Part 6

THE DC-2 WAS SOUND-PROOFED AND THE PASSENGERS RODE IN ADJUSTABLE UPHOLSTERED SEATS THAT GAVE THEM PULLMAN-LIKE COMFORT.

THE DC-2 TRANSPORT PLANE COMBINED PASSENGER COMFORT WITH ECONOMICAL OPERATION COSTS AND HELPED TO LAY THE FOUNDATION FOR FASTER, SAFER, AND CHEAPER AIR TRAVEL. MANY OF THE EARLY DC-2’S ARE STILL IN SERVICE WITH AIRLINES AND THE U.S. ARMY AIR TRANSPORT COMMAND.]

The DC-l was an experimental model of the new Douglas two-engined luxury air transport plane. On the night of February 18, 1934, six months after the first DC-l was tested over the Rockies near Winslow, a new Cyclone-powered Douglas took off from Los Angeles for Newark, New Jersey. This plane was the first of the famous DC-2’s. It was flown by Jack Frye of TWA (Transcontinental & Western Airways) and Captain Eddie Rickenbacker of Eastern Air Lines. They roared into Newark ahead of a snowstorm which had blotted out all the airports along the route, and were three hours ahead of schedule for a new transcontinental record of 13 hours, 4 minutes. This flight made obsolete all existing transport planes.

SAFETY IN FLIGHT

The new Douglas DC-2 transport plane combined all the knowledge of thirty years of flight. In the early “thirties” air transport began to come into its own. Plane-to-ground radio was put into use. The radio range, or radio beam, pioneered by “Shorty” Schroeder with Henry Ford in 1927, was guiding our airliners on their course. The radio beam flashed the Morse code letters “A” and “N” along the flight path of the airliner. The dot-dash of the “A” signal was flashed on one side of the route and the dash-dot of the “N” signal was on the other. In the center of the flight path the two signals blended into a steady hum. This hum notified the pilot that he was “on course.” Regardless of fog, rain, or darkness the pilot got his course through his earphones.

The application of the gyroscope to aircraft instruments was a great step in the advancement of flying. First experimented with by Lawrence Sperry in the early days of the airplane, the constant action of the gyroscope was used to register the changes of attitude of aircraft in flight. It was first used in the Turn and Bank Indicator, then in the _Gyro-Horizon_ and _Directional Gyro_. Power-driven gyros constantly whirled in the direction in which they were set. They were attached to dials on the instrument panel and to the plane itself. The position or attitude of the gyro was indicated on the dial in relation to the attitude of the airplane. As the plane changed, the constantly spinning gyro remained in its correct attitude. The gyro position and the position of the plane shown on the dial told the pilot the actual attitude of the plane in the air so that he could correct in relation to the true position indicated by the gyro. This allowed the pilot to keep his plane on a true compass course and in the proper flight attitude without having to see the horizon. Thus a pilot could fly through fog or total darkness with both ease and safety.

The gyro instruments soon proved their value and were installed in the cockpits of transport planes the world over. The Sperry Gyropilot then was perfected. This remarkable instrument, based on the gyroscope movement, was developed actually to manipulate automatically the controls of even the largest airplane, keeping it directly on the desired course and leaving the human pilots free for their many other duties.

In 1933, Wiley Post flew around the world alone, but the Gyropilot piloted the _Winnie Mae_ over most of the route. This relieved the fatigue of constant flying and allowed Wiley to keep a continual check on his maps. His successful use of the automatic pilot soon caused its adoption by most of the major airlines of the country.

Thus, with the aid of the radio beam, better flight instruments, special octane gasoline, two-way radio, sound-proofing, wheel brakes, and adjustable pitch propellers, the airlines of America were fast emerging into a safe and comfortable means of travel.

While the DC-2 was coming into prominence in the air transport field, Boeing engineers had gone on with their idea of a two-engined plane and had built an all-metal bomber for the Army.

