Page 4
Portland Observer
Thursday. April 1. 1976
Wright still
4 - C head
Majorie Wright, assistant professor of
community service and public affairs at
the University of Oregon, has been
reappointed to a two year term as state
chairperson of the Community Coordi
nated Child Care Council by Governor
Bob Straub.
The Council is a legislatively created
advisory board to the State Children’s
Services Division. Commonly known as
the 4-C*s Council, it proposes and reviews
policy relating to day care programs
throughout the state.
Ms. Wright has served as chairperson
of the Council since 1974. She has been a
faculty member at the University of
Oregon since 1970.
Before coming to the University, she
taught at the University of Oklahoma and
was a social worker in Chicago.
She earned her Ph.B. degree from
DePual University in Chicago, MSW
degree from the University of Illinois,
and holds a certificate in social work from
Tulane (Louisiana University).
1926 pride of clover field, Santa Monica, was the Douglas M 2
mailplane which was built for Western Air Express (now
Western Airlines) for use on its first contract air mail route.
C.A.M. 4. between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City with a
fueling stop at Las Vegas. A pilot with his seat pack parachute
still on and two Douglas workers admire the aircraft.
Western Airline
celebrates 50th
LOS ANGELES - Western Airlines,
the only survivor of a handful of airlines
that pioneered commercial aviation, cele
brates its fiftieth birthday on April 17th
this year with the re-creation of its
original (light from Los Angeles to Salt
Lake City, via Las Vegas.
At 7:39 a.m. a restored Douglas M-2
bi plane will depart Los Angeles Inter
national Airport to travel the historic
653-mile route, just as it did a half-
century. The fifty year old aircraft is
scheduled to land in Las Vegas about
noon and, after a refueling and cere
monial stop, continue on to Salt Lake
City, with arrival shortly before dusk.
Piloting the single engine plane will be
Ted Homan, a veteran flyer who retired
as a Western jet pilot in 1974. Homan,
who lives in Santa Paula, California, was
the project lead in restoring the aircraft
to flying condition.
Homan was thirteen years old when
Western made its original flight through
his childhood home of Las Vegas. He was
at the field when the first Western
(Western Air Express flight landed there
for refueling).
Like so many veteran pilots, he decided
on the spot that he was going to be a
pilot However, he did not know his
boyhood dream would include flying the
same type of aircraft fifty years later
over that original route.
When Western's first flight took place
there was considerable bravado attached
to facing the elements in the open-cockpit
planes. Standard equipment for passen
gers was a flying suit, gogles, gloves,
parachute and lots of courage.
In 1928. the Guggenheim Foundation
chose Western to set up a “model airway”
between Los Angeles and San Francisco
(then served through the airport at
Oakland). The purpose was to incor
porate the latest in technical perfection
and passenger safety and comfort.
With money from the foundation. Wes
tern purchased three Fokker F-10 Tri
motor aircraft. This permitted passen
gers to sit in comfortable wicker chairs
inside the cabin and be served meals by a
steward (the first flight attendants in
U.S. domestic service).
Commercial aviation was new, and
improvement in the “state of the art” was
up to the airlines themselves. Western
was a leader. It was the first with many
technological developments adopted later
as standard by other airlines and the
government.
In 1929, under the guidance of Herbert
Hoover, Jr., son of President Hoover,
W estern developed the first air-to-
ground radio, in cooperation with Boeing.
A year later, Western introduced the
Fokker F-32 aircraft to commercial air
line operation. It was a four-engined
plane capable of carrying 32 passengers -
by far the largest airliner in the world at
that time.
In 1932, Irving Krick, a young Western
cargo clerk, developed the air mass
analysis system of weather forecasting
which proved remarkably accurate. Soon
Western was known as “The Airline With
Perpetual Tailwinds.”
One of the most important contribu
tions Western made to commercial avia
tion was the use of the directional radio
compass for air navigation. This compass
became the prime navigational instru-
Celebrities like Will Rogers, right, here with one of Western Air Express' first
pilots. Al DeGarmo, delighted in flying in the Twenties. A1 now lives in Florence.
