could CRAF be acronym for Civil Reserve Air Fleet?

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History
In 1952, after aircraft were commandeered for the Berlin Airlift, the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) was created as a more orderly way of serving emergency military needs.[1][2]

The Fleet has two main segments: international and national (domestic).

CRAF has been activated three times. The first activation was as part of Operation Desert Shield. The second was once as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2021 it was activated as part of Operation Allies Refuge in Afghanistan.[3][4]

Membership commitment and requirements
The airlines contractually pledge aircraft to the various segments of Civil Reserve Air Fleet, ready for activation when needed.[5] To provide incentives for civil carriers to commit aircraft to the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program and to assure the United States of adequate airlift reserves, the government makes peacetime Department of Defense (DoD) airlift business available to civilian airlines that offer aircraft to the Civil Reserve Air Fleet.[5] DoD offers business through the International Airlift Services. For fiscal year 2005, the guaranteed portion of the contract was $418 million. Air Mobility Command (AMC) previously reported that throughout fiscal 2005 it planned to award more than $1.5 billion in additional business beyond the guaranteed portion of the contract.

To join Civil Reserve Air Fleet, carriers must maintain a minimum commitment of 40% of its Civil Reserve Air Fleet capable passenger and cargo fleet.[5] Aircraft committed must be US registered, and carriers must commit and maintain at least four complete crews for each aircraft.


Fleet
As of August 2021, the Civil Reserve Air Fleet consists of 450 aircraft from 24 airlines. This breaks down to 413 aircraft for international operations, with 268 considered to be in the "long-range international" category and 145 in the "short-range international" section, as well as 37 aircraft in the "national" segment. These numbers are subject to change on a monthly basis.[6]

Who requested CRAF maps, plural? Harrison notes (so far) dont make that clear -

Why would pilots or Cooper be requesting a CRAF map, chart, list, or whatever?

Great work as usual Snow!   

Hector Aponte (who was one of the early jumpers to jump off El Cap, in 1979) posted the pic of Saigon Sport Parachute Club. Not sure if Hector is still alive. REALLY interesting he returned from vietnam, kept jumping and eventually even jumped El Cap. 377 will be very jealous. I sent 377 pics of Hector's El Cap jump in 1979.

I'd like to see those El Cap pics, if you could either post them or send them to me. I jumped El Cap a couple times, first time in '81. Half Dome, too.

If you find Hector, let me know. I've got a name or two to run past him.

More on CRAF maps (possibly)

This is info from current Civil Reserve Air Fleet. They get special accounts to get access to special DOD maps
The info is called "FLIP" info ...for "Flight Information Publications & Charts"
They have "special" routing info..The products are all available to CRAF accounts today.

Enroute Products
These publications are designed to provide enroute information portraying high and low
altitude airway systems with related navigational data and airports required to support
radio navigation. Products include Flight Information Handbooks, supplements, and
low/high altitude sheets.

Miscellaneous Products
There are a number of FLIP-related products containing other important aeronautical
information. Some examples include Foreign Clearance Guides, Sectional Aeronautical
Charts, VFR Terminal Area Charts, U.S. Standard for Terminal Instrument Procedures
(TERPs), Airman's Information Manual, ICAO Documents and the Air Almanac.

see this file (modern data). You can download it and search for FLIP, or for CRAF
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detail:

Crisis and Contingency Issues

During declared crisis or contingency operations, DLA may limit issues of products to units not
actively participating. This is necessary to provide support to those units actively engaged in
deployment operations. Should customers require products but they are not actively engaged in
crisis operations, we may provide maps in limited quantities.


Type of Product Issue Quantity
Hydrographic Charts  5 copies each
Hydrographic Publications  5 copies each
Aeronautical Charts  5 copies each
Flight Information Publications
& Charts (FLIP)  5 sets per aircraft
Topographic Maps 5 copies each
 
 

Flight Information Publications (FLIP)
Flight Information Publications and Flight Information Products (FLIP) are sensitive flight critical
mapping and charting type items produced by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA),
foreign governments and commercial vendors that are distributed by DDMA and varied civilian
contractors.
Products
A complete list of available FLIP and related products is contained in the Defense Logistics
Agency Electronic Catalog of Maps, Charts, and Other Geospatial Products, Section 2 –
Flight Information Publications (FLIP).

There are three standard types of Flight Information Publications (Planning, Enroute and
Terminal) that cover eight geographic areas throughout the world. These items are produced
in increments varying from 28 to 365 days. Sufficient quantities of each product type are
produced and printed to adequately supply all active subscription accounts and depot shelf
stock.

Planning Products
FLIP planning products include books intended primarily for use in pre-flight planning
at base, squadron and unit operations offices and low altitude, large scale wall charts
showing radio aids to navigation, authorized airports, and other aeronautical data
necessary for preliminary flight planning.

Enroute Products
These publications are designed to provide enroute information portraying high and low
altitude airway systems with related navigational data and airports required to support
radio navigation. Products include Flight Information Handbooks, supplements, and
low/high altitude sheets.

