WINGS
TO THE ORIENT PAN AMERICAN CLIPPER PLANES 1935-45 MARTIN M-130 S.42 BOEING B.314
A SOFTBOUND PICTORIAL HISTORY by
STAN COHEN
------------------------------------------
Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia
The Martin M-130 was a
commercial flying boat designed and built in 1935 by the Glenn L. Martin
Company in Baltimore, Maryland, for Pan American Airways. Three were built: the
China Clipper, the Philippine Clipper and the Hawaii Clipper. All three had
crashed by 1945. A similar flying boat, (the Martin 156), named Russian
Clipper, built for the Soviet Union, had a larger wing (giving it greater
range) and twin vertical stabilizers.
Martin named them the Martin
Ocean Transports, but to the public they were the "China Clippers", a
name that became a generic term for Pan Am's large flying boats � the Martin
M-130, Sikorsky S-42, and Boeing 314.
Designed to meet Pan American
World Airways President Juan Trippe's desire for a trans-Pacific aircraft, the
M-130 was an all-metal flying boat with streamlined aerodynamics and engines
powerful enough to meet Pan Am's specified range and payload. They were sold at
US$417,000. The first flight was on December 30, 1934. On November 22, 1935,
the China Clipper, piloted by Captain Edwin C. Musick and First Officer R.O.D.
Sullivan, flew the first trans-Pacific airmail route.[1] As illustrated on this
page, a postage stamp, Scott Catalog C-20, was printed for use on the
transpacific service. With extended service, two more denominations were later
issued. All three have the same design showing the M-130 in flight.
Weekly passenger flights across
the Pacific Ocean began in October 1936 when Hawaii Clipper left San Francisco
for Manila, stopping overnight at Honolulu, Midway Island, Wake Island and
Guam. An S-42 began flying the Manila-Hong Kong route in 1937, and the Martins
replaced it in 1938.
In July 1938, Hawaii Clipper
disappeared between Guam and Manila with the loss of nine crew and six
passengers. No cause was determined.
Their range and capacity made
them valuable for trans-ocean military flights during World War II. Beginning
in 1942, the two remaining planes were pressed into transport roles for the
United States Navy.
The Philippine Clipper was on a
civilian flight when it encountered � and survived � the surprise Japanese
attack on Wake Island in December 1941, following the attack on Pearl
Harbor.[5][6] It crashed in January 1943, between Ukiah and Boonville,
California on a flight from Honolulu. ComSubPac Admiral Robert H. English and
18 others were killed.
In January 1945 the China
Clipper left Miami on Pan Am's first scheduled flight to what is now Kinshasa
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The route went via Brazil before
crossing the South Atlantic Ocean, but the last surviving M-130 did not
complete the flight. It broke up and sank during landing at Port of Spain, in
the West Indies islands of British colonies of Trinidad and Tobago on January
8, killing 23 of those on board.
----------------------------
The Sikorsky S-42 was a
commercial flying boat designed and built by Sikorsky Aircraft to meet
requirements for a long-range flying boat laid out by Pan American World
Airways (Pan Am) in 1931. The innovative design included wing flaps,
variable-pitch propellers, and a tail-carrying full-length hull. The prototype
first flew on 29 March 1934, and, in the period of development and test flying
that followed, quickly established ten world records for payload-to-height. The
"Flying Clipper" and the "Pan Am Clipper" were other names
for the S-42.
During the inaugural flight of
Sikorsky's previous flying boat, the S-40, on November 19, 1931, the pilot and
Pan American Airways consultant, Charles Lindbergh, who considered the S-40 a
monstrosity, engaged designer Igor Sikorsky in a conversation about what he
thought the next airplane should look like. The conversation continued that
night at the hotel in Jamaica. Sikorsky argued that design development should
be incremental and that the safe approach would be a larger S-40. Lindbergh
argued that a sleeker design, with a range in still air of 2,500 miles, was
needed.
