The Story Of Japan Airways’ First Scheduled Worldwide Flight

February 2nd marks the 69th anniversary of Japan Airways’ first worldwide flight. Earlier than we get into that, although, let’s first look into the historical past of Japan Airways and see the way it got here to be.

Following the tip of the Second World Battle within the Pacific, after Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945, Basic Douglas MacArthur took cost of the Supreme Command of Allied Powers (SCAP) and started work of rebuilding the nation.

The American occupation of Japan may be divided into three phases:

1. Essentially altering the federal government and society of Japan.
2. Introducing a land reform invoice that might profit tenant farmers.
3. Breaking apart Japanese enterprise conglomerates and introducing a free market economic system.

Japanese firms weren’t allowed to function plane

Instantly after the struggle, Japanese firms weren’t allowed to function plane. It quickly turned obvious that for the Japanese economic system to be rebuilt, it wanted to have a dependable air service. Japan Airways Co., Ltd. was established in Tokyo on August 1, 1951, and started working flights utilizing Douglas DC-3 plane leased from Philippine Airways.

By 1953 the airline’s home community had grown, with JAL flying as far north as Sapporo and Misawa and as far west as Fukuoka, Nagoya, and Osaka. Now able to fly additional afield, Japan Airways operated its first worldwide flight on February 2, 1954. It used a Douglas DC-6 to fly between Tokyo and San Francisco, with refueling stops at Wake Islands and Honolulu in Hawaii. Onboard the inaugural worldwide flight have been 4 crew members and 18 passengers.

JAL provided two round-trip weekly flights, with prospects paying $650 for a one-way ticket. Initially, the 31-hour flight between Tokyo and San Francisco was flown by American crews. Japan Airways rebranded its company picture in preparation for worldwide flights, figuring out that it needed to compete with Pan AM and Northwest Orient. The airline had its feminine flight attendants bear coaching with United Airways and put on conventional Japanese kimonos.

In regards to the Douglas DC-6

In direction of the tip of WWII, the US Air Power requested the Douglas Plane Company to construct a pressurized model of the Douglas DC-4. Following the tip of the struggle in 1945, the Air Power modified its thoughts concerning the airplane, leaving Douglas to switch it to change into a passenger airliner quite than a navy transport.

By 1949 United, American, Delta, Nationwide, and Braniff have been all flying DC-6 on routes in the US. In 1952 Pan Am used a DC-6 for its first tourist-class transatlantic flights, and the airplane was quickly picked up by European airways for his or her transatlantic flights.

The DC-7 opened up new routes

The brand new worldwide flights offered a possibility for Japan Airways to develop, which led them to order extra DC-6 plane. These would later be supplemented with Douglas DC-7s, which Japan Airways placed on the Tokyo-Honolulu-San Francisco route and used to open up new routes from Tokyo to Seattle and Los Angeles.

Following the growth to the west coast of the US, Japan Airways started constitution flights to Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Caracas in South America.