Oregon. Rogers so wanted to be Western's first passenger that he went to the Post
Office and bought enough stamps to ship himself over the line's first air mail route
from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City. However, regular mail took the space first.
ment for nearly thirty years and is still
used today.
There were other firsts: Western was
first to successfully attempt inflight
television; first airline to complete ten
years of operation without a single
passenger fatality; and was first to
introduce half-fares for children.
But the airlines had its ups and downs.
In 1934, the Post Office Department
cancelled all airmail contracts.
Many
airlines went out of business.
However, things got better.
The
routes of National Parks Airway were
added to Western's in 1937. The DC-3
aircraft came on the scene and passen
gers replaced mail and freight as the
prime source of revenue. To reflect this
change, Western changed its name from
“Express" to Air Lines in 1941.
World War II stripped the company
down to three DC-3s and a couple of
Lockheed Lodestars. But Western was
given two important war missions: to
train pilots for the military, and to take
men and material to Alaska in the famous
“Sourdough Operation".
In 1944, a merger with Inland Air Lines
expanded Western in the Rockies and
into South Dakota.
The early fifties saw the introduction of
• he Douglas DC-6B. Western eventually
bought 31 of them. The company's routes
stretched along the entire West Coast
and in 1957 were extended to Mexico
City. Western went as far East as
Minneapolis-St. Paul.
In 1960, Western entered the Jet Age
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And one very large commitment to you.
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A bucket ng does its job well. I here
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We've looked. Hard. Because these
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with the leasing of two Boeing 707’s.
Western secured routes to Alaska by
merging with Pacific Northern Airlines in
1967, thus extending the carrier north of
Seattle-Tacoma to nine cities in the 49th
state.
On January 4, 1969, Western won
routes to Hawaii, and today is the
Number two airline to Hawaii linking the
Islands with direct service to major citier
throughout the West, Alaska and into th<
Midwest.
From that first 600 mile route to Salt
Lake City, flown with open-cockpit by
planes, Western now serves more than
forty major cities - from Anchorage in
the North to Acapulco in the South and
Honolulu in the West to the Twin Cities
in the East. All of its planes are jets with
the largest jet being the wide-bodied
Douglas DC-10.
Western has written a proud heritage
in aviation history across the skies of
America.
4 Fred Meyer
Super Shopping Centers
Help Lower your
Cost of Living . . .
Death row
(Continued from p. 1 col. 6)
sign a statement indicating that a gun
had been passed around the bus.
Peebles believes the other prosecution
witness was similarly coerced.
Peebles said he is investigating the
possibility that the fatal shot on October
7, 1974, was fired by someone among or
behind the crowds of white demonstra
tors - possibly at the bus.
“There is some information,” he said,
“that it (the shot) came from outside the
bus.”
During the trial, bus driver Ernest
Cojoe, an Army combat veteran, testified
he was certain the shot couldn't have
come from a .45 automatic inside the bus.
Other students on the bus had also
testified that the shot sounded more like
a “firecracker" than a gunshot.
Peebles said he will appeal if his April
21st motion for a new trial is unsuccess
ful. If that appeal is rejected “there is a
very definite chance that Tyler will go to
the electric chair, he said.
Lolis Elie, Tyler’s family attorney,
though not directly involved in the case,
says “In my seventeen years as a civil
rights lawyer this is the most outrageov«
thing I’ve seen in my life. There are lots
of funny things about this case.”
reason your
electric bill isn't
as low as it once was.
But it's also one of the reasons that
you can count on having the electricity
you need 24 hours a day, year round.
And that PGE electricity will continue to
be one of the best buys in your family
budget despite rate increases.
PGE doesqt Ukr thcw» i n ^ W u
any better than you do. We could stop
buying new bucket rigs. And stop spend -
ing to repair the ones we have. But the
results in the long run would be even
higher costs for you.
Sure. We could short change you
on the equipment and service you need
now, and in the future. It would be easy
But it wouldn't he right.
Your nearby Fred Meyer Super Shopping Center is filled with
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Wide,
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W a lllU t
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n .
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òsso N. Lombard
Plenty of Free and Easy Parking
Open 9 am to 10 pm daily, including Sunday.