SKYWAYS OF ARIZONA

Have you ever flown over Arizona? It's one of the most fascinating experiences available to travelers anywhere.

An air trip over Arizona is like a kaleidoscopic journey to many parts of the world. You will see a Mount Fujiyama, the Syrian desert, Scandinavian evergreen forests, the farmland of Iowa, Tunisian mountains, Asian tundra and fresh green valleys wandering through Palestinian desert.

In addition there are wonders peculiarly Arizona's own: the Grand Canyon; the red rock cliffs of Oak Creek; Canyon de Chelly and the other prehistoric Indian cliff dwellings; the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest; the series of man-made dams and lakes along the Salt River Valley project and the Colorado River; and the neatly etched systems of canals and ditches which lead from them to give life to the lush flowering lands they irrigate.

Then there are metropolitan Phoenix and Tucson, sparkling gaily in the golden sunlight or, at night, shimmering like handfuls of multi-colored jewels arranged on black velvet. There are the long, silver highways that stretch straight as arrows mile after mile across the desert; and there are the highways that twist and turn their ways up and over mountains like giant anacondas seeking with wild and tortured convolutions to subduethe rugged earth beneath them.

Arizona

Much of the above list of wonders can be viewed from the regular flights of the four scheduled airlines serving Arizona with schedules and routes which make the fifth largest state in the Union (according to area) a close-knit, compact unit. Two major transcontinental carriers, American and Trans World airlines, serve the state on east-west routes, while two local service airlines fly the north-south routes, making connections with TWA and American in Arizona and with other major lines in other states. These local service lines are Bonanza and Frontier.

The areas not traversed by these four regular air-lines are easily accessible to the private flier or to the air traveler who takes a charter plane from one of Arizona's 148 airports. Excellent charter service, under rigid CAA regulation, is available in and to every part of the state. Rates are sufficiently reasonable to make it more than worth while to get an eagle's eye view of things you've seen only from the ground or things you've never been able to reach in your car.

lines are easily accessible to the private flier or to the air traveler who takes a charter plane from one of Arizona's 148 airports. Excellent charter service, under rigid CAA regulation, is available in and to every part of the state. Rates are sufficiently reasonable to make it more than worth while to get an eagle's eye view of things you've seen only from the ground or things you've never been able to reach in your car.

For those wary of air travel there are distinct bonus safety factors in Arizona flying beyond the stringent regulations enforced for safety by the Civic Aeronautics Authority of the U.S. Government. In the first place, Arizona's amazingly high percentage of good, clear

Indeed, Arizona airports are the envy of others in the country. At Sky Harbor, Phoenix, the average wind velocity is 5 miles per hour, the annual rainfall 7.25 inches. During the entire year of 1952, as an example, visibility dropped below 1 mile for a total of only three hours, and the field was below instrument landing conditions for only one hour during the entire year.

In the second place, while Arizona admittedly is a vast and various state geographically, it has an abundance of emergency landing strips in addition to the 148 recognized airports. At the beginning of World War II, the United States was far behind the rest of the world in air power. It had not only to harness its vast industrial potential to produce planes as they had never been produced before; it had also to train the men to fly them.

The constantly increasing speed and size of aircraft meant that training fields must be located where there was lots of room for long runways. The pressing need for utilizing every available moment in training the air crews meant that bases had to be located where weather permitted maximum flying hours. And, of course, strategic bases had to be located, when possible, away from the coast areas potentially vulnerable to enemy bombing.

Arizona and the rest of the great Southwest met these requirements ideally. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, at Tucson, Williams and Luke Air Force Bases in the Salt River Valley, Marana Air Base and Litchfield Naval Air Facility were established in Arizona. Douglas, Winslow and Kingman all had large air force installations. In addition, there were primary flight training schools established at smaller airports throughout the state where students learned the rudiments of flying in whatever little "puddle jumpers" were available.

