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Pioneers, from Page 5York Public Library while looking for possible refueling stops for a route to China. For a brief time, it was one of the most famous places inthe world.Trippe was born in New York in 1899. son a NewYork investment banker. When he was 10 his father took him to an air race in which the Statue of Liberty was one of the pylons. From that time young Trippe yearned to be an aviator. He studied radio, then went to the Curtiss Flying School in Miami. When World War I came along he joined the Navy because they had airplanes. He soloed over Long Island, then flew Hying boats at Hampton Roads. Virginia, and Pensecola, Florida. When he was 21 his father died, and he entered Yale to learn business. His outlet was still flying, racing war surplus airplanes, and when he graduated he was determined to start an airline, and in 1927 he organized Pan American Airways with the help of some of his friends with such names as Vanderbilt. Rockefeller, and Whitney, and then secured the Key West to Havana mail contract. A performance date could not be met. because Key West had no airport, only rocky fields, he realized that a seaplane could land off Key West, and land offshore Cuba. too. Hecalled everywhere to find a seaplane, and finally found one in Miami which had landed for repairs on its wayto Haiti. Trippe paid the pilot $250 to stop at Key West, pick up the mail, and fly it to Havana. From there the pilot proceeded to Haiti, having saved the fledgling airline by meeting the deadline. Three days later the Key West field was ready and regular flights began using a Ford trimotorairplane.Passenger service began in 1 9 2 8 withaccommodations such as 8 wicker chairs, sliding glass windows and a round trip fare of $100. Navigation was strictly done by looking for landmarks, even during rain and fog. Early radios couldweigh as much as 14001bs. and Trippe hired a radioexperimenter/inventor tobuild a small, long range radio to use in guiding the airplanes. The result was the direction finder first used by Pan Am and later by the U.S. warplanes in World WarII.The next expansion goal was South America, but the range of existing planes was only 200 to 300 miles. The new route was through theWest Indies, along a chain of islands, to Trinidad, off the South American coast, 1,930miles long then on toColombia. Peru, and Chile.The first Miami to Panama flight was piloted by the world's most famous aviator. Charles Lindbergh, Pan Am's newest pilot and technical advisor. Expansion continued over South America. Then came the first See Pioneers, Page 9
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Wimberley Wednesday View
Wimberley, Texas, US
Wed, Feb 23, 1994
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USA 28 May 2019
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