The Boeing 314 Clipper was an American long-range flying boat produced by Boeing from 1938 to 1941. One of the largest aircraft of its time, it had the range to cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. For its wing, Boeing re-used the design from the earlier XB-15 bomber prototype. Twelve Clippers were built, nine of which served with Pan Am.
Pan American had requested a truly trans-Pacific flying boat with unprecedented range and double the passenger payload of the airline's Martin M-130. Boeing's bid was successful and on July 21, 1936, Pan American signed a contract for six. Boeing engineers adapted the cancelled XB-15's 149ft (45m) wing, and replaced the 850hp (630kW)Pratt & WhitneyTwin Waspradial engines with the 1,600hp (1,200kW)WrightTwin Cyclone.[1] Pan Am ordered six more aircraft with increased engine power and capacity for 77 daytime passengers as the Boeing 314A.
The huge flying boat was assembled at Boeing's Plant 1 on the Duwamish River in Seattle, and towed to Elliott Bay for taxi and flight tests. The first flight was on June 7, 1938, piloted by Edmund T. "Eddie" Allen. At first the aircraft had a single vertical tail, and Allen found he had inadequate directional control. The aircraft returned to the factory and was fitted with the endplates on the ends of the horizontal tail in place of the single vertical fin. This too was found to be insufficient and finally the centerline vertical fin was restored, after which the aircraft flew satisfactorily.[2]
The 314 used a series of heavy ribs and spars to create a robust fuselage and cantilevered wing, eliminating the need for external drag-inducing struts to brace the wings. Boeing also incorporated Dornier-style sponsons into the hull structure.[3] The sponsons, broad lateral extensions at the waterline on both sides of the hull, served several purposes: They provided a wide platform to stabilize the craft while floating, they acted as a gangway for boarding and exiting, and they possessed intentional shaping to contribute additional aerodynamic lift in flight.
To fly the long ranges needed for trans-Pacific service, the 314 carried 4,246 US gallons (16,070L; 3,536impgal) of gasoline. The later 314A model carried a further 1,200 US gallons (4,500L; 1,000impgal). A capacity of 300 US gallons (1,100L; 250impgal) of oil was required for operation of the radial engines.
Pan Am's "Clippers" were built for "one-class" luxury air travel, a necessity given the long duration of transoceanic flights. In 1940, Pan Am's scheduled time from San Francisco to Honolulu was 19 hours, with a cruising speed of 188 miles per hour (303km/h), although flights at maximum gross weight were typically flown at 155 miles per hour (249km/h). Clipper service catered to elite businessmen and the wealthy traveler. The 314s had a lounge and dining area, and the galleys were crewed by chefs from four-star hotels. Men and women were provided with separate dressing rooms, and white-coated stewards served five and six-course meals with gleaming silver service. The seats could be converted into 36 bunks for overnight accommodation. The standard of luxury on Pan American's Boeing 314s has rarely been matched on heavier-than-air transport since then. A round trip from New York to Southampton was $675 (equivalent to $15,000in 2023),[4] while a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Hong Kong via the "stepping-stone" islands cost $760 (equivalent to $16,000in 2023).[5] The Pan Am Boeing 314 Clippers brought exotic destinations like the Far East within reach of air travelers and came to represent the romance of flight. Most of the flights were transpacific, while transatlantic flights to neutral Lisbon and Ireland continued after war broke out in Europe in September 1939 (and until 1945), but military passengers and cargoes necessarily got priority, and the service was more spartan.
