me pieamoninm
PAI's First 737
Is Taking
Shape
VOL. IX, NO. 9
THE BEST WAY TO TRAVEL — ALL OVER PIEDMONTLAND
NOVEMBER, 1967
Piedmont Signs Contract For Ten YS-ll’s
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$22 MILLION SIGNATURES of President Davis, Atsu-
shi Miyamoto, Mr. Morton and Francis Sogi finalize
the order. A total of 12 documents were signed in
the final purchase agreement.
737 Delivery
Will Be Delayed
The delivery of the first of
Piedmont’s six Boeing 737’s will
be delayed approximately 60
days according to a recent an
nouncement by the Boeing Com
pany.
Boeing’s production problems
have caused the delay for a num
ber of airlines.
Piedmont’s first 737 was
scheduled for delivery early
next March, but due to the re
vised plans the first jet will
reach Piedmont in May. Two
more will arrive in July, fol
lowed by two in August, with
the last of the six scheduled for
delivery in September. The total
jet order will be complete by
September or only one month
behind the original delivery
plan.
To help take care of the delay
Boeing has agreed to allow Pied
mont to keep the 727 now in
service for a longer period of
time than originally contracted.
Seventh Consecutive Dividend
Is Declared on PAI Common Stock
A semi-annual cash dividend
of 10 cents per share was de
clared by the Company’s Board
of Directors at their regular
quarterly meeting in October.
This marks the seventh con
secutive semi-annual cash divi
dend to be declared by Pied
mont. The previous six have
been declared regularly since
October, 1964. The new dividend
on the Company’s common stock
is payable December 1, 1967, to
stockholders of record on Nov.
15, 1967.
Net Earnings
The Board of Directors also
announced that net earnings of
the Company for the first nine
months of 1967 were $1,225,390,
as compared to $1,368,700 during
the same period in 1966. It was
pointed out, however, that $1,-
063,900 of the 1967 earnings re
sulted from the sale of aircraft
and equipment formerly used by
the Airline Division. Earnings
per share for the first three
quarters of this year were 66
cents based on the number of
shares outstanding as of Septem
ber 30, 1967. Total revenues dur
ing this period were up 18 per
cent to $36,819,429.
Passenger Increase
The Airline Division provided
service to 1,373,701 passengers
during the first nine moriths of
1967 as compared to 1,201,069
passengers for the similar 1966
period, a 14.4 per cent increase.
These passengers flew 339,536,-
648 revenue passenger miles, an
increase of 18.8 per cent over the
same period last year.
The passenger load factor for
January 1 through September 30
of this year was 53.52 per cent,
one of the airline industry’s
highest load factors.
Johnson Is Appoinfed To Position
of Supervisor-Cafering Services
Former flight attendant, John
R. Johnson, has been appointed
to fill the newly-created position
of supervisor-catering services.
In his new position, Johnson
^ill be assigned to the home
office in Winston-Salem. His pri
mary responsibility will be the
overall supervision of catering
services aboard Piedmont flights.
This supervision will incorpor
ate the letting of contracts, food
preparation and in-flight service
to Piedmont’s passengers by
stewardesses.
Johnson began his career with
Piedmont in 1957 as a station
agent at Richmond, Va. In 1958,
upon completion of flight atten
dant training in Norfolk, Va.,
he was transferred to Washing
ton, D. C., where he was based
until this promotion.
A native of Winston-Salem, N.
C., Johnson graduated from
JOHN JOHNSON
Lewisville High School and at
tended Western Carolina College
at Cullowhee, N. C. He is the son
of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Johnson
of Winston-Salem.
New Boeing 737
Is Readied For
FAA Certification
Formal Federal Aviation Ad
ministration certification testing
of the Boeing 737 is scheduled to
begin in November.
The FAA started participating
in the program in May, a little
over a month after the first
flight of the 737. Nearly 50 hours
of FAA certification have been
logged. The work has centered
in such areas as fuel and engine
systems and the auxiliary power
unit.
The FAA program, which
leads to certification of the 737
for scheduled airline service, en
compasses all areas of ground
and flight operations of the new
twinjet. During the six-months
Boeing developmental phase the
test fleet successfully performed
all of the flight and ground tests
it will be demonstrating to the
FAA.
