Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 December 1943 — Page 19

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with him sent the big clippers across oceans and far continents, Pan-American flew where men never had flown before, tore airports out of jungles, trounced the Japhest foreign airline competi-

It needed more than daring and fine airline operations. It needed full-dress diplomacy to get flying rights into nearly 30 nations, and

" Juan Trippe, with no destroyers

to barter, had it. Until American

! . Export Airlines came along just

' ~before the war, Pan-American

had the U. S. end of international operations pretty much to itself.

matic importance to this country, the time has passed when Mr. Trippe, one-man state depart ment, can make his own deals around the world. Policy questions are involved, they say, which should be handled only by the government in agreement with other governments. It might have been all right in the past to have a single company represent the U. S. abroad but, they contend, the pioneering stage is past now and it's too big an assignment for any one company. They argue that the monopoly idea is alien to U. S. business principles. All domestic commercial operators except United Airlines have combined to oppose Pan-Ameri-can, and have set up Washington headquarters under Sam Solomon, president of Northeast Airlines, to plan strategy. » » » BUT MR. TRIPPE is a master strategist himself and Pan-Ameri-can (on its board are Norman Davis of the American Red Cross,

Long Experience Reflected in Flown to Far Corners of

The army air forces air transport command has established global alr carge routes which dwarf anything even predicted in prewar days. Max B. Cook, Scripps-Howard aviation editor, has been riding ATC cargo planes to ascertain something of what the future may held.

This is the third of a series,

By MAX B. COOK Scripps-Howard Aviation Editor

SOMEWHERE IN THE CANAL ZONE, Dec. 15.—Speedy and

viclous-looking army air force interceptors,

nowhere out of dense jungle growth, challenged us as Capt. V. IL Powers began losing altitude in approaching the hot and humid

Canal Zone.

Signaling followed and crew members were mighty glad they were

not in an enemy plane. The cargo ship had come through three storms, landed at an emergency base for refueling, just in case, It was heavily loaded wilh all sorts of war material. The wheels hit the runway “on time” and the plane must have taxied two miles before pulling up at the huge air depot. On the “apron” stood Earl Truxton, superintendent of air freight, a tall, iron-muscled air cargo veteran, and therein lies the true story of the nation’s first

cargo superintendent at the huge Middletown, Pa, air depot; “Bill” Stout and Henry Ford, motor magnate, began using air

cargo planes as early as 1925 to |

1927, between Detroit and Cleveland, O. ’ ‘Truxton, supervising his men in an amazingly efficient loading

Operation, was asked ‘if he had

learned to load airplanes through

instrument of military and qiplo-

Pan-American should have

by all American tion interests able to contribute, under

government.” » . .

Fears Handicap

MR. TRIPPE believes post-war air transport will be a battle of giants, and points out that other nations in international air trans. port are represented by single “chosen instruments”—the British by British Ovearseas Airways Corp., the Dutch by K. L. M, Russians by Soviet Air Trust, etc. If U. 8. strength is split among several companies competing against foreign monopolies which

will be handicapped, he contends. Pan-American cities government favor for unifying U. 8. communications abroad. It is also argued that if air agreements

experience on steamship docks. Truxton almost exploded with wrath, He then told how Henry Ford

began using air cargo planes -— the big tri-motored Fords made

“by himself—in a contract with

“Bill” Stout. The latter established the Stout Airlines and Ford's contract guaranteed him 2000 pounds daily. Truxton and

Houser did the loading. Now the

experience they gained there and in the succeeding years working as civilians for the army is helping greatly to make ATC what it is and to eliminate accidents through possible cargo shifting in rough weather, » . J

1927 Flight Recalled

“THE FACT IS,” said Truxton, “the army has been hauling air cargo for years, not on a great scale, of course, but plenty of it. And when ATC was organized, the

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are made between this country

an organization plan approved by

are benefitted by lower costs, it.

Favor Competition

SOME MILITARY men favor competition rather than one company because, they say, competi

there is no “mystery” about it. They say they have out-performed Pan-American in some fields, Pan-American disagrees, That competition makes for bet ter service was shown, domestic lines say, when Paa-American stepped up schedules on its Mexico City run after American Airlines went into the same route, - If we have several foreign aire line companies, says Pan-Ameri-can, it will be easy for foreign gov= ernments to play one off against the other, If we have one, say those urging competition, it might prove an easy route to government ownership which the industry doesn’t want.

TOMORROW: Steamship and rail lines in the aviation business?

Speedy Handling of Cargo

Earth by Transport Command

army air forces had some sound experience on which to base its loading plans.” The writer recalled that he had had his first air cargo flight in 1927, seated atop a box in a trimotored Stout airline Ford, en route from Cleveland to Detroit to an air show. “And remember,” said Truxton, “you had to fly around the edge of Lake Erie because. regulations would not allow flying directly across the lake. Now look at ‘em —crossing oceans, desert, jungle and ice with land planes, for thousands of miles and through all sorts of weather; laden with heavy cargo, dozens of passengers —and thinking nothing of it!” Loading an airplane with thousands of pounds of war materiel is not easy. It cannot shift, It must be expertly tied down so that, regardless of “bumps” or any movement in the air, or on takeoff or landing, it will not shake loose. One heavy plane tire rolling about a plane in the air can wreck it. ) » » "

Schedules Maintained

UNDER SUPERVISION of Truxton, war cargo moves swiftly in and out of the big air service command deport here, Planes

piloted by former airlines veters'

ans land and take off on regular schedule. Those bound southward carry mostly heavy cargo loads. Those bound northward to the states usually also carry

GET A BANG

from five to a dozen service men, happily headed for home and reassignment to some other post. They have done their “bit” in the tropics and long for action elsewhere. Routes, undisclosed of war necessity, are scattered throughout the Caribbean and South American areas. They support, through supplies and men, the tremendous defense bulwarks of the Caribbean and other areas. Warplanes are flown in and out and, in the enormous air service command depot at this base, scores are being “modified,” rebuilt and completely overhauled. » » .

Complete Equipment

EQUIPPED AS completely as an airplane factory, the assembled air service command experts could, if need be, construct a complete plane, From here the warplanes fly to all parts of the globe. After all, it's not far from South America, and Brazil is not far from Africa -by air, : ATC and ASC are handling in excess of one million pounds of air cargo monthly through this depot. And this is only one base of hundreds scattered throughout the world, in and out of which fly ATC planes—on schedule, It is through here very often that an ATC plane will fly equip ment receipt of which overseas means warplanes in the alr, fighting an important battle, Failure to get it through might mean defeat, At any rate, ofttimes, it means the difference between many planes taking off for

ing idle on the ground because of lack of important parts.

Passengers Checked

PASSENGERS on war jobs arriving and leaving here must go through customs and immigration, Pan American Airways representatives and government officials facilitate this movement so that very little time is wasted, It's a vitally important zone and

Army alr force, its ATO division and its gir service comn group work in the closest cooperation to keep war materials,

flying, ‘many of them on come Some 'd like to routine of

an important objective or remain<-

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