Equally critical to the 314's success was the proficiency of its Pan Am flight crews, who were extremely skilled at long-distance, over-water flight operations and navigation. For training, many of the transpacific flights carried a second crew.[6] Only the very best and most experienced flight crews were assigned Boeing 314 flying boat duty. Before coming aboard, all Pan Am captains as well as first and second officers had thousands of hours of flight time in other seaplanes and flying boats. Rigorous training in dead reckoning, timed turns, judging drift from sea current, celestial navigation, and radio navigation were conducted. In conditions of poor or no visibility, pilots sometimes made successful landings at fogged-in harbors by landing out to sea, then taxiing the 314 into port.[7]
Operational history
Boeing 314 in US Navy colors, c. 1942Boeing 314 Clipper in Shediac Bay, c. 1941Flown "triptych" cover carried around the world on PAA Boeing 314 Clippers and Imperial Airways Short S23 flying boats June 24 – July 28, 1939
The first 314 flight on the San Francisco-Hong Kong route left Alameda on February 23, 1939 with regular passenger and Foreign Air Mail Route #14 service beginning on March 29.[8][9][10] A one-way trip on this route took over six days to complete. Commercial passenger service lasted less than three years, ending when the United States entered World War II in December 1941. Passengers and their baggage were weighed, with each passenger allowed up to 77 pounds (35kg) free baggage allowance (in the later 314 series) but then charged $3.25 per pound ($7.2/kg) (equivalent to $70in 2023) for exceeding the limit.[11]
The success of the six initial Clippers had led Pan Am to place an order for six improved 314A models to be delivered in 1941, with the goal of doubling the service on both Atlantic and Pacific routes. However, the fall of France in 1940 caused some doubt about whether the Atlantic service could continue; passenger numbers were already reduced by the war, and if Spain or Portugal were to join the Axis, then the flights to Lisbon would be forced to stop. Pan Am began to consider reducing its order and, in August 1940, reached an agreement to sell three of the six under construction to the United Kingdom. The aircraft were to be operated by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and were primarily intended for the UK – West Africa route, as existing flying boats could not travel this route without stopping in Lisbon. The sale made a small net profit for Pan Am – priced at cost plus 5% – and provided a vital communications link for Britain, but was politically controversial. In order to arrange the sale, the junior minister Harold Balfour had to agree to the contract with no government approval, leading to stern disapproval from Winston Churchill and lengthy debate by the Cabinet over the propriety of the purchase.[12] Churchill later flew on the Bristol and Berwick in January 1942 from Washington, D.C. to England,[13] and he praised the plane intensely,[12] adding to the Clippers’ fame during the war.[14]
At the outbreak of the war in the Pacific in December 1941, the Pacific Clipper was en route to New Zealand from San Francisco. Rather than risk flying back to Honolulu and being shot down by Japanese fighters, it was directed to fly west to New York. Starting on December 8, 1941 at Auckland, New Zealand, the Pacific Clipper covered over 31,500mi (50,700km) via locations including Surabaya, Karachi, Bahrain, Khartoum and Leopoldville. The Pacific Clipper landed at Pan American's LaGuardia Field seaplane base at 7:12 on the morning of January 6, 1942.[15]
Pan Am's Clipper fleet was pressed into US military service during World War II, and the flying boats were used for ferrying personnel and equipment to the European and Pacific fronts. The aircraft were purchased by the War and Navy Departments and leased back to Pan Am for a dollar, with the understanding that all would be operated by the Navy once four-engined replacements for the Army's four Clippers were in service. Only the markings on the aircraft changed: The Clippers continued to be flown by their experienced Pan Am civilian crews. American military cargo was carried via Natal, Brazil to Liberia, to supply the British forces at Cairo and even the Russians, via the Persian Corridor. The Model 314 was then the only aircraft in the world that could make the 2,150-statute-mile (3,460km) crossing over water.[16] The Army gave the aircraft the designation C-98, but the Navy—which used a different designation system at the time—disregarded this designation and operated the aircraft under the company designation B-314.[17] In February 1942, forty women were hired by Pan Am to replace male mechanics in the hangars at LaGuardia to perform service, repair and overhaul of the Clippers for the European service.[18] Maintenance demands were such that it took "141 mechanics, working three 8-hour shifts, to perform in two days the complete inspection of servicing routine which must be carried out before a Clipper just in from Europe can be sent on the return trip."[19] Since the Pan Am pilots and crews had extensive expertise in using flying boats for extreme long-distance over-water flights, the company's pilots and navigators continued to serve as flight crew. In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled to the Casablanca Conference in a Pan-Am crewed Boeing 314 Dixie Clipper.[13]
After the war, several Clippers were returned to Pan American hands. However, even before hostilities had ended, the Clipper had become obsolete. The flying boat's advantage had been that it did not require long concrete runways, but during the war many such runways had been built for heavy bombers.[13] New long-range airliners such as the Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-4 were relatively easy to fly, and did not require the extensive pilot training programs mandated for seaplane operations. One of the 314's most experienced pilots said, "We were indeed glad to change to DC-4s, and I argued daily for eliminating all flying boats. The landplanes were much safer. No one in the operations department... had any idea of the hazards of flying boat operations. The main problem now was lack of the very high level of experience and competence required of seaplane pilots."[20]
The last Pan Am 314 to be retired, the California Clipper NC18602, in 1946, had accumulated more than a million flight miles.[21] Of the 12 Boeing 314 Clippers built, three were lost to accidents, although only one of those resulted in fatalities: 24 passengers and crew aboard the Yankee Clipper NC18603 lost their lives in a landing accident at Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base, in Lisbon, Portugal on February 22, 1943.[22] Among that flight's passengers were prominent American author and war correspondent Benjamin Robertson, who was killed, and the American singer and actress Jane Froman, who was seriously injured.[23]
Pan-Am's 314 was removed from scheduled service in 1946 and the seven serviceable B-314s were purchased by the start-up airline New World Airways. These sat at San Diego's Lindbergh Field for a long time before all were eventually sold for scrap in 1950. The last of the fleet, the Anzac Clipper NC18611(A), was resold and scrapped at Baltimore, Maryland in late 1951.
