautics Board approves. The loan would be used for the purpose of consolidating WAL's obligations in order to place the company on a sound financial basis to undertake a permanent equity and bank financing program at the appropriate time.

Announcing
  Announcing that his recently appointed President's Special Board of Inquiry into Air Safety, which has already submitted several interim reports based on the UAL, PCA and EAL crashes, would not recess this summer, President Truman has requested James M. Landis, chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, to follow through on recent air safety recommendations and be sure they are put into effect.

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Banner Month on Agreement Front
  Inconsistent, unseasonal June and July was inconsistent for ALPA only to the extent of the off-season weather for consistency was the dominant factor in Association activity as ALPA's employment agreement making forged ahead to a point that not only put it on schedule but actually even in advance of the time-table which had been set up for it.
  Despite the fact that Headquarters is in the midst of the "two-weeks-with-pay" season for its employees, which entails a sapping of personnel strength
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during vacations, late June and early July was a banner month that saw negotiations carried on with 12 air lines out of which came five completed and signed agreements and one more completed to the stage where it required only the routine mechanics of compilation and actual signing before being closed.
  The five latest agreements to be completed and signed are those with Northeast Airlines, Colonial Airlines, Braniff, National and Panagra, while an agreement with Northwest has advanced to the stage where
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PRESIDENT'S AIR SAFETY INQUIRY
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President Truman's Special Board of Inquiry into Air Safety, appointed as the result of the UAL, EAL, and PCA crashes which cost a total of 146 lives within a two-week period, and on which ALPA is represented by Air Line Captain H.B. Cox, Council 31, AA-Burbank, holds its first meeting in Washington, D.C., on June 17.  The Board submitted its first interim report on June 26 in which it recommended tightening of regulations on maximum passenger and gasoline loads under varying weather and runway conditions, provision of more adequate wind information at both ends of the runway, and maintenance of uniform CAA-approved check lists. In submitting their interim report to the President, the Board pointed out that "at this stage these recommendations should be regarded as only a beginning of the investigation this Board will make into the broad field of air safety." Shown above at the initial meeting of the Special Board are Capt. Cox, representing ALPA; Brig. Gen. Milton W. Arnold, vice-president of the Air Transport Association; James M. Landis, CAB chairman and also chairman of the newly-formed Board of Inquiry; and T.P. Wright, CAA administrator. The fifth member of the Board, not shown in the above photo, is Dr. Jerome C. Hunsaker.