The Daily Alaska empire., 1945-01-26
PAN AMERICAN HAS RECORD IN
 NAVY SERVICE
Report Shows Nearly Six teen Million Miles
 Flown in Pacific

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26. - Pan American World Airways has flown more than l5,698,0 900 plane miles for the Naval Air Transport Service In the Pacific war theater, it is dis closed in the first review of the afr lines wartime contract operations for the. Navy
 Between September l, 1922, and October 31, 1944, Pan American car ried 57OOo passengers. flew l33,453,- 900 passenger miles and accounted for 23536,ooO ton miles of cargo.
 The total plane miles flown is equivalent to more than 600 flights around the world Passenger miles flown would be the equivalent of the transport of a division and half of infantry from San Francisco to Tokyo or four divisions from San Francisco to Honolulu. The 17000,- 900 gallons of gasoline consumed are the equivalent of seven 60,000 barrel tankers or a train of railroad tank cars IS miles long Moreover, if one of Pan Americans master pilots, Captain F. c. Richards, who has flown more than 2,500 hours Of war time flying, has been circumnavigat- ing the globe, he would be almost completing his fourteenth trip round the world. tsAs x N4F t4
 Pan Americans facilities in the area, where it pioneered the worlds first trans ocean airway in 1885, went on full war footing shortly after the first bomb dropped on. Pearl Harbor. Initial Jap successes cut the airline's 15,000 miles of trans Pacific routes ito less than one seventh of it's 'prewar systenl-the 2,500-mile airway between the U. s. mainland and Hawaii.
 In addition to concentrated ser- vice over this sector under Navy priority, Pan American undertook extensive contract operations for the Navy beyond Hawaii with the es- tablishment of the N. A. T. s. in 1942. In the development of it's Pa cific routes, the N A. T. s. made full use of the experience and personnel of Pan American. The N. A. T. S. South Pacific system followed at first the routes flown by Pan Am erican in the area, using the we'll known bases of Canton Islands, Noumea in New Caledonia, Suva, Fiji, and Auckland, New Zealand.
 Later routes were added in ac- cordance with the changing fortunes of war, apd planes operated by Pan American for. the Navy made. regular stops at such Pacific outposts as Funafuti, Espirtu1 Santo, Efate Wallis, Samari. Kaneoche, Tongata- bu, Upolu, Penrhyn, Masilxai River, Nandi and Milne Bay During the period, with portssof call established as military, necessity dictated, the route stretched 11,959 statute miles, from San Francisco to Australia.
 Eighty-five crews flew fleet of 23i flying boats over the South Pa cific supply Hines Planes used were converted military patrol bombers- the Consolidated Coronado, PB2Y-3 and the Martin Mariner, PBM-3, and the airline's Boeing-built Clip pers, B-314s, on commercial sched- ule from San Francisco to Honolulu under Navy priority. The airline's personnel increased 363 percent, equipment 833 percent and ton miles flown 806 percent.
 Intensive training courses were set up for flight and ground per- sonnel. In the field, the staff in- creased from 65 to more than 500 Hangar facilities rat San Francisco were doubled Military aircraft, un-' tried as. cargo planes, were converted for their new jobs by the airline and Pan Americans engine ring depart ment made many improvements which contributed to the efficiency of the Coronados and the Mariners. Ehginees designed firewalis for the Coronado, redesigned it's cowling to speed maintenance and shorten ser vice time, worked out Improvements for electrical propeller installation and designed an engine run-up stand to expedite trouble shooting. Short exhaust stacks were developed for the Mariner, and the hulls of both military types were stripped to save weight, cut maintenance manhours and eliminate the dangers of cor roSion under painted bottom
 Maintenance manual publications and cruising control data were pre- pared for use by the Navy. Recoop- ering methods were devised to re- duce weight of cargo shipments. Vital cargo has ranged from a deli cate replacement part for radar equipment weighing only a few ounces, to such sizeable pieces as 2,200-pound shaft for the deck of carrier