Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 1941)
' -V: PAGE TEN Iho OREGON STATESMAN, SALEM, Orea, Friday Morning. December 5. 1941 at MtimJdpal s to Airport 21-Pmsmger Ship Land Big Mainliners Cruise at 190 -Miles an Hour DC-3s Weigh 12 Tons, Have 1800-Mile Travel Range He's HoardingV . TAMPA, Fla.-vP-Sheriirs dep uties made the routine search of a hobo brought to the jafl. They found in his shirt: A Jar of sugar, a Jar of jam, a live chicken. Miss Million-Aires" Greet Countess 'Roundhouse' Maintained by v Air Concern & mm s The 21 -passenger Mainliners of United Air Lines which will be gin service here today are the same planes which fly into New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and other cities on United's coast-to-coast and border-to-border route. Powered by twin Pratt it Whitney "Wasp" engines of 1ZD0 horsepower each, the hufe "Made Carpets" of the skyways have a cross weicht of over 12 tons. The total of 2400 horse power is more than developed by many of the smaller freight ers in coastwise shipping. In the industry this plane mo del is known as the DC-3, mean ing Douglas commercial plane number three, manufactured at the huge Douglas plant in Santa Monica near Los Angeles. Cruising speed of the Main liners is 190 miles an hour more than three miles a min ute and top speed is 228 miles an hoar. Gasoline consumption is approximately 45 gallons an hour for each engine, and the ; planes nave capacity for 820 gallons. However, less is car ried except on exceptionally long non-stop flights. Gasoline weighs approximately six pounds to the gallon, and when all tanks are full it cuts down the amount of "pay load," passengers, air mail and air ex press, which may be carried. Fuel consumption is approximately two miles per gallon for the plane. Maximum cruising range of the Mainliners is 1800 miles farther than the air route from Salem to Chicago. Rate of climb of the planes with full load is 1000 feet per minute. Approximate takeoff distance is 1000 feet, and approxi mate landing speed 64 miles an hour. Incidentally, Salem aviation fans probably will be disap pointed if they look for the tra ditional "three point landings." The three point landing tech nique Is all tbe thing for small planes, but two point landings are tbe vogue for large trans port planes and heavy bombers. The pilots -fly them In" with tbe two front wheels making contact with the railway first, and the tail wheel coming down later. Season is that because of the weight of the plane It makes a smoother landing. Three point landing technique Is especially useful in the navy for spotting small planes down on the limited runways of the aircraft carrier. Incidentally the name "Main liner" is a trade name applied only to the DC-3 transports of United Air Lines. This name was chosen because United flies the original main line airway from coast-to-coast. This was the route selected by the government when air mail service was inaugurated in 1920 by the post office department be tween New York and San Fran cisco. It also was the route of the old overland trail, the pony ex press and the first coast-to-coast railroad. Wing span of the Mainliners is 93 feet, approximately one third the length of a football field. Overall length of the planes is 63 feet, height of the plane 17 feet The cabin is 27 feet eight inches long, six feet six Inches high and seven feet eight inches wide. A Douglas DC-3 can carry a load equal to approximately one half of its empty weight and is recognized as one of the best "useful load" or "payload" carry ing planes ever made. ""I I i it: m I 7 t Stewardesses Flora Fish, left, and Myra French, each of whom have flown more than a. million mllM for United Air Lines, greet Countess Marie Bobrlnskoy, royal Russian refugee who recently became a stewardess. Stewardess Jobs Attract Many Requirements Are High, Duties Varied Here's good news for Salem girls who aspire to interesting careers. United Air Lines is taking additional applications now for stewardesses in anticiDatinn nf need for additional personnel early in 1942. But wait just a minute, girls There's no use applying unless you can fulfill certain requirements, according to Chief Stewardess Jean Bartholomew of Portland, who directs the 45 stewardesses who li in Orpnn states. First requirement is that the ap plicant must be a graduate nurse. So the first step for any girls who aspire to the position as "sky girl" on the huge 21 -passenger Main liners is to start working toward a degree in nursing. Neil, the applicants must be between the ages of 21 and 25 at the time they are employed. Stewardess Peggy Herberg of Portland, who will fly regularly into Salem, had rather a diffi cult time realizing her