BOAC's 314As were withdrawn from the Baltimore-to-Bermuda route in January 1948, replaced by Lockheed Constellations flying from New York and Baltimore to Bermuda.[24]
Variants
Model 314
Initial production version with 1,500 horsepower (1,100kW) Twin Cyclone engines, six built for Pan Am.
Model 314A
Improved version with 1,600 horsepower (1,200kW) Twin Cyclones with larger-diameter propellers, additional 1,200 US gallons (4,500L; 1,000impgal) fuel capacity, and revised interior. Still air range approx 4,700 miles.[25] Six built, three for Pan Am and three sold to BOAC.
B-314
Five Model 314s pressed into military service with the U.S. Navy
C-98
Four Model 314s pressed into military service with the U.S. Army Air Forces
Successfully landed 650 miles east of Oahu after losing power in two engines while flying for the US Navy on November 3, 1945. Aircraft mechanics from the escort carrierManila Bay were unable to repair the engines at sea. The seaplane tenderSan Pablo attempted towing into port; but the flying boat was damaged in a collision with the tender and deliberately sunk on November 14 by Oerlikon 20 mm gunfire after salvage was deemed impractical.[2]
Started transatlantic mail service. Crashed on February 22, 1943, when a wing hit the water during a turn on landing at Lisbon, Portugal. A total of 24 of 39 on board were killed.[26]
NC18604
314
Atlantic Clipper
1939–1946
Purchased by the US Navy in 1942, but operated by Pan Am; salvaged for parts.
NC18605
314
Dixie Clipper
1939–1950
Started transatlantic passenger service, later sold to World Airways. First presidential flight, when she flew Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. Scrapped 1950.
Temporarily named California Clipper to replace 18602 that was being moved to Atlantic service, renamed Pacific Clipper in 1942. Later sold to Universal Airlines. Damaged by storm and salvaged for parts.
NC18611
314A
Anzac Clipper
1941–1951
Sold to Universal Airlines 1946, American International Airways 1947, World Airways 1948. Sold privately 1951, destroyed at Baltimore, Maryland 1951.
