Diary Entry 2: En Route: Wednesday, 9 June 1965

Pan American Boeing 707 in flight, 1965.  (Photo courtesy Richard P. Clark, Jr. Collection)

                                                   En Route, 9 June 1965

            At this instant we are far out over the Pacific Ocean, about 2 hours away from a landing at Honolulu, Hawaii.  We seem to be flying about 40,000 feet but that is hard to tell, because we are so high that you can’t make out the size of anything below.  And most of the time there is a thick bed of clouds beneath the plane.

           

            So far the flight has been very pleasant.  The plane is a Boeing 707 owned by Pan American Airlines.  It is almost new, pretty to look at, and tastefully decorated in Pan Am’s colors inside---pale blue and gray.  We have 168 passengers and a crew of about 10 on the plane, and we are ripping along about 650 miles per hour racing along with the sun as it tries to set in front of us.  There are about 15 dependents on this first leg of the flight

where they will deplane at Honolulu to join their daddies.

           

             In jets you fly so fast that the airline has to have 5 stewardesses on board so that the 168 meals can be served before we get to Honolulu.  Traveling west at this speed, we are in a race with the clock, and it will be daylight, I reckon, most of the way.  For example, we took off from Travis AFB at 6 p.m. (San Francisco time) and we will arrive in Honolulu at 7:30 p.m. or so (Hawaii time).  An hour and a half is a pretty fast trip for 2,250 miles, the distance to Honolulu.  Actually, we are in the air about 4 ½ hours.

Interior view of Pan American Boeing 707, 1965.  (Photo courtesy Richard P. Clark, Jr. Collection)