In June 1931 Pan Am president
Juan Trippe had requested designs from six aircraft companies for an aircraft
able to span the oceans. The new design would need increased lifting capacity
to carry enough fuel and 300 pounds of mail, but no passengers, for a 2,500
miles (4,023 kilometers) nonstop flight against a 30 mph (48 km/h) wind, at a
higher cruising speed than the norm for similar flying boats at that time. Of
the six companies tenders had been sent to, only Sikorsky and Martin provided
submissions. Sikorsky offered the S-42. The other offer was the more ambitious
Martin M-130.
The new Sikorsky design, the
S-42, had major aerodynamic improvements over the S-40. Igor Sikorsky said,
"in its very outline the S-42 represents simplicity. Diverting sharply
from the past Sikorsky designs, external bracings have been reduced to a
minimum. The tail, instead of being supported by outriggers, is attached
directly to the hull." The S-42 had a high wing loading which required
flaps to provide acceptable takeoff and landing speeds. Though Lindbergh
approved of the S-42, it fell far short of his proposed range. Stripped of all
accommodations, with extra fuel tanks in the fuselage, the S-42 was just able
to fly proving flights across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Pan Am would
have to wait for the Martin M-130 to have an airliner capable of flying the
Pacific with a payload.
Pan Am's S-42s were used
primarily on the Miami - Rio de Janeiro route. In 1937 S-42s also operated a
New York-to-Bermuda service. 1940 saw S-42 flights between Seattle and Alaska.
An S-42 was also used between Manila and Hong Kong.
British Marine Aircraft Ltd. was
formed in February 1936 to produce S-42A flying boats under license in the
United Kingdom but nothing came of this. The company built a factory on the
western side of the Hamble peninsula with a slipway to Southampton Water. When
the deal fell through, the company was sold to Henry Folland, who renamed it
Folland Aircraft Limited.
Operational history
Flying for Pan American Airways,
a total of ten S-42s were built, manufactured by the Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft
Division of the United Aircraft Corporation in Stratford, Connecticut. The
prototype first flew on March 30, 1934.
Pan American was the sole
customer for the S-42. The S-42 Pan Am Clipper surveyed the route from the US
West Coast to China, making the first survey flight from Alameda, California to
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in April 1935. However, S-42 aircraft never flew revenue
passenger service from California to Hawaii; trans-Pacific routes were served
by the larger Martin M-130 and, later, Boeing 314 Clippers.
In March 1939 a Pan Am S-42 was
scheduled to leave Miami at 0730, stop overnight in San Juan, Port of Spain,
Belem and Recife, and arrive at Rio de Janeiro at 1530 on the fifth day. (It
returned to Miami, and passengers to Buenos Aires continued on DC2/DC3s.)
In early 1942 the U.S. Navy
acquired one S-42 which it used as a transport in the Caribbean and to South
America.
All Sikorsky S-42s were either
scrapped or destroyed in accidents.
In 1947, inventor Lemuel Stewart
purchased the fuselage of S-42 NC-822M Brazilian Clipper from Pan Am for
$750.00, converted it to a six-room houseboat, and kept it docked in a boat
canal in Miami, Florida. Its ultimate fate is unknown.
---------------------------------------------
The Boeing 314 Clipper was an
American long-range flying boat produced by Boeing from 1938 to 1941. One of
the largest aircraft of its time, it had the range to cross the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans. For its wing, Boeing re-used the design from their earlier
XB-15 bomber prototype. Twelve Clippers were built, nine of which served with
Pan Am.
Design and development
Pan American had requested a
flying boat with unprecedented range that could augment the airline's
trans-Pacific Martin M-130. Boeing's bid was successful and on July 21, 1936,
Pan American signed a contract for six. Boeing engineers adapted the cancelled
XB-15's 149 ft (45 m) wing, and replaced the 850 hp (630 kW) Pratt &
Whitney Twin Wasp radial engines with the 1,600 hp (1,200 kW) Wright Twin
Cyclone. Pan Am ordered six more aircraft with increased engine power and
capacity for 77 daytime passengers as the Boeing 314A.
The huge flying boat was
assembled at Boeing's Plant 1 on the Duwamish River in Seattle, and towed to
Elliott Bay for taxi and flight tests. The first flight was on June 7, 1938,
piloted by Edmund T. "Eddie" Allen. At first the aircraft had a
single vertical tail, and Allen found he had inadequate directional control.
