Interview conducted by Carol L. Osbourne on 8/13/1997 and 8/14/1997.
The interview describes Captain Roy Moungovan’s career as a mechanic, co-pilot, and pilot with Pan American World Airways from 1941 to 1981; training in airplane and engine mechanics at California Polytechnic State University, Civilian Pilot Training (CPT) program, and with Pan American at Sherman Field in Walnut Creek, CA; flying on a Culver Cadet; Douglas DC-3, DC-4, DC-7, Consolidated PBM and PB2Y 3, Boeing 314, 377 Stratocruiser, 707, and 747, Lockheed Constellation; work with Pan American in North Africa in 1942;promotion from mechanic to copilot; routes he flew, including Cairo to Khartoum, Maiduguri (Nigeria), and Accra (Ghana); San Francisco to Honolulu, Palmyra Island, Canton Island, Wallis Island, Suva Harbor (Fiji), Ile Nou (Noumea), Funafuti Atoll, Espiritu Santo, Brisbane, Auckland, Sydney, Darwin, Midway, Wake Island, Guam, Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Okinawa, Bangkok, Calcutta, Saigon, Da Nang;, and the round-the-world route; use of celestial navigation; use of air defense identification zones (ADIZ) and pre-arranged maneuvers while approaching San Francisco in the 1950s and 1960s; arrangement between Pan American and the United States government during the war to supply the British Army in North Africa and his experiences during that time, including his experiences during a flight from Cairo, Egypt, to Accra, Ghana, as a copilot; experiences while co-piloting the first commercial flight from San Francisco to Antarctica and the first commercial jet flight from Tokyo to Seoul; encounters with Charles Lindbergh, Danny Kaye, Eartha Kitt, and Jim Fleming, chief pilot for Pan American in San Francisco.
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