Evening star., 1941-08-20
Joint Strategy Seen
In New Plane Route
To Near East
Pan American Airwoys
Acts Swiftly to Put
PIon in Operation
BY w. H. SHIPPEN, Jr.

Roosevelt Churchill strategy ap-
parently lies behind the Govern
ment's first move into commercial
aviation with plan for an Or
ganized ferry and transport service
to the Near East via Central Africa.
Observers here believe the two
leaders were convinced at their re-
cent ocean conference that Russia
can hold the Nazis long enough to
permit England to line up Turkey
and Iran, and strengthen her posi-
ton for an offensive in the Near
East.
One of the Presidents first moves
on his return to Washington was
announcement of an agreement with
Pan American Airways for trans
Atlantic, trans-African service on an
8000-mile, semi-circular route whose
Eastern terminus probably will be
Cairo. Egypt.
Company Acts Swiftly.
Pan American, a pioneer in the
establishment of far-f1ung aerial
routes, is moving swiftly to put the
new plan into operation. Personnel
and equipment already Is being
transferred, it was understood, and
the company is expected to make
an immediate request for a Federal
-permit to operate a commercial line
from the Atlantic Seaboard to the
West Coast of Africa.
1t was understood the State De-
partment has applied to the
Brazilian government for permission
to transport military aircraft to
West Africa from take-off point
at Natal or some other base near
the Eastern bulge OF the South
American continent. Only COM
mercial transports, it was said, have
been flown over this route so far,
although American fighters and
light bombers have been shipped to
Freetown, in British Sierra Leone,
and Bathurst, in British Gambia, on
the Eastern bulge of Africa.
The British have been flying these
planes along the Ivory and Gold
Coasts, across the continent above
the Equator to POINTS, in Central
Anglo o-Egyptian Sudan and thence
north of Cairo. Too, the English
have flown some bombers from the
British Isles along the Northwest
African coast and across the con-
tinent for delivery in the Near East,
it was said.
Valuable Equipment Lost.
The English, however, have been
reserving their best pilots and navi-
gators for combat service, it was
| said, with the result that some valu-
able equipment has been lost over
the Central African route. In
| formation available here is that
only Indifferent ground facilities
exist over the long route which
crosses deep jungles, seml-arid
plateaus and mountains of the in
terror.
Pan American will tackle the
| toughest job in its long history
when ground crews and technicians
begin eouipping bases on this Cen
! tral African route. Some material
can be flown in, but most will have
to be transported over rough ter
rain where few, if any, motor roads
exist.
1t was believed here that increas-
ing numbers of bombers, medium
heavy and light, will be flown over
| this route when fog and freezing
weather, expected by mid-November,
all but close the North Atlantic to
air traffic.
The commercial planes to be put
/ into the new service will be owned
by the United States Government
and operated by American person.
mel They probably will fly fiom
New York and Baltimore and pro-
ceed to Brazil via Puerto Rico and
j. Trinidad, to provide additional pas