Super Freighters

American Airlines put a big bet this week on the future of air freight. To Douglas Aircraft went a $4,250,000 contract to turn ten of American's piston-engined DC-7B airliners into air freighters. All passenger fittings will be ripped out; the relatively new (four years or less) luxury planes will get heavy-duty floors, stronger fuselages, two huge cargo doors. When the last of the freighter 73 goes into service next year, it will give American a 20-plane cargo fleet with more than twice the line's current capacity.

The deal serves a double purpose for American by finding a use for the transports at a time when the market for used planes is sour. With jets and turboprops coming into service, every airline is trying to sell its obsolete craft, and prices are down sharply. By turning DC-7Bs into freighters with 16 3/4ton capacity and 360-plus m.p.h. speeds (2 1/4 tons more, 55 m.p.h. faster than DC-6A freighters), American not only avoids the risk of taking a big loss, but also gives itself a leg up in a vigorous young business that is just beginning to fulfill its early promise.

All told last year, U.S. trunk airlines carried 232 million ton-miles of freight, up 6.4% from 1937. American gained 15% (to 95 million ton-miles); United gained 14% and Delta 40%, in the first eleven months alone. The Flying Tiger line, operating largely as a cargo carrier, jumped 25%, to 65.6 million ton-miles and a $12 million gross. The big boost comes from a new approach to cargo by both the lines and businessmen. Instead of relying on emergency shipments of badly needed goods and the small oddball traffic in perishable orchids, baby whales and race horses, the airmen aimed a new pitch at solid production-line items, set out to show businessmen how to save money by distributing by air.

Though initial transportation costs are often much higher than rail or truck, the savings in time, warehousing, handling, inventory and other costs more than make up the difference in many cases. American turned Armour & Co.'s pharmaceutical division into a regular customer by showing it how to reduce costs $100,000 annually by shipping drugs air freight to a five-state area. For many of the same reasons, Burroughs Corp. has started shipping computers by air and figured a $245.43 net gain on shipping a 1,640-lb. computer from Detroit to Los Angeles.

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