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Aviation History Film Clips
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| U.S. Army Air Force, Purs... |
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The China Clipper (Literary Digest, 1935)
"When the twenty-five-ton Martin transport-plane successfully passed its preliminary tests at Baltimore a few days ago, preparatory to entering the regular service of Pan American Airways, it was an occasion of world significance. In all likelihood this new member of the famous Clipper series will be the first to establish regular passenger and mail service across the Pacific." *Watch A 1930s Film Clip About The Pan Am China Clipper Air Service*
| The Earliest Airline Stewardesses (The Literary Digest, 1933)
By the time this article hit the newsstands, the airline stewardess job was no longer a novelty and there were twenty-five women working in relays on the trans-continental run between Chicago and Oakland. The woman who held the record as the first airline stewardess, Ellen Church (1904 - 1965), was hired two and a half years earlier.
In addition to other restrictions, the earliest flight attendants were all required to be no older than 26, weigh no more than 118 pounds, stand no taller than 5"4 and hold nursing degrees in order that they be prepared to soothe the frayed nerves of the flight-fearing passengers.
However, judging by this article, these women must have been broad-shouldered amazons. The anonymous reporter who penned these columns compared them to the pioneer women of old, who braved the frontier crossings, fought the savages, healed the sick and stooped in the fields just long enough to give birth.
| General Billy Mitchell: Advocate of American Airpower (American Legion Weekly,1921)
This is one of the editorials written by U.S. Army General Billy Mitchell (1879 – 1936) which only served to annoy the senior army leadership and their civilian overlords in Washington. Published in THE AMERICAN LEGION WEEKLY (a U.S. veteran's magazine) General Mitchell made his case for the creation of a unique branch of the military confined entirely to air power that was distinct and independent of the Army:"England recognized what her problem was very early in the last war, and in 1917 she concentrated her whole aviation into an arm co-equal with the army and the navy under a Ministry of Air. She recognized clearly the difference between what an air force is and what an air service is..."
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