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Aviation History
1966
1966 - 0448.PDF
275 FLIGHT International, (7 February 1966 Two units of Eastern s fleet, „ DCS and a 727, seen soon after the new "corporate Jkge" had begun to be applied to the airline s air- craft "Flight" photograph early maps of the local area, teak counters and re-styled furniture in ionosphere blue, magenta and gold upholstery. New "Falcon Lounges" for first-class passengers at Atlanta, New York (Kennedy) and Miami will be extended to other key terminals. New terminals are under way at La Guardia, Houston, Boston and Logan (Mass). A new series of "Famous Restaurant Flights" (14 inter- national routes in the initial schedule) exemplify the extreme lengths being pursued to secure a paragon reputation for meal service. The aim has been to provide the same gourmet specialities and gracious service for "dining" (not "eating") while flying as in the most famous restaurants on the ground. New stewardess costumes with a more feminine look have been designed. Special training courses have been provided and supervisors have been given hairstyling courses. A new team of ground hostesses has also been introduced. Such a penetrating overall recovery programme could reasonably be expected to take several years to produce full results, but under the drive of the new management massive strides were made in the first year. A vital ingredient in this programme has been an enlightened industrial and per- sonal-relations policy under new vice-president Mr Ralph Skinner, recruited from Pennsylvania Railroad. Required view- ing has been "Sunrise at Eastern"—a colour film giving a candid recital of Eastern's reverses in recent years and new management solutions. Engineering reliability has been greatly improved by strict attention to line maintenance, enabling Eastern to jump from tenth to top of the on-time ratings of US carriers during the final nine months of 1964; it has remained at or near the top ever since. To help to maintain this level of performance, Mr Lewis set up a new system control centre at Miami for hour-by-hour co-ordination of operations. A reservations-response target of 90 per cent within 20 seconds was met by April 1964. Well over 90 per cent of baggage is now being cleared inside the 12-minute target. Passenger comment cards and letters have reversed the ratio of complaints/compliments to 60 per cent in favour of the new service standards. Significantly reduced costs have also accrued from careful fuel purchase and management, a newly planned in-flight crew-meal service, computer flight planning, and maximum use of simulators and light aircraft to reduce on-line aircraft training time. A fully instrumented Aero Commander 500B has been bought to check out co-pilots for air transport ratings and is being used 50 hours a week. At least 100 pilots a year will be checked out with this aircraft instead of using 'arger and more expensive types. Small jets are also being evaluated for this purpose. The 1965 revenue target of $500 million (£180 million)—21 Per cent up on 1964—was exceeded and the profit goal of at •east $14 million (£5 million) was more than doubled at around $28.5 million (£10 million —compared with a loss of "8 milll°n (£2 million) in 1964, on top of more than $65 million (£23 million) losses since 1960. The airlines debt/s quity ratio was also reduced from 6:1 to 2:1 by the year end. in consequence Mr Hall said that Eastern "had done ,many said could not be done in ten years" and the 'S ely to resume cash dividends early this year. There ^nue ^et is up by a further 11.1 per cent tom fhoii (£200 million). The airline plans to increase its of the domestic-trunk industry revenue from 13.6 per cent to 13.8 per cent, and, as Mr Lewis puts it, "to upgrade services measurably while limiting increases in expenses." Revenues are expected to reach $1,000 million (£360 million) by 1970. Eastern had its origins in Pitcairn Aviation, which was organised as an aircraft manufacturer and operator on Sep- tember 15, 1927, after bidding successfully for an air-mail contract between New York and Atlanta on December 23, 1926. Operations began on May 1, 1928, and were extended to Miami on December 1, using ten of its own Pitcairn Mailwing single-seater aircraft. Pitcairn was sold for $2.5 million (£900,000) to North American Aviation on July 10, 1929, and took the name Eastern Air Transport on January 17, 1930. Service was extended in August 1930 to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and Richmond. New York Airways (no relation of the present helicopter operating company of this name), operating a mail and pas- senger service between New York, Atlantic City and Camden, was bought from Pan American on July 15, 1931. Two years later Ludington Airlines, a non-mail carrier and principal competitor on the New York to Washington route, was also absorbed. Control of North American Aviation was bought by General Motors Corporation on February 28, 1933. On June 1, 1933, Capt Edward Vernon Rickenbacker, already a legendary figure as a champion racing driver and America's most famous World War One flying ace, became vice-president of North American. On April 31, 1934, Eastern Air Transport became Eastern Air Lines and at the end of the year EAL was made a division of North American Aviation, with Rickenbacker as general manager. Meanwhile, new routes included Chicago- Jacksonville (via Atlanta), an extension from Atlanta to Bir- mingham, Mobile and New Orleans, and a direct service between New York and Miami. A further extension to Houston came on December 1, 1936, as a result of the purchase of the Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation. Rickenbacker and his associates raised $3.5 million (£1.2 million) to buy the airline's assets when North American decided to sell its holding on April 22, 1938, and he became its president as well as general manager. The new company had been incorporated as Eastern Air Lines Inc under Dela- ware law on March 29, 1948. A little-known fact is that Eastern operated the world's first scheduled service using rotary-winged aircraft when it began experimental operations on July 6, 1939, at Philadelphia, flying mail from the roof of the Post Office to Camden Airport with a Kellett KD-1B autogyro. The service lasted about a year and ante-dated the first scheduled helicopter service by eight years. The new company continued to grow until 1942, when, the US having entered World War Two, the airline turned over more than half its 40 DC-3s to the Army. A Military Trans- port Division was set up, which operated in conjunction with the Army Air Transport Command over 6,500 miles of route from Miami through the Caribbean, across the north coast of South America and the South Atlantic to Accra in West Africa. When this division was discontinued in 1945, 130,000 passengers and nearly 24,000 tons of cargo had been carried and almost 34.5 million miles flown. Peacetime resumption of services led to the acquisition of DC-4s in 1946 (ordered at the outbreak of war), Constella-
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