In building the two-engined, all-metal B-9, Boeing engineers learned how to build another plane with a more peaceful purpose. This ship was the famous Boeing 247-D commercial transport plane. The 247-D was an all-metal, low-wing monoplane, powered with two 550-horsepower Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial engines. It had a top speed of 200 miles per hour and a cruising speed of 180 miles per hour. It was America’s first three-mile-a-minute air transport plane.

In designing the speedy 247-D, the Boeing did not forget the comfort of the passengers. The plane was fully heated and ventilated. Its seats were deeply upholstered and had reclining backs. There were broad windows at each chair. There were dome lights and individual reading lamps; and the plane was equipped with a tiny galley and a complete lavatory. Insulation kept the 247-D quiet and comfortable in any sort of weather.

The 247-D carried ten passengers, a pilot, co-pilot, and stewardess, plus baggage and mail. It was first put into service by the United Air Lines in 1933, on their coast-to-coast route. Incidentally, it was United who had introduced to the airlines the third member of the air transport’s crew, the stewardess. The pretty young stewardesses were all trained nurses. They looked after air-sick passengers, served food en route, and looked after the comfort of the air travelers.

LUXURY AIRLINERS AND SKYSLEEPERS MAKE AIR TRAVEL AN ACCEPTED FACT

With the Boeing 247’s, United Air Lines in 1933 cut the coast-to-coast air trip to twenty-two hours. As DC-2’s and the fast two-engined Lockheed _Electras_ were speeding up air transport schedules on the airlines throughout the country, differences arose between the government and some air transport firms over mail contracts. The result was the cancellation in February, 1934, of all air mail contracts.

The air mail revenue was the life of the air transport operators and the cancellation of the mail contracts suddenly darkened their future. An attempt to put the transportation of air mail into the hands of the United States Army resulted in a tragic failure. This was due mainly to the unfamiliarity of Army pilots with air mail routes and their lack of proper equipment. In June, 1934, the air mail was turned back to the airlines.

The return of the air mail contracts to private operators saw the introduction of the new Douglas DC-3. This was the plane that brought Donald Douglas’ dream to complete fulfilment. His big, all-metal, low-wing, two-engined DC-3 completely revolutionized air transport. By 1935, the name Douglas had come to mean fast, comfortable, and safe air transport.

The Douglas DC-3 was produced in 21-passenger day planes, 14-passenger de luxe _Skylounges_, and 14-passenger _Skysleepers_. The DC-3 put “sleeper planes” on an acceptable basis. Coast-to-coast schedules were cut to three stops and an overnight trip. Fares were cut in half and air travel became an accepted fact.

PAN AMERICAN CLIPPERS CONQUER PACIFIC SKIES

While the DC-3’s were cutting to an overnight hop the air journey from coast to coast, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker had pushed his Eastern Air Lines from New York to Miami, Florida. Here it connected with Juan Trippe’s Pan American Airways. By this time Trippe’s Pan American _Clipper_ planes regularly were covering a route from Miami down through the West Indies to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and to Buenos Aires in the Argentine. At Buenos Aires Pan American Airways connected with Harold R. Harris’ Pan American-Grace Airways to complete a route over the Andes and back up the west coast of South America.

The story of Harold Harris and his airway is a book in itself. Harris, a veteran flier of World War I, had been an Army test pilot. In 1922 he became the first member of the “Caterpillar Club” when he used a parachute to escape from a plane which had failed. Later, as a crop-dusting pilot in Peru, he visualized and founded the Pan American-Grace air route.

By the time Juan Trippe’s Pan American Clippers were flying over every country in Central and South America, his active mind was busy planning another “survey.” Though his company at that time was operating the world’s largest airline, Trippe was planning new worlds to conquer.

Pan American had been using Igor Sikorsky’s four-engined flying boats on his route to Rio and Buenos Aires, and Trippe sent one of them, with veteran Edwin Misick in command, on a “survey” flight westward across the Pacific.

