FIRST FLIGHT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23699, 4 July 1940, Page 8

FIRST FLIGHT

PACIFIC SERVICE PAN AMERICAN CLIPPER STARTING ON JULY 12 NEW YORK, Jttjy .j The Pan American Airways Clip*p er will not carry passengers, to New Zea land on its first two trips. On thu fi rst flight, which will start on .July 12, ; the commander will be Captain John Tilton The first "officer will be Captain R. J Nixon. Both have participated i n previous survey flights on various routes.

There are already 100,000 first-flight covers waiting at San Francisco, and 25,000 more are expected before the mail closes on July 10.

There is some uncertainty whether the machine will carry direct Australian mail. The Post Office has announced that it will not be.carried, but Pan American Airways announces that it will carry Australian mail at 60 cents'a half-ounce, coippared frith 50 cents to New Zealand.

Mr. Harold Gatty, representative of Pan American Airways in New Zealand, will travel on the first flight.

Commanded by a veteran pilot already held in high esteem in Auckland, the American Clipper, -which was engaged for over a year on the Atlantic route of the company, will inaugurate the South Pacific service of the Pan American Company. No detailed schedule, relating; to the flight has yet been received by the company'.* base at Auckland, hut it is probable that it will be on similar lines to those which were followed on previous trips to New Zealand.

Cnptain Tilton will be making his second trip to New Zealand, as he commanded the California Clipper on her survey flight to Auckland in August, of last year. His quieit and unassuming manner conceals a reputation worthily gained as one of the United States' foremost commercial pilots. He served in the Great War within American Air Force unit, and later commercial aviation. For the past 10 years he has been with Pan American Airways and now holds the post of chief pilot of the Pacific division. The company is apparently following customary policy in opening up a new route by "sending two captains in flyingboats on the first few trips, one heing an officer who lias previously flown over the route and the other Being one whom it is desired to acquaint with I;he conditions of the new run. This accounts for Captain R. J. Nixon making the flight as first officer.- For about three and a-half years he lias been flying on the Orient route between San Francisco and Hongkong. The New Zealand representative of Pan American Airways, Mr. Harold Gatty, is returning to the Dominion after spending some months in the United States, where he continued his unremitting work for the inauguration of the service. Apart from his success as an administrator*. Mr. Gatty is regarded as an authority tin aerial navigation. and he made aviation history bv a notable flight around the world with the late Mr. Wiley Post.