Honolulu Section of the Pacific Division of MATS. At Honolulu, MATS
aircraft from San Francisco turned around for their return flight.
Therefore, cargo or personnel booked at San Francisco for points beyond
Honolulu were required to off-load at the MATS terminal at Honolulu and
later be reloaded on an outgoing flight from Honolulu to Kwajalein and
Eniwetok. The San Francisco-Honolulu leg of the trip connected with the
principal trans-Pacific leg from Honolulu to Guam, Okinawa and Japan;
therefore the plane loading from San Francisco was normally heavy and
subject to rigid priorities.
In the initial arrangements concerning the use of MATS service by
H&N, it was expected that only items of cargo of an urgent nature
would be transported by this means, Allocations of cargo space were not
made far in advance but on a month-to-month basis, depending upon demands
of other agencies. Monthly allocations were in turn prorated on a daily
basis in order that cargo booking officials could be assured of a justifiable load for each flight. The daily allowance was not subject to accumulation if unused.
Table 14.2-2 shows air cargo shipments over six consecutive months
during the construction period and indicates the normal allocation of
air cargo space for H & N requirements and the types of cargo for which
this allocation was utilized. The average monthly cargo shipped was
4172 pounds.
TABLE 14.2-2
AIR CARGO SHIPMENTS, FEBRUARY-JULY, 1950
Month
Pounds of Cargo
February
March
2719
--
7618
Types of Cargo
Medical supplies, radioactive
cobalt, pressure gauges, submarine
cable testing equipment.
Engineering and radio supplies,
electrical appliances, small
tools.
April
3200
Office supplies, medical supplies,
recording instruments.
May
5848
Medical supplies, hospital
June
3329
Engineering and construction tools
and supplies, splice cable units.
July
2318
Total
25032
14-12
equipment.
Refrigerator spare parts, steel
door frames and accessories,