ambition to become a stewardess. When in grade school she saw a pic ture of a United Air Lines, stewardess on a magazine cover and decided right then and there she would be an air host ess some day. Learning that she first must be a graduate nurse, she enrolled for training but finished so young that she had to remain at her training hospital an extra year until reach ing the age of 21 so she could get her certificate. Height qualification for stew ardesses is five feet, two inches to five feet, five inches in height, and occasionally some especially charming applicants who are a little shorter or a little taller are accepted. Weight must be below 120 pounds, which explains why so many of the stewardesses go in for strenuous sports such as skiing, tennis, badminton,, golf and swimming. The last item Is probably the most Important. The young women must be attractive not necessarily beautiful, but at tractive and have pleasing personality. Their personality must be such that they can car ry out their air hostess duties with courtesy and tact. All types of persons are flying these days and a girl must be suf ficiently versatile to deal with every one of them, from infants to octogenarians, from housewives to professional women, from movie stars to business and professional people, from athletes to vacation ists. Regarding the requirement of a graduate registered nurse's certificate, it isv required pri marily as a means of setting a standard of efficiency. United has found that the institution trained girl generally has more poise, initiative and ability to get along with fellow workers and the public. Duties of a stewardess are nu merous and interesting. Their prime purpose is to add to the en joyment of each passenger's trip. Many things come under that head. To list a few: A stewardess is called upon to serve full course meals aloft, care for Infants, make out manifests, answer any ques tions about the plane, its opera tion and the terrain over which it is flying, serve as a companion to women traveling alone, dis tribute newspapers and maga zines, make up sleeper berths for overnight flights, and even play a "fourth" at bridge when called upon, provided her other duties are not too pressing at the mo ment. And when it comes to air planes the girls have to know their stuff, as far as general In formation is concerned: For ex ample they must be able to tell passengers on the spur of the moment that the big 21-passen-ger Mainliners in which they are riding have wing spread of 93 feet, are 65 feet long, and have two 1208-horse power engines, one of which alone can fly the plane fully loaded at 11,000 feet. Both engines take the plane to an altitude of 22,000 feet or more. And they must be able to answer plenty of other questions as well. The stewardess profession had its start in May, 1930, when United Air Lines employed eight girls to serve on a section of its coas to coast route, more or less as an experiment Company officials were surprised and pleased when the idea "took" immediately with the public. So ready was this response that more girls had to be employed at (Continued on Page 11) Inspection of Ships Every 40 Hours Is Company's Rule A freauent failing of many of the early barnstorming pilots was to keep flying their planes as long as they held together and think of repairs only when something went wrong. But all that was changed when United Air Lines built its famous "roundhouse of the airways," a gigantic repair and maintenance base at Cheyenne, Wyo., where 550 skilled crafts men ' perform everything from minor repair work to major re building Jobs on the company's Mainliners. All of the company's Mainlin ers are placed on an unfailing schedule of checkups and over hauls, for the delicate navigation instruments as well as the pow erful 1200-horsepower motors. At every stop of the planes a quick but thorough visual inspec tion is made of plane and equip ment. After every 40 hours of fly ing there is a thorough Inspec tion of the plane with adjust ments of engine parts, propel lers, ailerons and other adjust able parts. At 100-hour intervals the en gines are thoroughly torn down and all worn parts replaced. The above checks are made at principal operations bases all along United's coast to coast and Pacific coast routes. But at the end of every 650 hours of flying the planes are routed to main tenance base which was located at Cheyenne to catch planes right on schedule headed either east or west. Out come the engines and all movable parts of the planes on the 650-hour overhaul, and new or completely rebuilt parts take their places. Painstaking time records show the flying time of every engine and its component parts, of every propellor, every