AVIATION: Pan Am Up, BOAC Down

In front of mammoth Hangar 10 at Washington’s National Airport last week, the First Lady of the U.S. smashed a bottle of water from the seven seas on the fuselage of a Pan American Boeing 707—and officially ushered the U.S. into the commercial jet age. With water still dripping from a steel plate installed to protect it from Mamie Eisenhower’s blow, the newly christened jet clipper America was pulled out onto the apron while 6,000 guests looked on. An hour later the plane screamed down a 7,000-ft. runway and off to Baltimore, where it took aboard 41 notables (including Pan Am President Juan Trippe and 33 newspaper and magazine executives) for a junket to Brussels. Just seven hours and 19 minutes after leaving Baltimore, it landed on the rainswept runway at Brussels’ Melsbroek Airport. Average speed: 540 m.p.h.

The flight was a prelude to the start of scheduled commercial flights between New York and Paris this week, and between New York and London Nov. 16. Still up in the air are flights to Rome. Though Rome last week gave technical clearance to the 707s to operate from Ciampino Airport, the Italian government has so far refused “political” clearance, may force Pan Am to fly its jet passengers from Paris to Rome in prop planes until the clearance comes through.

Pan Am lost the race to use the first pure jets on the Atlantic run with revenue passengers when BOAC’s Comet IV three weeks ago began a weekly London-New York run. BOAC hoped to follow up its head start by beginning daily New York-London flights on Nov. 14. Last week BOAC’s Comets were grounded by a wildcat strike of maintenance workers that stopped all BOAC flights out of London Airport. The strike was called by longtime Communist Union Leader Sid Maitland after five maintenance men said they were fired for refusing to work overtime, the climax of a long dispute over wages. If the strike continues, all BOAC flights will soon be grounded. Even if the strike ends soon, it is doubtful that enough air crewmen can pack in their Comet training in time to begin the daily transatlantic flights. Said a BOAC official last week: “It’s bitter to have run so hard and then see the tape snapped just as you’re going to breast it.”