NC18612
314A
Cape Town Clipper
1941–1946
Sold to US Navy 1942, American International Airways 1947. As the Bermuda Sky Queen she ran out of fuel while crossing the Atlantic on a westward flight, and ditched at sea about 500 miles east of Gander on October 14, 1947. After the rescue of all passengers and crew, she was sunk by the United States Coast Guard as a hazard to navigation.[27]
Aircraft operated by BOAC
Registration
Type
Name
In service
Remarks
G-AGBZ
314A (#2081)
Bristol
1941–1948
Originally NC18607, sold to General Phoenix Corporation, Baltimore as NC18607 in 1948
G-AGCA
314A (#2082)
Berwick
1941–1948
Originally NC18608, sold to General Phoenix Corporation, Baltimore as NC18608 in 1948. This aircraft flew both Winston Churchill and Lord Beaverbrook, Britain's Minister of Supply back urgently to the United Kingdom in mid-January 1942 after the British Prime Minister's extended stay in the United States following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Churchill was the first head of government to make a transatlantic crossing by plane.[28][29][30]
G-AGCB
314A (#2084)
Bangor
1941–1948
Originally NC18610, sold to General Phoenix Corporation, Baltimore as NC18610 in 1948
Surviving aircraft
Full-size replica of a Boeing 314 at the Foynes Flying Boat Museum, County Limerick, Ireland
None of the dozen 314s built between 1939 and 1941 survived beyond 1951, with all 12 being cannibalized for parts, scuttled, scrapped, or otherwise written off. Underwater Admiralty Sciences, a non-profit oceanographic exploration and science research organization based in Kirkland, Washington, announced in 2005, at the 70th Anniversary of the first China Clipper flight in San Francisco, its plans to survey, photograph, and possibly recover the remains of the hulls of two sunken 314s: NC18601 (Honolulu Clipper), scuttled in the Pacific Ocean in 1945; and NC18612 (Bermuda Sky Queen, formerly Cape Town Clipper), sunk in the Atlantic by the Coast Guard in 1947. UAS has also spent significant time at Pan Am reunions and with individual crewmembers and employees of Pan Am conducting videotaped interviews for the mission's companion documentary.[31][32] However, as of 2014, no search or recovery had been attempted, with the most recent news from 2011 suggesting that the company was still in need of at least US$8 million to get the plan under way.[33]
There is a life-size 314 mockup at the Foynes Flying Boat Museum, Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, located on the site of the original transatlantic flying-boat terminus.[34]
Specifications (314A Clipper)
Data from Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II[35]
General characteristics
Crew: 11, including 2 cabin stewards
Capacity: 68 day passengers and/or 36 sleeping passengers / 5 short tons (4,536kg) of mail and or cargo
Propellers: 3-bladed Hamilton Standard fully-feathering constant-speed propellers
Performance
Maximum speed: 210mph (340km/h, 180kn) at 6,200ft (1,890m)
Cruise speed: 188mph (303km/h, 163kn) at 66.5% power at 11,000ft (3,353m)
Range: 3,685mi (5,930km, 3,202nmi) normal
Cultural influence
Inspired by the airplane, Smith Corona designed, manufactured, and marketed a typewriter model they called the Clipper from 1945–1960. The typewriter model's logo prominently featured the Boeing 314 Clipper on the typewriter's body which served as a reminder of the luxury and design of the original airplane.[37]
Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and more commonly known as Pan Am, was an airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for much of the 20th century. It was the first airline to fly worldwide and pioneered numerous innovations of the modern airline industry, such as jumbo jets and computerized reservation systems. Until its dissolution on December 4, 1991, Pan Am "epitomized the luxury and glamour of intercontinental travel", and it remains a cultural icon of the 20th century, identified by its blue globe logo, the use of the word "Clipper" in its aircraft names and call signs, and the white uniform caps of its pilots.
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. Built at a cost of $417,000 by the Glenn L. Martin Company in Baltimore, Maryland, it was delivered to Pan Am on October 9, 1935. It was one of the largest airplanes of its time.
The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was a large long-range airliner developed from the C-97 Stratofreighter military transport, itself a derivative of the B-29 Superfortress. The Stratocruiser's first flight was on July 8, 1947. Its design was advanced for its day; its relatively innovative features included two passenger decks and a pressurized cabin. It could carry up to 100 passengers on the main deck plus 14 in the lower deck lounge; typical seating was for 63 or 84 passengers or 28 berthed and five seated passengers.
A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, Latin America, or vice versa. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing aircraft, airships, balloons and other aircraft.
A clipper is a fast sailing vessel, generally from the 19th century.
Edwin Charles Musick was chief pilot for Pan American World Airways and pioneered many of Pan Am's transoceanic routes including the famous route across the Pacific Ocean, ultimately reaching the Philippine Islands, on the China Clipper.
The Sikorsky S-42 was a commercial flying boat designed and built by Sikorsky Aircraft to meet requirements for a long-range flying boat laid out by Pan American World Airways in 1931. The innovative design included wing flaps, variable-pitch propellers, and a tail-carrying full-length hull. The prototype first flew on 29 March 1934, and, in the period of development and test flying that followed, quickly established ten world records for payload-to-height. The "Flying Clipper" and the "Pan Am Clipper" were other names for the S-42.
The Pacific Clipper was a 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. Aviation experts called the flight the first commercial circumnavigation of the globe because the aircraft made it back to its country of origin.
