A I R T R A N S P O R T A N D F E R R Y I N G
pilots to Takoradi following the completion of deliveries to Cairo, and
for hauling critical items of supply east from Takoradi."
Realizing the importance of maintaining and increasing the scope
of the trans-African operation, the United States government, acting
through the Civil Aeronautics Administration, undertook to secure
the transport aircraft from the civil airlines. Of the fifty requested,
however, only twenty could be spared by the airlines, and no Army
planes were available." And when the job of getting the planes to
Africa was given the Air Corps, General Arnold found that neither
military nor civilian crews with the necessary experience were imme-
diately available. T h e few experienced Army crews could not be
spared; and the country had long since been combed for civilian pilots
and navigators for the North Atlantic ferrying service.3oRather than
ship the planes by water, the ferrying job was turned over to Pan
American A i r w a y ~ , ~ 'whose experience in the development of com-
mercial airlines through Latin America already had been turned to
advantage in the effort to extend and strengthen hemisphere de-
f e n s e ~ . ~ 'As early as November 1940, Pan American had been made
the agent of the United States government in carrying out the so-
called Airport Development Program (ADP) for the construction
and improvement of airports on foreign territory throughout the
Caribbean area, Central America, and Brazil, as well as in Liberia.
Panair do Brasil, a Pan American subsidiary, had undertaken at Belem
and Natal the development with ADP funds of facilities destined to
serve as major ferrying and transport bases along the South Atlantic
route. Other bases that would be used principally for defensive pur-
poses, but which provided emergency landing fields for transient
aircraft, were constructed through Pan American agencies in Cuba,
Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela.33 O n 29 May 1941,
an agreement between Atlantic Airways, Ltd., and the British gov-
ernment was drawn up for delivery of the twenty t r a n ~ p o r t s . ~ ~T h e
British agreed to meet all expenses and to furnish the navigators.
Atlantic Airways obtained the pilots from several sources, principally
from the Lockheed Company on a loan basis. A sufficient number
were found to ferry the planes to Africa in flights of ten or less.35
O n the night of 2 1 June 1941the first flight of ten transports took
off from Miami, Florida, bound for Port of Spain, Trinidad. The
next stop was at Belem, Brazil. Here the crews were arrested and held
3 2 '