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web-catalog        FAM Foreign Air Mail First Flights F12

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Page FAM012 (Revised 05/22/2007)

Background: The Post Office Department designated any contract air mail route flown by an airline into/from a foreign country into/from the US as a "Foreign Air Mail" route. The Foreign Air Mail routes became known as FAM's.

FAM-12: FAM-12 was awarded to Pan American Airways.
        On June 2, 1927 Juan Trippe formed an airline, “Aviation Corporation of America” with two allies. Sonny Whitney and John Hambleton were directors and Juan Trippe was in charge of operations. In order to procure a route to Cuba, the airline merged with two others to form Pan American Airways.
        Trippe became president and general manager. He had obtained a contract from the federal government to fly mail from Key West to Camp Colombia, Havana Cuba. It was the first contract for the carriage of mail to a foreign country from the US. Trippe had bought two Fokker planes and had a ground crew preparing an airport at Meacham Field in Key West FL. He had a deadline with the government to begin the service. Although two runways had been completed, heavy rain had been falling for two days and the airport became a swamp. To meet his contractual deadline, Trippe decided to charter a seaplane to make the flight. He talked pilot Cy Caldwell into making the flight with “La Nina” a Fairchild FC-2 floatplane that Cy was flying for the West Indian Aerial Express. On October 19, 1927 La Niña, piloted by Cy Caldwell and chartered by Trippe, took off from Key West landing at Camp Colombia, Havana Cuba 1H 20M later.
        FAM-12 was awarded to Pan Am and on August 1, 1931 flying a Sikorsky S-41 piloted by ROD Sullivan, it inaugurated flight service from Bangor ME to Halifax Nova Scotia.

PANAGRA
Sikorsky S-41

F12-1a 310801 Bangor ME-Saint John New Brunswick Canada PA ROD Sullivan $30.00
F12-1 310801 Bangor ME-Halifax Nova Scotia PA ROD Sullivan $37.50
F12-2 310801 Halifax Nova Scotia-Bangor ME PA ROD Sullivan $37.50
F12-3 310801 Saint John New Brunswick Canada-Bangor ME PA ROD Sullivan $37.50

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