Pacific Clipper

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Not to be confused with Clipper Pacific.
Pacific Clipper
Boeing 314 California Clipper at Cavite c1940.jpg
The California Clipper off the Cavite Navy Yard, Philippines, 1939-1941.
Other name(s) California Clipper
Type Boeing 314
Registration NC-18602
Owners and operators Pan American World Airways
Fate Retired

The Pacific Clipper (civil registration NC-18602) was a Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat, famous for having completed Pan American World Airways' first around-the-world flight in December 1941-January 1942.[1][self-published source]

History[]

Boeing 314 Clipper NC18602 California Clipper in Auckland, New Zealand, 1939
Pacific Clipper is located in Earth
Auckland
Auckland
Gladstone
Gladstone
Darwin
Darwin
Surabaya
Surabaya
Trincomalee
Trincomalee
Karachi
Karachi
Bahrain
Bahrain
Khartoum
Khartoum
Léopoldville
Léopoldville
Natal
Natal
Port of Spain
Port of Spain
New York
New York
Stops on Pacific Clipper's flight from Auckland to New York

The Pacific Clipper was at first given the name of another older Boeing 314, the California Clipper while the original California Clipper (NC18602) was being moved to Pan Am's Atlantic service.[2]

On December 2, 1941, the Clipper departed from the Pan Am base on Treasure Island, San Francisco for its scheduled passenger service to Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] It landed at Pan American's LaGuardia Field seaplane base in New York City five weeks later, at 7:12 on the morning of January 6, 1942.

NC18602 made scheduled stops in San Pedro, California, Honolulu, Hawaii, Canton Island, Suva, Fiji and Nouméa, New Caledonia en route to Auckland when Pearl Harbor was attacked.[1]

Cut off from the United States due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, because the aircraft was a valuable military asset Captain Robert Ford was directed to strip company markings, registration, and insignia from the Clipper and proceed in secret to the Marine Terminal, LaGuardia Field, New York.[1]

Ford and his crew successfully flew over 20,000 miles (32,000 km)[5] from Auckland via

At Surabaya, Captain Ford had to refuel with automobile grade gasoline, instead of their usual 100 octane. "We took off from Surabaya on the 100 octane, climbed a couple of thousand feet, and pulled back the power to cool off the engines," said Ford. "Then we switched to the automobile gas and held our breaths. The engines almost jumped out of their mounts, but they ran. We figured it was either that or leave the airplane to the Japs."

On the way to Trincomalee, they were confronted by a Japanese submarine,[1] and Ford had to jam the throttles forward to climb out of range of the submarine's guns. On Christmas Eve, when they took off, black oil began gushing out of the number 3 engine and pouring back over the wing. Ford shut down the engine and returned to Trincomalee. He discovered one of the engine's cylinders had failed.

When Captain Ford was planning his flight from Bahrain, he was warned by the British authorities not to fly across Arabia. Ford said, "The Saudis had apparently already caught some British flyers who had been forced down there. The natives had dug a hole, buried them in it up to their necks, and just left them." Ford flew right over Mecca because the Saudis did not have anti-aircraft guns.

A Pan American airport manager and a radio officer had been dispatched to meet the Clipper at Leopoldville. When Ford landed they handed him a cold beer. Ford said, "That was one of the high points of the whole trip."[6]

After being airborne over twenty hours, they landed in the harbor at Natal just before noon. While they were waiting for the necessary immigration formalities to be completed, the Brazilian authorities insisted that the crew disembark while the interior of the airplane was sprayed for yellow fever. It wasn't until after they had departed that the crew made an unpleasant discovery. Most of their personal papers and money were missing, along with a military chart that had been entrusted to Navigator Rod Brown by the US military attache in Leopoldville, obviously stolen by the Brazilian "fumigators."[7]

After the aircraft had completed its harrowing flight to safety, Pan Am renamed the aircraft the Pacific Clipper. The name change was mainly for publicity purposes, arising from the first newspaper articles having wrongly identified the aircraft.[6]

On 30/31 January 1942, the Pacific Clipper transported Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles from the Pan-American emergency defense conference at Rio de Janeiro to Miami, covering the 4,350 miles in a record 33 hours. The black and grey camouflaged ship carried 39 passengers.[8] It was at this conference that all of Latin America except Argentina and Chile broke ties with the Axis powers.

After the war it was sold to Universal Airlines but was damaged in a storm and ultimately salvaged for parts.[9]

References[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ a b c d Bull, John (August 2014). "This Plane Accidentally Flew Around the World". Lapsed Historian. Medium.com. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  2. ^ "The Flying Clippers". Archived from the original on March 27, 2010. Retrieved November 22, 2009.
  3. ^ Dover, Ed (1999). The Long Way Home. McLean, Virginia: Paladwr Press. ISBN 1-888962-00-3.
  4. ^ Cohen, Stan (1985). Wings to the Orient, Pan-Am Clipper Planes 1935–1945. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories. ISBN 0-933126-61-1.
  5. ^ "Great Circle Mapper". Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  6. ^ a b Klaás (1991), p. 19.
  7. ^ "Saga of the Pacific Clipper". Pan Am Historical Foundation. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  8. ^ "Plane Speeds Welles to U.S.". The San Bernardino Daily Sun. United Press. February 1, 1942. p. 1.
  9. ^ "December 7, 1941 and the First Around-the-World Commercial Flight". Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. December 8, 2011.

Bibliography[]

  • Bowers, Peter M. (November 1977a). "The Great Clippers, Part I". Airpower. Vol. 7, no. 6.
  • Bowers, Peter M. (December 1977b). "The Great Clippers, Part II". Wings. Vol. 7, no. 6.
  • Bridgeman, Leonard (1946). "The Boeing 314-A Clipper". Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II. London: Studio. ISBN 1-85170-493-0.
  • Brock, Horace (1978). Flying the Oceans: A Pilot's Story of Pan Am, 1935–1955 (3rd ed.). New York: Jason Aronson, Inc. ISBN 0-87668-632-3.
  • Dover, Ed (2008). The Long Way Home (Revised ed.). Amazon print-on-demand service. ISBN 978-0-615-21472-6. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019.
  • Klaás, M.D. (June 1969). "The Incredible Clippers". Air Classics. Vol. 5, no. 5.
  • Klaás, M.D. (December 1989). "Clipper Across the Pacific, Part One". Air Classics. Vol. 25, no. 12.
  • Klaás, M.D. (January 1990). "Clipper Across the Pacific, Part Two". Air Classics. Vol. 26, no. 1.
  • Klaás, M.D. (April 1991). "When the Clippers Went to War". Air Classics. Vol. 27, no. 4.
  • Klaás, M.D. (February 1993). "Clipper Flight 9035". Air Classics. Vol. 29, no. 2.

External links[]

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