With so many students flying out of so many centers throughout the state, it was inevitable that a great many emergency and practice strips should be built. There were so many of them that still today they offer a network of convenient spots for aircraft to let down from almost any part of the deep blue Arizona sky.

The terrible June crash in northern Arizona broke an almost perfect safety record for major carriers in this state. By far the greatest percentage of crashes of private and military training craft in Arizona have been caused by pilot failure. As in any sky anywhere, a pilot's ignoring the basic rules of safety can result in accidents.

But Arizona's skyways are thoroughly equipped with the wonders of modern electronic devices to make them, for the pilot, as well defined as (and, we might add, a lot safer than) modern super-highways. Big, multi-engined queens of the sky ride the air lanes as shown on the accompanying map as serenely and securely as though they were gliding through invisible pneumatic tubes.

For scheduled carriers the Arizona sky is divided into east-west and north-south routes. American and TWA fly the east-west traffic.

American Airlines lands at three Arizona cities, Phoenix, Tucson and Douglas. On its westbound flights it offers non-stop service Tucson to Los Angeles; Phoenix

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS' OPPOSITE PAGE

AIR VIEW - "HOOVER DAM, COLORADO RIVER AND LAKE MEAD" BY HERB MCLAUGHLIN. When standing on Hoover Dam, man is dwarfed by the size of one of the seven wonders of the engineering world. From the air, though, the dam itself is just a small plug in a canyon behind which is backed the endless blue of Lake Mead. The river below the dam is an azure ribbon flowing between steep, chocolate canyon walls. Photograph was made from a Beechcraft Bonanza, 4x5 Speed Graphic, 6" lens, Ektachrome film, 1/250th of a second at f4.5.

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AIR VIEW -"NAVAJO BRIDGE AND VERMILION CLIFFS" BY NAURICE KOONCE. Both from the ground and the air, the slick-rock country of Northern Arizona is a kaleidoscope of color. In this view of Marble Canyon the viewer is looking southwest. Navajo Bridge, over which U. S. 89 crosses the Colorado River, is in left foreground and the Vermilion Cliffs in the background. 4x5 Speed Graphic 5½" Optar lens, 1/400th of a second at f5.6. Overdeveloped one f-stop. Ektachrome film.

AIR VIEW - "PHELPS DODGE MINING OPERATION AT MORENCI" BY RAY MANLEY. Below is one of the greatest copper mines in the world. Some $45,000,000 were spent before one pound of copper was produced from this open-pit mine. 4x5 Speed Graphic, 5½" Optar lens, 1/300th of a second at f.11, Anscochrome film.

AIR VIEW"FLAGSTAFF AND SAN FRANCISCO PEAKS" BY J. G. MOORE. Frontier Airlines' passengers traveling northward from Phoenix, get this refreshing view of Flagstaff, the city in the pines, and the roof of Arizona San Francisco Peaks, the loftiest elevation of the state. Photograph was taken from a Cessena 170, which was flying at approximately 9,000 feet. 4x5 Speed Graphic, 1/150th of a second at f5.6, Ektachrome, at 4:30 P.M. in the afternoon.

AIR VIEW-"SUNSET CRATER, IN THE HEART OF LAVA LAND" BY JERRY MCLAIN. Approaching Sunset Crater National Monument along U. S. 89 north of Flagstaff, the motorist's first view is of a steep-sided cinder cone, almost barren of forest that spreads over much of the land. But most fortunate are those who fly over Sunset Crater, for they can view in all its splendor this extinct volcano which last erupted sometime between 1046 and 1071 A.D. This air view was taken through a cabin window of a twin-engine DeHavilland Dove about 8:30 on a sunshiny winter morning. Camera data: 4x5 Speed Graphic, 1/100th second, f5.6, on Ektachrome daylight film.