The aircraft returned to the factory and was fitted with the endplates on the
ends of the horizontal tail in place of the single vertical fin. This too was
found to be insufficient and finally the centerline vertical fin was restored,
after which the aircraft flew satisfactorily.
The 314 used a series of heavy
ribs and spars to create a robust fuselage and cantilevered wing, eliminating
the need for external drag-inducing struts to brace the wings. Boeing also
incorporated Dornier-style sponsons into the hull structure. The sponsons,
broad lateral extensions at the waterline on both sides of the hull, served
several purposes: they provided a wide platform to stabilize the craft while
floating, they acted as a gangway for boarding and exiting, and they possessed
intentional shaping to contribute additional aerodynamic lift in flight.
Passengers and their baggage were weighed, with each passenger allowed up to 77
pounds (35 kg) free baggage allowance (in the later 314 series) but then
charged $3.25 per pound ($7.2/kg) (equivalent to $59 in 2019) for exceeding the
limit. To fly the long ranges needed for trans-Pacific service, the 314 carried
4,246 US gallons (16,070 l; 3,536 imp gal) of gasoline. The later 314A model
carried a further 1,200 US gallons (4,500 l; 1,000 imp gal). A capacity of 300
US gallons (1,100 l; 250 imp gal) of oil was required for operation of the
radial engines
Pan Am's "Clippers"
were built for "one-class" luxury air travel, a necessity given the
long duration of transoceanic flights. The seats could be converted into 36
bunks for overnight accommodation; with a cruising speed of 188 miles per hour
(303 km/h) (typically flights at maximum gross weight were flown at 155 miles
per hour (249 km/h)) in 1940, Pan Am's schedule San Francisco to Honolulu was
19 hours. The 314s had a lounge and dining area, and the galleys were crewed by
chefs from four-star hotels. Men and women were provided with separate dressing
rooms, and white-coated stewards served five and six-course meals with gleaming
silver service. The standard of luxury on Pan American's Boeing 314s has rarely
been matched on heavier-than-air transport since then; they were a form of
travel for the super-rich, priced at $675 (equivalent to $12,000 in 2019) round
trip from New York to Southampton. Most of the flights were transpacific, with
a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Hong Kong via the
"stepping-stone" islands posted at $760 (equivalent to $14,000 in
2019). The Pan Am Boeing 314 Clippers brought exotic destinations like the Far
East within reach of air travelers and came to represent the romance of flight.
Transatlantic flights to neutral Lisbon and Ireland continued after war broke
out in Europe in September 1939 (and until 1945), but military passengers and
cargoes necessarily got priority, and the service was more spartan.
Equally critical to the 314's
success was the proficiency of its Pan Am flight crews, who were extremely
skilled at long-distance, over-water flight operations and navigation. For
training, many of the transpacific flights carried a second crew. Only the very
best and most experienced flight crews were assigned Boeing 314 flying boat
duty. Before coming aboard, all Pan Am captains as well as first and second
officers had thousands of hours of flight time in other seaplanes and flying
boats. Rigorous training in dead reckoning, timed turns, judging drift from sea
current, celestial navigation, and radio navigation were conducted. In conditions
of poor or no visibility, pilots sometimes made successful landings at
fogged-in harbors by landing out to sea, then taxiing the 314 into port.
Operational history
The first 314 flight on the San
Francisco-Hong Kong route left Alameda on February 23, 1939 with regular
passenger and Foreign Air Mail Route #14 service beginning on March 29. A
one-way trip on this route took over six days to complete. Commercial passenger
service lasted less than three years, ending when the United States entered
World War II in December 1941.
The Yankee Clipper flew across
the Atlantic on a route from Southampton to Port Washington, New York with
intermediate stops at Foynes in Ireland, Botwood in Newfoundland, and Shediac,
New Brunswick. The inaugural trip occurred on June 24, 1939.
