PAN AM SPANS THE PACIFIC Creating a transpacific route presented great challenges in 1935. Pan Am had to survey the world's longest oceanic air route, build air bases and hotels on remote Pacific islands, and find an aircraft company to design and build flying boats big and powerful enough to carry heavy payloads across the longest landless air route in the world.
There have been numerous books written about Juan Trippe, the fledgling airline he founded, Pan American, and the giant flying boats, the "Clippers", that he used to span the oceans and bring the peoples of the world closer together. It's interesting to read about the trials and tribulations that Mr. Trippe and the numerous people under and around him went through to make his far-sighted, and many thought far-fetched, vision become a reality.
In January of 1936 Bert Voortmeyer, a 20 year old young man, hired on as a simple laborer, boarded a ship and steamed out into the Pacific. After being basically marooned, over a thousand miles from any other land, he and others toiled on Wake Island, a tiny desolate atoll, building a hotel and other facilities that were needed for the passengers that were soon to come. Bert kept a diary, wrote letters to his sweetheart back home and took numerous photographs. Years later his daughter unearthed this treasure trove and along with her father wrote "Riding the Reef: A Pan American Adventure With Love" sharing young Bert's perspective of the daily life during the time he spent on Wake. There were perilous and dangerous times and there were good times, fun times. He shares them all, including his intimate personal thoughts of his loneliness and sometimes despair at being so far from his sweetheart and home.
A few months later, in September of 1936, H. R. Ekins, a news reporter, raced two other reporters around the world using only established airlines. He left his office and boarded the dirigible "Hindenburg" and 18 days, 11 hours later, after travelling 25,794-miles, he walked in to the World-Telegram Building, his point of departure, establishing a new record for around the world travel. A thing such as this would have been thought of as being impossible only a few years earlier. His book "Around the World in Eighteen Days And How to Do It" was published shortly after his return.
In October of 1936 the three giant M-130 flying boats, beginning with the "Hawaii Clipper", began regular weekly passenger flights to and from Manila in the Philippines with overnight stays at Honolulu, Wake, Midway and Guam. In 1937 an S-42 began flying the last leg of the route to China, flying between Manila and Hong Kong.
The airline, Pan American, and the flying boats they used, the "Clippers" are also featured in numerous fiction and historical fiction books. From "Timmy Rides the China Clipper", a children's book by Carol Nay, to the twelve book "Ginger Hale" series featuring Ginger, a young Eagle Scout who breaks into aviation by going to work for Pan Am as a laborer and who eventually works his way up to the ladder to become Capt. Hale, a top-notch, well respected pilot for Pan Am.
The history of Pan Am's flying boats is short, beginning in 1931 with the first custom built Sikorsky S-40 “American Clipper”, used for flights into South America, then to the modified S-42 "Pan American Clipper" which flew the survey flights across the Pacific starting in 1935, followed the Martin M-130 "China Clipper" and her first airmail flight across the Pacific in November 1935, followed by weekly passenger flights in October of 1936, and finally ending with the retirement of the Boeing 314 "California Clipper" in 1946. The history is short but it is filled with adventure as Juan Trippe and his airline accomplish the "impossible" over and over, advancing aviation in the process.
Creating a transpacific route presented great challenges in 1935. Pan Am had to survey the world's longest oceanic air route, build air bases and hotels on remote Pacific islands, and find an aircraft company to design and build flying boats big and powerful enough to carry heavy payloads across the longest landless air route in the world.
There have been numerous books written about Juan Trippe, the fledgling airline he founded, Pan American, and the giant flying boats, the "Clippers", that he used to span the oceans and bring the peoples of the world closer together. It's interesting to read about the trials and tribulations that Mr. Trippe and the numerous people under and around him went through to make his far-sighted, and many thought far-fetched, vision become a reality.
In January of 1936 Bert Voortmeyer, a 20 year old young man, hired on as a simple laborer, boarded a ship and steamed out into the Pacific. After being basically marooned, over a thousand miles from any other land, he and others toiled on Wake Island, a tiny desolate atoll, building a hotel and other facilities that were needed for the passengers that were soon to come. Bert kept a diary, wrote letters to his sweetheart back home and took numerous photographs. Years later his daughter unearthed this treasure trove and along with her father wrote "Riding the Reef: A Pan American Adventure With Love" sharing young Bert's perspective of the daily life during the time he spent on Wake. There were perilous and dangerous times and there were good times, fun times. He shares them all, including his intimate personal thoughts of his loneliness and sometimes despair at being so far from his sweetheart and home.
A few months later, in September of 1936, H. R. Ekins, a news reporter, raced two other reporters around the world using only established airlines. He left his office and boarded the dirigible "Hindenburg" and 18 days, 11 hours later, after travelling 25,794-miles, he walked in to the World-Telegram Building, his point of departure, establishing a new record for around the world travel. A thing such as this would have been thought of as being impossible only a few years earlier. His book "Around the World in Eighteen Days And How to Do It" was published shortly after his return.
In October of 1936 the three giant M-130 flying boats, beginning with the "Hawaii Clipper", began regular weekly passenger flights to and from Manila in the Philippines with overnight stays at Honolulu, Wake, Midway and Guam. In 1937 an S-42 began flying the last leg of the route to China, flying between Manila and Hong Kong.
The airline, Pan American, and the flying boats they used, the "Clippers" are also featured in numerous fiction and historical fiction books. From "Timmy Rides the China Clipper", a children's book by Carol Nay, to the twelve book "Ginger Hale" series featuring Ginger, a young Eagle Scout who breaks into aviation by going to work for Pan Am as a laborer and who eventually works his way up to the ladder to become Capt. Hale, a top-notch, well respected pilot for Pan Am.
The history of Pan Am's flying boats is short, beginning in 1931 with the first custom built Sikorsky S-40 “American Clipper”, used for flights into South America, then to the modified S-42 "Pan American Clipper" which flew the survey flights across the Pacific starting in 1935, followed the Martin M-130 "China Clipper" and her first airmail flight across the Pacific in November 1935, followed by weekly passenger flights in October of 1936, and finally ending with the retirement of the Boeing 314 "California Clipper" in 1946. The history is short but it is filled with adventure as Juan Trippe and his airline accomplish the "impossible" over and over, advancing aviation in the process.