UNITED AIR LINES OF AMERICA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 44, 26 April 1940, Page 47

UNITED AIR LINES OF AMERICA

Representative Broadcasts From ZB Stations

H. FORREST, recently appointed Traffic Manager of e United Air Lines, in Australia and New Zealand, was recently introduced to listeners over the ZB stations, when he gave an interesting talk on air transportation in America. Commercial aviation in America began by the transport of mail by air, in 1918, when the Post Office started an air line. They ran an air service from New York to Washington, D.C., and later this was extended to a mail service from coast to coast of the United States. This route was known as the mid-Con-tinent-route, and was from New York, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City, to San Francisco. United Air Lines route is at present from San Francisco, to Los. Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, transContinental to join the main line to New York. The air mail service from New York to San Francisco was operated by the Post Office until 1927, but as early as 1925 they began to consider placing the air traffic problems in the hands of commercial air line companies. The first private air mail company of America made its initial flight on April 6, 1926. To-day, Mr. Forrest explained, the distribution of mail is in the hands of 19 such companies, and the complete service extends all over the United States. United Air Lines alone flies 52,000 miles per day, or twice round the world! To-day there are three trans-Continental Air Services across America. United Air Lines is the fastest and shortest air-

route, trans-Continental, and it has the distinction of flying the United States from border to border.

" Passengers, in the early days, were of secondary importance," Mr. Forrest told listeners. "If they were too heavy for the ‘plane (and there was only one passenger to each ’plane) the mail had to come first and the passenger was left. But to-day it is quite different. Over 2,000,000 people were air passengers in America in 1939." Air liners in America offer every possible comfort to tourists to-day. The modern 21-passenger Douglas D.C.3 consists of a crew, captain, sécond officer, and stewardess; United Air Lines has a fleet of 52 of these machines. There is a passenger salon which is 28 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 6144 feet

high in each airship. The cabins are scientifically soundproof, and air-con-ditioned. The same ’planes for night service are converted. The salons are turned into sleepers, with 12 upper and 12 lower berths, each berth 64 feet long, and 30 inches wide. There is also a clubroom for those who do not want to sleep, where they may play cards, write letters and so forth. These sleeper ‘planes are proving very popular, as half the scheduled flights in America are done at night, and nowadays only threetenths of one per cent. of the travellers are subject to air-sickness. Hot foods are served by United Air Lines, from their own kitchens. Commissaries, and kitchens are stationed all along the routes, and hot food is put aboard the "plane, and kept hot until meal time. It is then served to passengers on individual tables, covered with linen, set with real china, and a complete set of silver. Meals are all free, and there is no tipping permitted, making the fare all-inclusive. "Some people are still of the opinion that the cost of air transportation is extremely high, but that is not so, considering the comfort in which one may travel, and the speed with which one arrives at one’s destination," said Mr. Forrest. " Air transport is growing closer and closer to your door, and with the advent of the Tasman Empire Airway Service, from Auckland to Sydney, and from Auckland to San Francisco, by PanAmerican Airways, New Zealand is within easy distance of the rest of the world."