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AIR VIEW-"PHOENIX, CINDERELLA CITY IN THE SUN" BY DON KELLER. One of the loveliest sights offered by any airline anywhere is that of Phoenix, in the heart of the Salt River Valley. The brown, stark mountains or hills surrounding the Valley accentuate the checkerboard of green fields, symbol of the magic of water on what was once valueless desert lands. This view was taken from the south looking to the north. Camelback Mountain, on the other side of which stretches the broad expanse of Paradise Valley, is seen in the upper left. 4x5 Speed Graphic, 05G filter, 1/200th of a second at f.16, Anscochrome film.

AIR VIEW-"PAINTED DESERT COUNTRY" BY NAURICE KOONCE. The high plateau of Northern Arizona, an eroded land of mesas, canyons, is a shimmering carpet of color from the air. From the air, too, one is poignantly reminded of the loneliness, emptiness and unfettered distance which characterize the West. 4x5 Speed Graphic, 5½" Optar lens, 1/400th of a second at f5.6, Ektachrome overdeveloped one f-stop.

AIR VIEW-"PORTRAIT OF AUTUMN, KAIBAB FOREST" BY NAURICE KOONCE. The Kaibab Forest, north of Grand Canyon, most of the year is a green flatness of forest. In autumn, when the aspen turn, patches of color transform the greeness into a harmonious portrait of the autumn season. 4x5 Speed Graphic, 5½" Optar lens, 1/400th of a second at f5.6, Ektachrome.

AIR VIEW - "HAVASUPAI CANYON, IN GRAND CANYON" BY NAURICE KOONCE. Grand Canyon, as everyone knows, is one of the world's precious scenic jewels. One of the most interesting parts of Grand Canyon is Havasupai Canyon, where the Supai Indians live. A creek of blue-green water and sparkling waterfalls, bordered by steep, red canyon walls, add to the beauty of this hidden reservation. 4x5 Speed Graphic, 8½" Commercial Ektar lens, 1/200th of a second at f6.3, Ektachrome film. Overdeveloped one f-stop.

OPPOSITE PAGE

AIR VIEW - "RAINBOW BRIDGE AND SURROUNDING COUNTRY" BY HERB MCLAUGHLIN. Just over the state line in north-central Arizona is a graceful rock arch - Rainbow Bridge - contained within Rainbow Bridge National Monument. From the air, the Bridge is almost lost in the turbulent rocky waste around it. Photograph was made from a Beechcraft Bonanza flying at approximately 120 miles per hour. 4x5 Speed Graphic, 6" lens, 1/250th of a second at f4.5, Ektachrome.

to Los Angeles; Phoenix to San Francisco; and Phoenix to San Diego. In addition there is westbound service Tucson to Phoenix to San Francisco; Tucson to Phoenix to Los Angeles; Tucson to Phoenix to San Diego to Los Angeles; and Bisbee-Douglas to Tucson to Phoenix to San Diego to Los Angeles.

Eastbound, American offers non-stop flights from Tucson to Chicago and from Phoenix to Chicago. It also flies Phoenix to Tucson to Oklahoma City to Tulsa to Nashville to Washington to New York; Tucson to El Paso to Dallas to Memphis to Washington to Philadelphia to New York; Phoenix to Tucson to Bisbee-Douglas to El Paso to Fort Worth to Memphis to Nashville to Knoxville to Washington to Philadelphia to New York; Phoenix to El Paso to Dallas to Cincinnati to Pittsburgh; Phoenix to Chicago to Detroit to New York; and Phoenix to Tucson to Chicago to New York.

American also schedules from Arizona regular through interchange flights with other airlines going to San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Tampa, Miami and other cities in the deep south.

TWA comes in only at Phoenix, from where it takes off for Los Angeles, a non-stop flight west. Eastward TWA flies Phoenix to Albuquerque to Chicago; to Chicago via Albuquerque and Kansas City; or to Chicago via Albuquerque, Amarillo, Wichita and Kansas City. From Chicago, of course, the flights go into New York or connect for other destinations.