On November 22, 1935, Pan American Airways’ _China Clipper_ took off from San Francisco Bay on its first scheduled trans-Pacific flight to Manila, Philippine Islands. One hundred years before, to the day, the first Yankee clipper ship had sailed into the same bay. Twenty-five years before, a young man had made America’s first trans-Pacific flight--a flight of 33 miles from the California shore to Catalina Island. The 26-ton _China Clipper_ heading into its 8,000-mile trans-Pacific flight was a Martin 130 flying boat built by Glenn L. Martin, the young fellow of the Catalina flight. In just 59 hours and 48 minutes of flying time the first _China Clipper_ landed in Manila Bay.

PAN AMERICAN CLIPPER INAUGURATES AMERICA’S FIRST TRANSATLANTIC AIR TRANSPORT SERVICE

With the sweep of its wings the first _China Clipper_ ripped out weeks of slow surface travel to the rich markets of the Far East. By 1936 a trip from this country to China was measured by a matter of sixty or seventy flight hours instead of by weeks.

It was not the big clipper planes alone that built the far-flung Pan American Airways. Juan Trippe visualized his world airways system and then picked the finest experts in every field to carry out his plans. Former diplomats covered the proposed routes long before the Clippers flew them. There was, of course, no freedom of the air. No plane could fly over a foreign country without permission. Trippe’s emissaries had to get franchises. Germany, France, Britain, and Holland were after franchises in South America too. There, as in the Far East, they got the rights to fly, not by government pressure, but by selling aviation as a valuable business asset to any nation.

Once Trippe had his franchises, he sent experts to explore and lay out routes. They carved airports out of jungles and Arctic wastes, and in places where no white man ever had penetrated. The supply problems overcome and the engineering marvels performed by Trippe’s advance men would furnish plots for a dozen movie thrillers. In laying out the bases at Wake and Guam on the Pacific route, more than one million separate items were bought, shipped, and installed before the first _China Clipper_ took off from San Francisco.

Pan American’s map added another blue line after the Pacific route was under way. This time it was to Alaska, and another distant travel time could be reckoned in flight hours rather than ocean days.

Then came the Atlantic and the giant Boeing 314 Pan American _Clippers_.

Boeing achieved such excellent results with its two-engined planes that its engineers went on to plan four-engined super-planes. When Juan Trippe wanted a plane for his Atlantic service, Boeing was ready with the 41-ton Boeing 314. The 314 _Atlantic Clippers_ carried 74 passengers and boasted of compartments that could be converted into berths, dressing rooms, a dining salon, and a real kitchen for serving hot meals aloft. On May 20, 1939, just twenty years after the first transatlantic flight of the Navy NC’s, the _Atlantic Clipper_ took off on the trip that inaugurated Pan American Airways service to Europe. Juan Trippe’s dream was reaching around the world.

PRIVATE PLANES

In the very early days of aviation, before the start of World War I, most of the airplanes, with the exception of a few military ships, were sold to private owners. Those buyers were either barnstormers or wealthy sportsmen. Some advertising in national magazines even tried to create sales, for private planes. This activity ceased with the beginning of the war in 1914, and owners turned their planes over to the Government for training purposes.

At the end of the war there were hundreds of young men who had learned to fly. This situation brought about a considerable amount of private flying. However, most of the ex-service men bought surplus war equipment, such as the Curtiss _Jenny_, so that there was not a large market for the manufacturers of new private planes.

Following the Lindbergh flight to Paris and other spectacular aviation achievements, the American public really became air-conscious. It was at that time that the private plane came into its own.

People began to find that airplanes were of practical value, and business firms began to use them in various ways. Sales and service representatives could cover vast areas in a short time. Essential equipment could be carried swiftly by airplanes over stretches of country which before had been almost inaccessible. Ranchers used planes to cover far-flung ranges. Explorers and scientists alike used the airplane to search for hidden treasure and precious minerals in spots which before had been impossible to reach by land transportation.

All this activity brought about the development of more comfortable cabin planes and led to a demand for large and small private ships. The small, light plane field expanded with amazing speed once there was a demand. In the late twenties Aëronca, Taylor, and Piper began to bring out safe, comfortable, and inexpensive planes. By the middle thirties flying schools and private landing fields were a common sight throughout America.