The success of the six initial
Clippers had led Pan Am to place an order for six improved 314A models to be
delivered in 1941, with the goal of doubling the service on both Atlantic and
Pacific routes. However, the fall of France in 1940 caused some doubt about
whether the Atlantic service could continue; passenger numbers were already
reduced due to the war, and if Spain or Portugal were to join the Axis, then
the flights to Lisbon would be forced to stop. Pan Am began to consider
reducing their order and, in August 1940, reached an agreement to sell three of
the six under construction to the United Kingdom. The aircraft were to be
operated by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and were primarily
intended for the UK � West Africa route, as existing flying boats could not
travel this route without stopping in Lisbon. The sale made a small net profit
for Pan Am � priced at cost plus 5% � and provided a vital communications link
for Britain, but was politically controversial. In order to arrange the sale,
the junior minister Harold Balfour had to agree to the contract with no
government approval, leading to stern disapproval from Winston Churchill and
lengthy debate by the Cabinet over the propriety of the purchase. Churchill
later flew on the Bristol and Berwick,[12] which he praised intensely, adding
to the Clippers� fame during the war.
At the outbreak of the war in
the Pacific in December 1941, the Pacific Clipper was en route to New Zealand
from San Francisco. Rather than risk flying back to Honolulu and being shot
down by Japanese fighters, it was directed to fly west to New York. Starting on
December 8, 1941 at Auckland, New Zealand, the Pacific Clipper covered over
31,500 mi (50,700 km) via locations including Surabaya, Karachi, Bahrain,
Khartoum and Leopoldville. The Pacific Clipper landed at Pan American's
LaGuardia Field seaplane base at 7:12 on the morning of January 6, 1942,
completing the first commercial plane flight to circumnavigate the world.
Pan Am's Clipper fleet was
pressed into US military service during World War II, and the flying boats were
used for ferrying personnel and equipment to the European and Pacific fronts.
The aircraft were purchased by the War and Navy Departments and leased back to
Pan Am for a dollar, with the understanding that all would be operated by the
Navy once four-engined replacements for the Army's four Clippers were in
service. Only the markings on the aircraft changed: the Clippers continued to
be flown by their experienced Pan Am civilian crews. American military cargo
was carried via Natal, Brazil to Liberia, to supply the British forces at Cairo
and even the Russians, via the Persian Corridor. The Model 314 was then the
only aircraft in the world that could make the 2,150-statute-mile (3,460 km)
crossing over water, and was given the military designation C-98. Since the Pan
Am pilots and crews had extensive expertise in using flying boats for extreme
long-distance over-water flights, the company's pilots and navigators continued
to serve as flight crew. In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled to
the Casablanca Conference in a Pan-Am crewed Boeing 314 Dixie Clipper.
After the war, several Clippers
were returned to Pan American hands. However, even before hostilities had
ended, the Clipper had become obsolete. The flying boat's advantage had been
that it didn't require long concrete runways, but during the war a great many
such runways had been built for heavy bombers. New long-range airliners such as
the Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-4 were developed. The new landplanes
were relatively easy to fly, and did not require the extensive pilot training
programs mandated for seaplane operations. One of the 314's most experienced
pilots said, "We were indeed glad to change to DC-4s, and I argued daily
for eliminating all flying boats. The landplanes were much safer. No one in the
operations department... had any idea of the hazards of flying boat operations.
The main problem now was lack of the very high level of experience and
competence required of seaplane pilots".
Retirement
The last Pan Am 314 to be retired,
the California Clipper NC18602, in 1946, had accumulated more than a million
flight miles.[17] Of the 12 Boeing 314 Clippers built, three were lost to
accidents, although only one of those resulted in fatalities: 24 passengers and
crew aboard the Yankee Clipper NC18603 lost their lives in a landing accident
at Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base, in Lisbon, Portugal on February 22, 1943. Among
that flight's passengers were prominent American author and war correspondent
Benjamin Robertson, who was killed, and the American singer and actress Jane
Froman, who was seriously injured.
Pan-Am's 314 was removed from
scheduled service in 1946 and the seven serviceable B-314s were purchased by
the start-up airline New World Airways. These sat at San Diego's Lindbergh Field
for a long time before all were eventually sold for scrap in 1950. The last of
the fleet, the Anzac Clipper NC18611(A), was resold and scrapped at Baltimore,
Maryland in late 1951.
BOAC's 314As were withdrawn from
the Baltimore-to-Bermuda route in January 1948, replaced by Lockheed
Constellations flying from New York and Baltimore to Bermuda.
