Interviewed on June 30, 2020 and July 7, 2020
The interview describes Captain Art Villar’s career as a co-pilot and captain with Pan American World Airways from 1943 until his retirement in 1978; his childhood on a farm in Washington state; decision to become a pilot through the Civilian Pilot Training program (CPT); training and licensing; promotion to instructor with the Riddle Aviation School in Miami, Florida in 1941; work for the school instructing military cadets; process of moving from Riddle to work for Pan American in 1943; procedures involved during wartime to change employers; flights from Miami to the Caribbean as co-pilot on the Sikorsky S-42; transfer to the San Francisco base in 1944; flights on the Boeing 314 carrying military personnel to Midway, Wake Island, and Guam; layover in Tokyo soon after the end of World War II; Pan American’s adoption of the Douglas DC-4 in 1945 for Pacific route flights; thoughts about the DC-4; differences between flying seaplanes and land planes; evolving improvement of airplanes through his career, from the Sikorsky to the Boeing 747; decision to move his family to Hong Kong base in 1953, their experiences while living there, and his flights on the Douglas DC-4 and DC-6; return to the San Francisco base in 1956; decision to move to New York to check out as a Boeing 707 captain; flying military personnel to and from Korea and Vietnam during those conflicts; operation of and his thoughts about the Boeing 747 across the Pacific, the effect of the jetstream, and the plane’s navigation system; experiences as captain of the Pan American flight that accompanied President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell tour of the Pacific in 1960; experiences on the ‘round-the-world flights, as well as his routes from San Francisco to the Pacific and South America; cargo flights including unusual cargo such as horses and small elephants; role of seniority on his career and compensation; describes San Francisco International Airport in the mid- to late 1940s, as well as the airport’s evolution over time; encounter with Juan Trippe; retirement and his involvement in an organization for retired Pan American Pilots; post-retirement activities.
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