From any city in the United States which is served either by a major trans-continental airline or a local service line it is possible to make fast and easy flight reservations to Arizona. American, TWA, United, Eastern, Northwest, and all other trunk lines will be glad to book you through quickly and efficiently from any part of the country via their own flights and connections on fully approved connecting lines into Arizona, the heart of the great Southwest.

Frontier Airlines is a north-south system serving seven Rocky Mountain States; North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. It connects with major east-west airlines all along the 3647 miles of its route.

Bonanza is a similar system concentrating its operations in three States of the deep southwest, Arizona, Nevada, and Southern California. It too, connects and feeds transcontinental airlines.

Recently, Bonanza Air Lines has filed new route applications with the Civil Aeronautics Board for non-stop service to Salt Lake City and various intermediate cities in the State of Utah, plus a route from Phoenix to Tucson, Douglas, Nogales, and a connecting route between Yuma and Tucson. Bonanza Air Lines proposes to use the new Fairchild F-27 Turbo Prop airplane over many of its present and proposed routes.

Both of these local lines fly the time-tested and thoroughly proved work-horse of United States air travel, the reliable DC-3. Their safety records after thousands of hours of flying during the past ten years (Frontier in 1955 celebrates its 10th anniversary of air service in the West) and millions of passenger miles is perfect. And the punctuality of their schedules is enviable.

Frontier lands at seven Arizona cities: Winslow, Flagstaff, Prescott, Phoenix, Tucson, Safford and Clifton. From Winslow, in the north, its routes go into Gallup and Albuquerque, New Mexico, or into Farmington,

New Mexico, and onto Durango, Monte Vista, Alamosa, Pueblo and Denver, Colorado. Another route goes from Farmington to Cortez and Grand Junction, Colorado, and thence into Vernal or Salt Lake City, Utah.

Frontier's eastern terminus, beyond Tucson, Safford and Clifton, Arizona, and Silver City, New Mexico is Albuquerque.

Bonanza flies a V-shaped route from Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada, to Phoenix, Arizona, to Blythe, Indio, Ontario-Riverside and Los Angeles, California. Its local service, following approximately the same V, makes additional stops at Hawthorne and Tonopah, Nevada, Kingman, Prescott and Yuma, Arizona, and El Centro, San Diego, and Santa Ana, California.

These two local airlines have made and continue to make a tremendous contribution to the areas they serve. Both of the major airlines serving Arizona as well as the other trunk lines with which the feeders connect in other states have cooperated in every way, first to bring the local service lines into existence and, second, to help them attain a growth and stability that means prosperity.

The existence of a first class local service line means that the major lines do not have to land and take off their Huge equipment (like American's DC-7's and TWA's Super-Constellations) at local airports only a few miles away from each other. It makes it possible for the majors to straighten out their routes, offer faster, more efficient service from one major city to another. The local, shorthaul lines can land on smaller fields and thus can do a better, more efficient, more thorough job of combing the state for passengers and freight, funneling them into the big ports where the majors can land.

But from north to south and vice versa transportation was long, tedious and difficult. Yes, there were curving mountain highways and infrequent, slow train service. But for the businessman or the tourist to whom time is of the essence, these long, difficult trips were an annoyance and a loss of either pleasure or profit.

Now, of course, with the new Black Canyon and Kingman-Phoenix highways rapidly approaching completion and the famous Coronado Trail almost fully paved, the ground transportation system is making excellent progress. But still, for the person who needs to get from south to north in Arizona fast, the service of two reliable airlines like Frontier and Bonanza is a real blessing. You can fly from Phoenix to Winslow in less than two hours, from Phoenix to Tucson in less than an hour, from Phoenix to Kingman in an hour and a half and from Phoenix to Yuma in about an hour and ten minutes.

That's a long cry from the days and weeks those trips used to consume, not too many years ago, when horses and stages were the only means of transportation. Indeed, it's quite a cry from the time those same trips take today over Arizona's modern network of highways.

