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Up the West Coast of the U.S. flew the Singapore Trader, stopping briefly at Anchorage, Alaska, and at the Shemya airport in the Aleutians. Shemya was fogbound, but a MATS ground crew talked the ship down with GCA equipment, guided it to a perfect landing between the double white lines on the 10,000-foot runway. Then the Trader swung over the great circle route to Tokyo's Haneda airport. Northwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and six ships lent by the Royal Canadian Air Force later followed this northern route to Japan. Pan American, whose ten places make up the biggest private-line fleet in the service, led the way across the mid-Pacific via Hawaii. Eight other U.S. lines soon followed, plus one of Belgium's Sabena airliners lent as a contribution of the U.N.
Tank Killers. At first, the planes carried key military personnel, brought back evacuees. But when the G.I.s in Korea sent back an emergency call for weapons to stop the Russian T-34 tanks, the lift loaded up with 3.5-inch super-bazookas, followed with tank-killing 90-mm. "shaped charge" ammunition (TIME, Aug. 14). It also hustled out new fighter plane engines, hauled back others for overhaul in U.S. factories.
To keep the airlift going, some U.S. airlines have slashed their domestic freight business. Eastern Air Lines has abandoned its cargo-liner service, now carries its freight in passenger planes and in pods attached to Constellations. Capital Airlines has "skeletonized" its camp service. American Airlines has dropped four cities off its cargo routes. Other lines are getting by with makeshift schedules, but these will not hold up if MATS decides it needs more planes on the Pacific lift. This week, General Tunner plans to make a flying inspection of the lift, and a firsthand estimate of its future needs.