 

The Civil Reserve Air Fleet does not have anything to do with the Cooper hijacking.  The Civil Reserve Air Fleet is composed of specific aircraft owned by airlines some of which have been modified (such as floor reinforcements) at the expense of the US Government to provide support to the USA military airlift capability during national emergencies. 

During the just-concluded Afghan evacuation, about 20 or 30 of the aircraft in the CRAF were activated to support that evacuation.  Those aircraft were such things as the Boeing 777 and they did not enter Kabul but instead flew people from their first landing point to their final destination.

No "special routing information" was needed for the NWA hijacked airliner.  Any "special routing information" for CRAF would probably apply to such things as operating from military bases in places that had agreements with the US government to support USA activities.

Hmm.
I guess I don't see how you can be so positive, Robert99, that the phrase "CRAF maps" in 1971 wasn't referring to information as shown above.

I agree it may or may not.
You seem to have a stronger point of view on "not"

But it seems based on unknown information. Do you have any info on CRAF maps in 1971?

Why do you think no special routing info was needed for Flight 305 that night? they talked about a lot of route info (including other countries). Even going out to the coast? Remember he had a bomb. And military aircraft were active.

This table shows "Commercial Airlift Procurement" FY1960 - FY1971
Shows International Passengers and Cargo, and Domestic Cargo and Mail, as separate allocations.

from page 156 of the above url

Vietnam War was in full swing.
page 157

MAC, the Airlines and the Vietnam War

page 160, they talk about in 1970 they were scaling back the amount of military cargo carried by the civilian aircraft

The cargo chart is from page 161

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could CRAF be acronym for Civil Reserve Air Fleet?

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

History
In 1952, after aircraft were commandeered for the Berlin Airlift, the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) was created as a more orderly way of serving emergency military needs.[1][2]

The Fleet has two main segments: international and national (domestic).

CRAF has been activated three times. The first activation was as part of Operation Desert Shield. The second was once as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2021 it was activated as part of Operation Allies Refuge in Afghanistan.[3][4]

Membership commitment and requirements
The airlines contractually pledge aircraft to the various segments of Civil Reserve Air Fleet, ready for activation when needed.[5] To provide incentives for civil carriers to commit aircraft to the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program and to assure the United States of adequate airlift reserves, the government makes peacetime Department of Defense (DoD) airlift business available to civilian airlines that offer aircraft to the Civil Reserve Air Fleet.[5] DoD offers business through the International Airlift Services. For fiscal year 2005, the guaranteed portion of the contract was $418 million. Air Mobility Command (AMC) previously reported that throughout fiscal 2005 it planned to award more than $1.5 billion in additional business beyond the guaranteed portion of the contract.

To join Civil Reserve Air Fleet, carriers must maintain a minimum commitment of 40% of its Civil Reserve Air Fleet capable passenger and cargo fleet.[5] Aircraft committed must be US registered, and carriers must commit and maintain at least four complete crews for each aircraft.


Fleet
As of August 2021, the Civil Reserve Air Fleet consists of 450 aircraft from 24 airlines. This breaks down to 413 aircraft for international operations, with 268 considered to be in the "long-range international" category and 145 in the "short-range international" section, as well as 37 aircraft in the "national" segment. These numbers are subject to change on a monthly basis.[6]

The Civil Reserve Air Fleet does not have anything to do with the Cooper hijacking.  The Civil Reserve Air Fleet is composed of specific aircraft owned by airlines some of which have been modified (such as floor reinforcements) at the expense of the US Government to provide support to the USA military airlift capability during national emergencies. 

During the just-concluded Afghan evacuation, about 20 or 30 of the aircraft in the CRAF were activated to support that evacuation.  Those aircraft were such things as the Boeing 777 and they did not enter Kabul but instead flew people from their first landing point to their final destination.

No "special routing information" was needed for the NWA hijacked airliner.  Any "special routing information" for CRAF would probably apply to such things as operating from military bases in places that had agreements with the US government to support USA activities.

Ok so... could they have supplied CRAF maps just in case 305 wound up in Mexico or some other country? Maybe somebody was taking Mexico City seriously ? Or ..
. ?

Here's some trivia from the cooper serial numbers.
I mulled over which is more interesting, a super low serial number (literally "4") or this:

the longest sequence of sequential serials I've found. (haven't verified it's the longest, but probably)
it's 12 sequential (965A thru 976A),

but it's also  18 "really-close-sequential" serial numbers (977A, 979A, 983A, 984A are missing)

Just the "L40 343"s from the attached snipped (965A thru 986A, which is 22, with 4 missing, for the group of 18

L40343965A 1969
L40343966A 1969
L40343967A 1969
L40343968A 1969
L40343969A 1969
L40343970A 1969
L40343971A 1969
L40343972A 1969
L40343973A 1969
L40343974A 1969
L40343975A 1969
L40343976A 1969
L40343978A 1969
L40343980A 1969
L40343981A 1969
L40343982A 1969
L40343985A 1969
L40343986A 1969