tire, battery, generator, instru ment radio set, aileron, wing flap and all the rest Even a spark plug must have the number of its air hours im printed on its face. At certain, prescribed limits a plane part Is discarded, even though it might appear In perfect condi tion. And there's no appeal from the judgment of the time records. After 8000 hours of flying. Mainliner engines are "grounded.'' usually going to some ground avi ation school for classroom work. Propellors are discarded after every 7000 hours of service. The bodies of tfie planes them selves are carefully checked, but under the present metal construc tion the planes just don't wear out. Their interior framework is built like steel bridges. And co-operating with the airlines In their maintenance work is the federal government. The priorities board has decreed that the airlines will get all the airplane replacement parts they need. So standards of mainten ance on the airways are higher now than ever before. c Progress made on the Pacific coast airway of United Air Lines during the past 15 years b told graphically In these pictures of (Up) tbe single-engined open cockpit 90-mlle-an-hour plane which Inaug urated coastwise airmail service September 15, 1921. and (below) the type of twin-engined 21-passenger 200-mile-an-hour Mainliner now flown on multiple passenger-eargo schedules between cities of British Columbia. Washington. Oregon and California. Yellow .Cabs Heel All Planes ...Phone 7700... SALEII TAXI SERVICE Office Bligh Hotel Bonds, Officials Burn VICHY (JP) Constables making a routine inspection at Mantaine ville, a village near Amiens, found a farmer's wife covering Jam pots with valuable coaland gold min ing securities. Next door they learned the housekeeper had been lighting her stove with stocks and bonds. They entered the village butch er shop just as the butcher's wife was wrapping a ham in approxi mately 60,000 francs worth of shares. Investigation revealed all the securities were good something the villagers had not suspected. They originally came from a truck abandoned during the panic .of June, 1940, while evacuating the contents of a Valenciennes bank. AIR TICKETS Anywhere K. BURGARD KUGEL The Salem Travel Agency Downtown Offices 477 Court St. - Phono 6524 FLY to Mexico this Christmas 11-Day. All-Air. AB-Expono Tour by AT United Air Linos and Pan-American 1 16-Day Trip only (35157 Johnson Does Big Things (Continued from Page 9) Then came the blow that booted him out of the industry for sev eral years. The United States Senate investigated the aircraft industry and airline contracts were cancelled. One of the terms under which the contracts were renewed was that a number of aircraft executives leave the in dustry for five years. Johnson was included. Because he always had been connected with the operating ra ther than financing end. Johnson felt he had been treated unfairly. Be considers that vindication came in 193? when he was asked by the Canadian National Rail ways to establish an airline across Canada. Result was Trans-Canada Airway. Johnson returned far a second term as president of Boeing when the company, m financial distress, ought aid from New York bank- Assistance was promised take ers. only; if Johnson 'would :ttrge. V "Lack? fair the lat they gat ys back, last at this time, a yrUnd sail te Joans when Ua " t!eeUB was aanecaoed. r7 "Laeky far. ma Cay; teak me ' $ek, JekBsea rty'Jfct meCest- ;i (XtstConsil ifc. pouglas) It's Bishop's ... for Correct Wear When You Go by Air! b f w sA We Join With - All Salem in Wishing the Best for United Air Lines on the Inauguration of. it's Salem Service " I OAt.lC ' l.-J we-'-r-tSf VE TOOK YOU UP Oil IT HERE'S THE Yon wanted a mtt ahead of the times. Wre fir tag you the Stetson -&ratolme. . modern RMm-Iiaed fccautj tfcarVa jlimpee into the tore, today! Air-minded atylingidoes the trick downtotlsMftinjsflTeTyhat-bTr "nn riaiai ts fr r' 1 ' United Air Linei' famous Mainliner. now .crre Silem, with morn ing and evening flight, to Portland, Seattle. Medf ord, San Francisco, Lo Angele. and San Diego. At Portland, both flight, connect with United coast-to-coast flight-The Daylight Flyer and The Conti nental deeper to Chicago, New York and the principal citie. of the Eert. Sare day-fly in -Mainliner. SALEf.l JOINS THE DUSICJESG ROUTE OF THE HATiOtJ United Air Lines' Main Line Airway serve . the leading center, of bu.ineM and national defend It link, every major Pacific Coast city with the Mid-Vest, and the great industrial chic of the East. SJSkl lOSNOEtES. 6Vhr MEDFORO . . lVhrt. CHICAGO . .13Vh. SANfttANCISC0 4Vh. NEW YORK .17kh WASHINGTON, D.C 10 W mmeaammMoJaM-J . V Salem Airport . -V - 7 - ' - .. . . - v V : .. . ....... ; . : v . .' . -a .-," . : ... -