Nor are the fares prohibitive. Far from it. Round trip between Phoenix and Yuma, for instance, costs $21.50; between Phoenix and Kingman $21.80; between Phoenix and Tucson $14.80 on standard fare services, $12.20 on aircoach services, and between Phoenix and Flagstaff $17.70. It would be impossible to drive a car for the same amount when you figure in all automobile operating costs.

Fares from more distant points to Arizona are similarly reasonable. For example, first class fare from New York to Phoenix is only $139.90, while aircoach service New York to Phoenix is only $94.00. Aircoach Phoenix to Los Angeles costs $18.00, first class $23.75. Round trip fares on standard fare services are 5% less than two one way fares. Of course, substantial savings in family travel (50% to those under age 22 other than the head of the family) can be obtained by traveling on those days in the week in which the "family fare plan" applies. The figures quoted here are current at the time of writing and are subject to change. They are subject, also, to the ubiquitous plague-in this case 10% Federal Transportation Tax. All of which, you say, is fine. But how can I get around to see things after I get to Arizona? It's wonderful to fly over the Grand Canyon or San Xavier or the Painted Desert. But I want to see those things close up as well.

Right! And provision has been made to accommodate

TRAVELING THE SKYWAYS OF ARIZONA

you. Every airport served by scheduled airlines in Arizona is served also by car rental agencies. Avis Rent-ACar System is represented at 11 airports throughout the state. Hertz Rent-A-Car System has service at many airports, while throughout the state there are dozens of other local and area-wide companies ready to supply you with the newest cars at very low rates.

That means you can fly to Arizona, leave the airplane and get into your own private car to make business calls or to take your time visiting whatever of the state's myriad attractions you like. The cost of air fare plus car rental is little if any more than that of driving your own car across the country; and the saving in time, energy and worry is tremendous.

As a matter of fact, Avis and possibly others now have available to some airports four-wheel-drive jeeps for the use of those weekend prospectors who want to fly to Arizona and dash off into the mountains in search of the atomic-age bonanza ore, uranium!

If, on the other hand, you would like to dispense entirely with the need to do any driving on your Arizona vacation, the airlines and travel agents all over the country are booking airline tours of Arizona. For instance, you buy a ticket on American or TWA for a flight passing through Phoenix. But you want to take two or three days off and see the Grand Canyon.

American or TWA will sell you a vacation package side-trip. You get off the plane at Phoenix. Transportation from Sky Harbor is provided to one of Phoenix's best hotels where you will spend the night. There you may use the beautiful swimming pool, sit and relax in the lovely patio, or rest in your comfortably air conditioned room. Next morning you leave Phoenix at 7:00 via Frontier for Flagstaff, flying en route over the spectacular red rocks of Oak Creek Canyon. At Flagstaff the flight connects with a Nava-Hopi Tours motor coach which drives you through Coconino and Kaibab National Forests, past the San Francisco Peaks to glorious Grand Canyon.

You arrive at the Canyon at 11:15, have almost a full day for a Rim drive, for photography or what you will. At 6:00 p.m. you board the motor coach again, return to Flagstaff in time for dinner. Board Frontier again after dinner; arrive Phoenix 11:52 p.m., where you will be transported back to your hotel. The next morning your transportation to Sky Harbor is provided in time for you to continue your original trip on American or TWA.

The cost? Two nights in a superb hotel; round trip air ticket between Phoenix and Flagstaff; round trip motor coach ticket between Flagstaff and Grand Canyon; transportation between Sky Harbor Airport and hotel and between Flagstaff Airport and motor coach terminus: total $40.36 per person in a double room; $42.42 in a single. Both add $2.38 tax.

For similarly low rates it is now possible to make reservations anywhere in the country through travel agents or direct with the airlines to fly to Phoenix; pick up a rental car; drive yourself to Grand Canyon via Oak Creek Canyon; then tour along U.S. 66 to visit such attractions as Sunset Crater, Meteor Crater, the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, the Indian reservations, the White Mountains, Salt River Canyon and back to Phoenix. The schedule is flexible. It is up to you how many days-three or four or 14-you take to make the swing. When you get back to Phoenix, your flight ticket will be waiting for you to continue your journey wherever you were heading originally.

