China Clipper, Pan Am's Conquest of the Pacific

Flight Journal, Dec 2002 by Farmer, James H

VIDEOS OF NOTE

China Clipper, Pan Am's Conquest of the Pacific

Available from CAV Video Productions; (650) 343-4344; www.aviationvideo.com; $29.95.

"China Clipper, Pan Am's Conquest of the Pacific" offers a remarkably comprehensive look at Pan American Airways' prewar Golden Age of pioneering seaplane routes to the Caribbean and the Pacific. Wonderful rare footage of Pan Am's early, short-legged Sikorsky S-40 and S-42 flying boats sets the stage for the famed Martin M-130, which came to be known to one and all as the "China Clipper." So massive are the plane's dimensions that final assembly had to take place outside Yet, despite its 130-foot wingspan (hence the label "Martin 130") and the four powerful Pratt & Whitney 1830 engines, it could carry only eight paying passengers on the 2,400-mile trip from San Francisco to Honolulu.

Profitable Pacific operations awaited the arrival of Boeing's 152-foot-span giant, the B314. Viewers profit as well because the second half of this wonderful 60-minute video is all in gloriously preserved color! We are introduced to Boeing's famed engineer Eddie Allen, the truly opulent onboard appointments on the 314 and the adventures that awaited passengers during stopovers in Honolulu, Midway, Wake, Guam, Manila and Hong Kong. From tennis courts to five-star dining, it was all there for those who could afford the $900 tab-in 1939 dollars! No less interesting and sad is the knowledge of how these magnificent sites would be ravaged during WW II.

All in all, "China Clipper" offers a not-to-be-missed trip back through those final, truly glorious years of aviation's Golden Age.

-James H. Farmer