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A flying boat named China Clipper made the first trip, and the publicity for that flight caused all flying boats on that air route to become popularly known as China Clippers. For a few years, this pioneering mail service captured the public imagination like the earlier Pony Express , and offered fast luxury travel like the later Concorde .
As early as 1935 Pan American had identified that a truly trans-Pacific flying boat with unprecedented range and double the passenger payload of the airline's Martin M-130 would be required particularly if they were to provide a service across the longer more difficult Atlantic route and requested proposals from a number of American manufacturers.
China Clipper (NC14716) was the first of three Martin M-130 four-engine flying boats built for Pan American Airways and was used to inaugurate the first commercial transpacific airmail service from San Francisco to Manila on November 22, 1935. [1]
Pan Am also used Boeing 314 flying boats for the Pacific route: in China, passengers could connect to domestic flights on the Pan Am-operated China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) network, co-owned with the Chinese government. Pan Am flew to Singapore for the first time in 1941, starting a semi-monthly service that reduced San Francisco ...
The spirit of Pan Am lives on. For passengers eager to relive the days of flying the iconic airline, a charter company will re-create two early routes of the now long-gone carrier.
The Pacific Clipper (civil registration NC18602) was an American Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat, famous for having completed an unplanned nearly around-the-world flight in December 1941 and January 1942 as the California Clipper. [1]
The flying boat reached Southampton on 10 July, the flight having taken 27 hours and 20 minutes of which 22 hours and 34 minutes was flying time. [23] On 13 October Yankee Clipper left Port Washington for Lisbon with 35 passengers (all but four alighting in Bermuda) and 1,385 pounds (628 kg) of mail, setting a record for the eastbound crossing ...
Pan Am was seeking to expand its trans-Pacific air service between San Francisco and Hong Kong in 1937. This route had been pioneered by the Martin M-130 and Pan Am was in need of a larger aircraft. The San Francisco to Hawaii flight was 2,400 miles (3,900 km) and took 18 – 20 hours. Pan Am would have configured the M-156 as a 26-berth sleeper.