As the light planes became popular, the training of private pilots developed into a big business. Flying lessons became an important source of income to aviators who heretofore had operated their little airfields on the revenue derived from sightseeing hops and an occasional charter trip. Student pilots became logical prospects for

light planes and the more successful flying schools became sales agencies for the aircraft manufacturers. Students became expert fliers and graduated to instructors’ jobs. A number of these young instructors in turn bought light planes and started flying schools of their own. Thus, light plane flying spread like wildfire over the country.

The light planes of the late thirties were mainly high-wing monoplanes. They were powered with light, air-cooled engines and were so designed that they had a high factor of safety. They were sturdily built and easy to fly. The average student was able to solo after eight or ten lessons, though real flying ability came only through constant practice. Light planes cost from $1,500 to $2,000. Many of them were equipped with accessories such as heaters, radios, navigation lights, and flight instruments. All of them had comfortably upholstered, enclosed cabins. In the years just before World War II light plane flying for business and pleasure was an accepted mode of travel for boys and girls as well as men and women of all ages.

SUPERCHARGERS AND SUPER-AIRLINERS

High above the earth, 14,000 to 20,000 feet, lies a region of smooth air called the substratosphere.

Pioneer fliers had reached this region years before, but its thin, rare air made life and movement impossible. Men had long looked to this smooth-air region as the ideal flight path--a path without rough air, or fog, or storm to slow their progress. But both they and their engines needed plenty of air for operation.

It was not until 1939, when Dr. Sanford Moss invented the turbo-supercharger, that high engine performance at altitudes above 30,000 feet became a matter of fact. The turbo-supercharger, a simple machine driven by the force of the engine exhausts, pumped air into the engines to give them sea-level pressure at high altitudes. This took care of the engines in the smooth-air substratosphere regions.

Next came the human element. Human beings, like engines, cannot live without sufficient air. This brought about the development of the supercharged cabin for airplanes. In 1936 “Tommy” Tomlinson, a brilliant ex-Navy flier, started making experimental substratosphere flights for TWA in a specially designed plane. He found that the speed of a properly equipped airplane would increase some 36 per cent at 30,000 feet. At the same time Army engineers were experimenting with a Lockheed plane having a supercharged cabin.

The Boeing Company, working in co-operation with Tomlinson, Transcontinental and Western Airways, and Pan American, developed the Boeing 307. The 307 was a big all-metal, low-wing monoplane with a pressurized, high-altitude cabin, which made possible flight at altitudes up to 20,000 feet. This was accomplished in a manner similar to that used in supercharging the engines. Engine-driven superchargers pumped air into the cabin-ventilating system and the atmosphere in the plane was kept at normal low-level pressure regardless of how high the plane flew. The Boeing 307 _Stratoliner_ was put into service by TWA and Pan American Airways in 1940 and marked a tremendous step forward in the speed and comfort of modern air travel.

In 1941, fifteen years after the operation of the nation’s airlines had been turned over to private firms, air transport was approaching perfection. The first single-engined, two-passenger mail planes, cruising at 100 miles per hour, took thirty-three hours to make the coast-to-coast trip. Now giant luxury airliners were doing it in fifteen hours. In contrast to the frequent stops of the low-flying plane of the early days, the high-flying air transports of 1941 were making the journey with only three stops. Where the air traveler of the twenties rode in an uncomfortable seat in a cold, gas-smelling plane, and was lucky if he got a box lunch, the modern passenger rode in luxuriously upholstered chairs in a heated salon, and dined on hot fried chicken or steak with all the “trimmings.”

Even more significant was the change in flight and safety aids. No longer did the pilot fly with his eyes on the railroad tracks and the family wash on the line below. Radio communication with the ground, continual weather information, and precision navigation and flight instruments changed all that and brought safety to air transport.

With domestic airline routes covering America from coast to coast and from border to border, and with the wings of Pan American’s _Clippers_ casting their shadows over 75,000 miles of the earth’s surface, the Japs struck at Pearl Harbor.