Sleeplane

Up from Newark one rainy, windy evening last week climbed the world's most comfortable land transport plane. Aboard were 14 passengers, mostly bankers, bound for California and the American Bankers' Association meeting. As the plane shot west at 200 m.p.h. on a strong tail wind, they lolled on divans arranged in eight Pullman sections or walked up & down the corridor between the lavatories at the rear and the private compartment held by two of their number just aft of the cockpit. Presently the stewardess set up small tables in each section, served a hot seven-course dinner with regular silverware, crockery, linen. Some three hours later, near the first stop, at Memphis, the stewardess made up the first berth for the first sleepy passenger. By the time the airliner had left Memphis, droned on toward its second stop at Dallas, its third at Tucson, all 14 passengers were stowed away for the night. Next morning, at Los -Angeles, the fourth stop, they rose for breakfast on the ground after a trip far happier than any, U. S. night plane traveler had ever experienced on the coast-to-coast run. Cost: $160 one way.*

The trip was the inaugural flight of The Mercury, first through transcontinental sleeplane. Flown by American Airlines once nightly in each direction with big new Douglas Sleeper transports, it makes the westbound journey in 17 hr., 41 min., the eastbound in 15 hr., 50 min.

World's first aerial sleeper service was started in the autumn of 1933 by Eastern Air Transport with an 18-passenger two-berth Curtiss Condor on the Newark-Atlanta run (TIME, Oct. 15, 1933). Only other U. S. airline to try the service since has been American, which started it with Condors between Los Angeles and Dallas in April 1934, found it popular (TIME, July 16, 1934). This service, no longer necessary, was discontinued last week. Other long-run airlines will probably put on service like American's new one as soon as their Douglas DST's are delivered.

* This is the regular transcontinental fare. There is no extra charge for a berth.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.