I’ve been reading about Boeing and the problems with the new 787 recently and I got to thinking about airplanes and stuff. I’ve always been a fan of airplanes and until fairly recently was involved with the aerospace industry in various ways.
When we were living in the Philippines, we lived in the same apartment building with the Simpsons — Hugh and Genny. Hugh worked in the same office as I did and was the Chief Operations Officer. He was a really interesting guy to talk to, and I especially enjoyed some of his stories because he worked for a number of years for Pan American Airways. He did a lot of really cool things.
I remember him telling a story of being associated with a flight that made history in 1943. I’m not sure of the actual date of the flight, but it occurred in January, 1943. Here’s the story as I remember it. The Casablanca Conference was a meeting between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in — guess where? Casablanca, Morocco!! Duh!!
Anyhow, the conference itself is certainly historical, but what caught my attention as Hugh was telling the story was that the President traveled to the conference via a Boeing 314 “flying boat.” It was the first time a sitting U.S. President had flown in an airplane.
Apparently the crew was kept in the dark until the President arrived — they only knew that the passenger was a VIP. The trip began at the Pan American Airways base in Miami. The President, his top advisor and several military leaders on one airplane — another “flying boat” carried the Presidential staff.
But my favorite Hugh story was about the first commercial round-the-world flight. The year was 1947 and Pan Am had just acquired new airplanes — Lockeed Constellations. To show off the capability of their new fleet, Pan Am planned to inaugurate round-the-world flight service in June of that year. Juan Trippe of Pan Am had a political agenda, and to further that agenda as well as drum up publicity for the company, he arranged a gala ceremonial trip round-the-world before the official inauguration of the service to the public. The passengers were all VIPs of some sort, many of them journalists from various newspapers and publications. The Cleveland Plain Dealer had a representative on board. A few government representatives also made the trip. The plane chosen for the trip was one of the new Constellations, the “Clipper America.”
The trip took 13 days. Here’s the Itinerary (I had to look this up)….
Depart La Guardia Airport, New York
Gander, Newfoundland
Shannon, Ireland
London, England
Istanbul, Turkey
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Karachi, Pakistan
Calcutta, India
Bangkok, Thailand
Manila, Philippines
Shanghai, China
Tokyo, Japan
Guan
Wake Island
Midway Island
Honolulu, HI
San Francisco, CA
Chicago, IL
Arrive La Guardia Airport, New York
What made this an even cooler story is that Hugh Simpson was the First Radio Operator on that flight. He had all the trinkets to prove it.
I’m guessing that Hugh would probably scoff at the battery problems at Boeing….
—30—
Hugh was really a neat guy. Regarding the first ’round the world flight, one of his duties as the Chief Radio Operator was to send messages of the dignitaries on board the flight which included post card greetings – like “spent a beautiful day on the beach in Honolulu” and how these dignitaries did not understand that their messages were sent AFTER official messages. There was another gentlemen in the PI who also was a pioneer in the airline industry communication field – but he wasn’t as much fun as Hugh and Ginny were.