Testing of the long-body 737-
200’s has followed a pattern of
one airplane working in the
aerodynamics area and the other
concentrating on avionics and
autopilot testing.
Piedmont Airlines has pur
chased ten Nihon YS-11 short-to-
medium range jet-powered air
liners with an option for an
additional ten. The purchase
agreement was approved by the
company Board of Directors at
their regular quarterly meeting
in Winston-Salem on Wednes
day, October 18, 1967, and the
order was signed the following
Friday by President T. H. Davis
and Nihon Executive Vice Presi
dent A. Miyamoto, with officials
from both companies in attend
ance.
Delivery In March
Delivery of the first of the
new airliners will be in March
of 1968 followed by two each
month, with the last of the ten
to be delivered in August. They
will be put into operation over
the system in April and all ten
are anticipated to be in service
by late summer next year.
In commenting on the pur
chase, President Davis said,
“From the standpoint of the ulti
mate in passenger comfort and
continued profitable progress of
the company, we sorely need a
modern jet-powered aircraft to
replace our Martin 404’s. To do
this, we had to find an aircraft
that would also operate with a
full load from small mountain
ous airports and still cruise at
relatively high speed. The YS-11
is the only aircraft meeting
these exacting requirements.”
Policy of Service
“Piedmont’s policy over the
years has been to provide ser
vice to all of our cities — the
largest to the smallest •— with
the most modern, comfortable
and dependable aircraft avail
able. It has also been our policy
to do this without making it
necessary for the cities we serve
to spend large sums of money
expanding their airports. Pied
mont serves more cities with
relatively small airports i n
mountainous terrain than any
other regional airline.”
Vice President C. Gordon
Brown, Jr., said of the purchase,
“Our traffic growth continues to
increase steadily and seating
capacity is becoming an ex
tremely important consideration
in aircraft selection, keeping in
mind, of course, direct operating
costs.”
For maximum passenger com
fort, the YS-11 features a spac
ious cabin with wide first class
seating for all 60 passengers.
Two windows rather than a
single one for each row of seats
makes the cabin brighter and
affords passengers better visi
bility.
A built-in hydraulic airstair
will expedite passenger loading.
Adding further to ground time
efficiency, will be the YS-ll’s
auxiliary power unit, which will
provide air-conditioning on the
ground as well as in flight and
engine starting capability with
out the need of ground power
units.
Pi’essurization
Efficient cabin pressurization
for the comfort of passengers,
has also received special atten
tion in the YS-11. The cabin
pressurization system operates
automatically and will maintain
sea level atmospheric conditions
up to altitudes of 8,000 feet. At
20,000 feet, cabin pressure can be
maintained at a level equivalent
to 9,000 feet.
Vice President H. K. Saunders
reported that, “The salient fea
tures of the YS-11 are its short
take-off and landing ability with
excellent flying and handling
characteristics. Tests have
shown that with one engine
feathered during take-off or
landing, the YS-11 can maintain
excellent stability and control-
ability and safely operate In and
out of runways of less than 4,000
feet in length. In addition, the
aircraft is structurally designed
for over 40,000 flight hours.”
Cargo Space
The YS-11 has 335 cubic feet
of cargo space which will make
possible accommodation of large
cargo shipments which have
shown a rapid increase on Pied
mont in recent years.
Secretary and Controller T. W.
Morton added that, “The com
pany’s economic forecast for the
YS-11 indicates that it will oper
ate profitably with a lower pass
enger load factor than any other
airplane in our fleet.”
The Nihon Aeroplane Manu
facturing Company has charge
of general management of the
actual production work of the
YS-11 which combines the ef
forts of six of Japan’s leading
aircraft manufacturers. All elec
tronic equipment, the auxiliary
(Continued on Page Two)
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MAIN BODY sections of Piedmont Airlines' first Boeing 737 short-to-
medium range jetliner have been joined to form the complete fuselage
at the aerospace firm's Seattle, Washington, plant. Next assembly step
v/ill be the addition of the sweptback wings. Another picture of Pied
mont's first 737 is shown on page four.