The Sikorsky S-40 was an American amphibious flying boat built by Sikorsky in the early 1930s for Pan American Airways. During WW2 they were used by the United States Navy for training.
The Martin 156, referred to in the press variously as the "Russian Clipper", "Moscow Clipper", or "Soviet Clipper" was a very large flying boat aircraft intended for trans-Pacific service. The single example of the M-156 was designed and built in response to a request from Pan American World Airways to provide a longer-range replacement for the Martin M-130.
The Sikorsky VS-44 was a large four-engined flying boat built in the United States in the early 1940s by Sikorsky Aircraft. Based on the XPBS-1 patrol bomber, the VS-44 was designed primarily for the transatlantic passenger market, with a capacity of 40+ passengers. Three units were produced: Excalibur, Excambian, and Exeter, plus two XPBS-1 prototypes.
The Consolidated Commodore was an American flying boat built by Consolidated Aircraft and used for passenger travel in the 1930s, mostly in the Caribbean, operated by companies like Pan American Airways.
The Martin M-130 was a commercial flying boat designed and built in 1935 by the Glenn L. Martin Company in Baltimore, Maryland, for Pan American Airways. Three were built: the China Clipper, the Philippine Clipper and the Hawaii Clipper. All three had crashed by 1945. A similar flying boat design called the Martin 156) and named Russian Clipper, was built for the Soviet Union; it had a larger wing and twin vertical stabilizers.
Charles F. Blair Jr. was an American aviation pioneer who helped work out the routes and navigation techniques necessary for long-distance flights. He served as a reserve officer, early in his career for the United States Navy, reaching the rank of captain, and later for the United States Air Force, reaching the rank of brigadier general. He died in a transportation accident in the Caribbean while captaining a Grumman Goose seaplane for his airline, Antilles Air Boats.
Pan Am Flight 1104, trip no. 62100, was a Martin M-130 flying boat nicknamed the Philippine Clipper that crashed on the morning of January 21, 1943, in Northern California. The aircraft was operated by Pan American Airways, and was carrying ten US Navy personnel from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to San Francisco, California. The aircraft crashed in poor weather into mountainous terrain about 7 mi (11 km) southwest of Ukiah, California.
The China Clipper flight departure site is listed as California Historical Landmark number 968. It is the site from which Pan American World Airways initiated trans-Pacific airmail service on November 22, 1935. 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.
Hawaii Clipper was one of three Pan American Airways Martin M-130 flying boats. It disappeared with six passengers and nine crew en route from Guam to Manila, on July 28, 1938.
Honolulu Clipper was the prototype Boeing 314 flying boat designed for Pan American Airways. It entered service in 1939 flying trans-Pacific routes.
Airline pilot uniforms were introduced in the early 1930s by Pan American World Airways at the beginning of the airline's Clipper era. At present, mainstream airline uniforms are somewhat standardized by the industry and widely used by airlines from the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa, from small regional operators to large international companies.
Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base was an international airport for seaplanes located in the city of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. It takes its name from the Lisbon neighbourhood of Cabo Ruivo. The airport was, especially throughout the Second World War, a major gateway and escape route for intercontinental air travel.
↑ Swanborough, Gordon; Bowers, Peter M. (1976). United States Navy Aircraft since 1911 (2nded.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p.416. ISBN0-87021-968-5.
↑ Wolfert, Ira (February 8, 1942). "Feminine 'Grease Monkeys' Girls Tune Up Giant Planes". The Miami News. p.1.
↑ "[Airport] Building Equipment: Heating, Lighting, Power, Service Outlets." (New) Pencil Points, February 1943, 61.
↑ Brock 1978, p.224 Brock also reports cheap postwar availability to Pan Am of DC-4s and "Connies" was an important factor.
↑ Roberts, Andrew (2018). Churchill: Walking with Destiny. London: Allen Lane (Penguin). pp.707, 708. ISBN978-0-241-20563-1.
↑ Lavery, Brian (2007). Churchill Goes to War: Winston's Wartime Journeys. Annapolis, Maryland: The Naval Institute Press. p.94. ISBN978-1-59114-103-7.
↑ Johnston, Jeff (July 2007). "Project Update"(PDF). Clipper Discovery Update: Underwater Admiralty Sciences Newsletter. pp.1, 9. Archived from the original(PDF) on September 30, 2011. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
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