Pan Am Flying Boat Circles the Globe

[THE PILGRIM]

Just saw this on tv.
A Boeing 314 Flying Boat named -The Pacific Clipper- flown by Pan Am was on a regular scheduled run in New Zealand when Pearl was attacked.
What to do? They were afraid that a return to Hawaii would result in being attacked by the Japanese.
So in the words of Horace Greeley, Go West Young Man.
So West they went, all the way to NYC.
The first commercial airliner to circle the earth!


Boeing 314 Clipper - Wikipedia

 

[italiansport]

One would think there would be a place in commercial aviation today for an upgraded replacement!
Jim

 

[dben002]

Howard Hughes thought the same thing...did not work out to well............

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXZQewzdWzA[/ame]

 

[PPS1980]

Howard Hughes thought the same thing...did not work out to well............

COLOR FOOTAGE OF HOWARD HUGHES' SPRUCE GOOSE FLIGHT 1947 34620 - YouTube

WWII attempt at heavy cargo lift - long ago.

I love Flying Boats, particularly the Pan Am clippers of the 30s. My living room has two 4x4 framed photos of them - one at the NYC harbor and the other flying over the under construction SF Bridge.

 

[JayFramer]

WWII attempt at heavy cargo lift - long ago.

I love Flying Boats, particularly the Pan Am clippers of the 30s. My living room has two 4x4 framed photos of them - one at the NYC harbor and the other flying over the under construction SF Bridge.

The German did it right with the Me 323 Gigant:

 

[bigwheelzip]

One would think there would be a place in commercial aviation today for an upgraded replacement!

It would be nice to see that happen, but the market would probably be too small to justify development costs. There were only 12 of the original Clippers built.

Oddly enough, on the ridiculously overdeveloped Long Island NY, the original Port Washington seaplane base property is undeveloped, only a bit of the ramp still remains on the beach.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

The Clippers were all named, sort of like naming ships.
FDR went to Casablanca on the Dixie Clipper.
My FIL flew from Natal, Brazil to Africa on one of the Clippers, don't know which one.

 

[OLDNAVYMCPO]

Definitely not in the same class as the clippers, but when I was at San Diego in the early sixties, VP-40 flying P5M-2 seaplanes was at NAS North Island. I always enjoyed their operations, had never seen anything like it before. They were operational during Vietnam. Don't know why the Navy discontinued them. It seems to me that they would be very versatile and have many uses.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I thought there were a few PBY's still servicing the Caribbean Islands and a few in the South Pacific.

My best friend's dad was a flight engineer during WWII and Korea. They have a good size and flight radius. But I would suppose helicopters took their place as a way into out of the way places.

Ivan

 

[THE PILGRIM]

The largest Flying Boat the US ever put into service was the Navy Mars.
Only a small number were built but it performed well flying heavy loads on long routes.
A couple are still flying as Fire fighting tankers.
There's a tv show about one operating out of Falcon Lake fighting a fire in Mexico.

Martin JRM Mars - Wikipedia

 

[Targets Guy]

Loved the old Clippers. Never got to fly on one though.

 

[pharmer]

PanAm was such a great company. I still have 2000 shares of its' stock certificates. Joe

 

[cowboy4evr]

A good friend of mine was a retired Pan Am pilot . He started his career flying the clippers . He had some interesting stories.

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

Definitely not in the same class as the clippers, but when I was at San Diego in the early sixties, VP-40 flying P5M-2 seaplanes was at NAS North Island. I always enjoyed their operations, had never seen anything like it before. They were operational during Vietnam. Don't know why the Navy discontinued them. It seems to me that they would be very versatile and have many uses.

I was in VP-48 at North Island from '63-'66 and flew with Crew 1. Every takeoff and landing was a thrilling / terrorifing experience. Fully loaded at 78,000 lbs it took 2 1/2 minutes to get off the water. In the States I was an ASW operator, in Vietnam I was a M-60 operator. We had 4 M-60's, one mounted in each door, 2 on each side.

Here is a video about the Clipper's Long Way Home:

The Long Way Home-The Pacific Clipper.m4v - YouTube

Here is a video I made a long time ago:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiFDpYdr0qE[/ame]

and another VP-48 video made by another Crew member:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2rJSbvrBJE[/ame]

 

[DWalt]

There was a 1936 movie with Humphrey Bogart called "China Clipper." Well worth watching when it shows up on TCM, as it occasionally does. Bogart is, what else, a Clipper pilot. The final scene of a Clipper flying over the partially-completed Golden Gate bridge is worth the price of admission.

 

[soFlaNative]

High School graduation was in a WW1 NAS hangar Pan Am used down here in Miami. After the move to MIA it converted into Dinner Key Auditorium and the terminal has been Miami City Hall since the 50's.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

A good friend of mine was a retired Pan Am pilot . He started his career flying the clippers . He had some interesting stories.

He most likely knew a good friend of my FIL, Sam Miller.
They are both from Deckers Chapel, IN, both went to Indiana, both ran track.
Sam became Pan Am chief Pilot.
He flew Clippers to 747s.


Archives Photograph Collection - "Samuel H. Miller"