The same sort of service is available at Tucson for trips down the Santa Cruz trail to Nogales and old Mexico and to visit San Xavier, Tumacacori and the many other attractions in the Tucson area.

Comparatively recently American inaugurated a vacation package consisting of a flight to Arizona, a week or two at a selected guest ranch or resort hotel, all meals and entertainment (swimming, golf, tennis, riding, desert barbeques etc.) included, and back home by air. Of course, costs vary according to the air distance of your take-off point from Arizona, and the type of Arizona accommodations you may choose.

But a typical vacation of seven days and six nights in Arizona at a real luxury resort, plus two days (or nights) flying time from and to Chicago, everything included, would be $250.00 per person.

The popularity of these tours and package vacations is evidenced in the fact that the traffic in them has increased some 400% per year since their inception in 1952. Further evidence is the fact that the airlines are wrapping up new packages right along.

For instance, Bonanza is inaugurating in 1956 a new one designed to appeal to the sportsman. It will include round trip air travel, accommodations, boats and all necessary arrangements for a pleasant week or weekend fishing. Lake fishermen will land at Kingman, Arizona, and from there will be transported to Lake Mead or Havasu Lake on the Colorado River. The fishing in these lakes is said to be about as close to guaranteed successful as fishing can be.

For Arizonans and Arizona visitors with a yen for deep sea fishing, Bonanza plans an all-expense package to San Diego and the excellent fishing grounds off the coast there. Later the line anticipates the possibility of similar services for deer hunters, elk hunters and others.

A steady increase in aircraft movements as recorded by the CAA over the course of years shows the constantly mounting popular demand for air travel to, in and from Arizona. The first quarter of 1954 showed 45,554 aircraft movements at Sky Harbor Airport alone. The first quarter of 1955 showed 59,079 movements, or an increase of nearly 30%.

Another rather astonishing gauge of the popularity of air travel in Arizona is the fact that Phoenix, which ranks about 99th in the nation for population, has the 20th largest airport in the nation according to total number of aircraft movements and the seventh largest in the nation according to movements of civil itinerant aircraft.

A significant portion of the air traffic at Arizona ports is private planes. Arizona ranchers have found the airplane a great time and money saver, while some have even adapted it for use as a quick and easy means of inspecting their range and of spotting cattle hidden in brush at roundup time. Arizona businessmen likewise have come to use the airplane as a standard means of transportation around the

Now 148 Arizona communities, ranging from metropolitan Phoenix and Tucson to remote ranches, are linked to the rest of the world by skyways that extend to every corner of the globe. Arizona is only a few hours by air from New York. It is but a day's flight from London and Paris. It is only some 40-50 flying hours away from such distant cities as Bombay, Tokyo, Brisbane and Capetown. It is close, timewise, to Rio de Janiero, Mexico City and Nome. The network of skyways in which Arizona now is included brings the formerly isolated heart of the Southwest into close, quick and busy contact with the rest of the world.

Within the state Arizona highways lead to many wonders. Indeed, Arizona's highways themselves may well be classed as one of the state's greatest wonders in their effective penetration of the heart of so vast and varied an area.

But Arizona skyways extend not only to every part of the world; they reach, unhampered by terrain, to every hidden valley, every remote fastness, every mountain and reach of desert in the state. They allow the airborne visitor to view scenes unchanged since the days when only the wiliest Indian brave or the most intrepid mountainman or prospector could reach them.

Whether you fly American, Bonanza, Frontier or TWA or in a charter, your stewardess or pilot will point out the interesting scenes below. You will get an entirely new view of the state. You will save time, effort and, surprisingly often, you will save money too when you make a flying trip to Arizona. And you will travel in comfort and safety when you travel Arizona's skyways.