Aviation has become one of the most important links of Inter-American unity. Before the war, the swift advance of air transportation in the Western Hemisphere was a powerful force in bringing the Americas closer together. Today, after Pearl Harbor and Singapore, aviation has a still greater task to perform in protecting and unifying the Americas.
Cooperation in the defense of the hemisphere and mobilization of its vast economic resources logically must bring greater development of aviation, in military, commercial and civilian flying.
“Air tour of American
Republics will be undertaken by Inter-American Escadrille”
Defense periodical, 1941.
A group of private citizens interested in the development of
aviation in the Western Hemisphere will leave Washington March 5th
for a three month air tour of all American Republics, Nelson A. Rockefeller,
Coordinator of Commercial and Cultural Relations between American Republics,
announced March 1, 1941. The air tour
will be undertaken by the Inter-American Escadrille, a private nonprofit
organization. The Coordinators office has cooperated with the Escadrille in arrangements
for the flight.
Survey of aviation development
The group will contact leaders of civil aviation in each of
the American Republics to obtain their views concerning the future development
of aviation in their respective nations. As a background for this survey, the Coordinator’s
office, in cooperation with other interested agencies of the Government, has
studied most of the available data on the development and present status of
civil aviation in this hemisphere.
Flight members
The flight will be led by Major General Frank R. McCoy,
United States Army, retired, president of the Foreign Policy Association and
director of the Council on Foreign Relations. General McCoy has had long experience
in Inter-American relations and served as chief of several conciliatory missions
concerned with hemisphere political and economic affairs.
Walter Bruce Howe, who has also represented the United
States on several missions to the other American Republics, will accompany General
McCoy as personal assistant and council.
Alfredo de los Rios, well-known flier and Chilean-born
newspaperman, will serve as copilot and will present the program and aims of
the Inter-American Escadrille.
J.M. Farris, on leave of absence from Eastern Airlines
through the courtesy of Captain E.V. Rickenbacker, will serve as chief pilot and
Luis O. Medina, a native of Bogotá, Columbia, will serve as mechanic.
Itinerary
The mission will cover approximately 28,000 miles on the
tour, going first to Cuba, and thereafter, in the following order: to Haiti,
the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile,
Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El
Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico.
The mission will fly in a Grumman twin-engine amphibian.
Escadrille directors
The Inter-American Escadrille founded in 1935 by Mr. de los
Rios, has among its directors Dr. James Rowland Angeil, president emeritus of
Yale University; Dr. Carlos Duvila, Chilean diplomat, statesman, and newspaper
publisher; Allen W. Dulles, prominent international lawyer, and James P. Warburg,
economist and former Treasury official.
“Wings” for the Americas
The Inter-American Escadrille proposes to facilitate such
cooperation through the establishment of chapters or “Wings” in each of the
American Republics. A detailed plan of organization has been prepared. This
will be presented to the Civil Aviation leaders in each country as a guide for
such action as they may care to take. Each “Wing” will be completely
self-governing and merely affiliated with the international organization, the
headquarters of which will be determined each year at a convention of representative
of the national Wings.
Letter written by James Farris (pilot of
Grumman) to David Behneke, President of Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) on August 25th, 1941 stated:
Sponsors
"Aside from being
financed by the U.S. Government, we had several sponsors, among them being
Bendix, who loaned us the latest thing out in automatic direction equipment,
which is a very valuable and useful instrument.
Pratt & Whitney furnished us with spare parts for the engine, such
as cylinders, pistons, etc. One of the active organizers of the flight was John
Montgomery, President of the Tri-American Aviation Corporation. An old doctor who spent 30 years in the Brazilian
jungles rigged us out with a very complete medicine chest and gave Alfredo and
I some instruction in hypodermic injection for this and for that, which we of
course immediately forgot, it being too much for our cranial capacity. The Jardur Import Company of New York furnished each of us
with a waterproof, shockproof, stainless steel, chronograph aviation watch."
Left to right: Luis O. Median (mechanic), Nelson A. Rockefeller, Alfredo de los Rios, James E. Farris (pilot), General Frank McCoy, & Walter Bruce Howe
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