"The Last Clipper"
by Bob Jenny

The three principal flying boats operated by Pan American Airways - the Sikorsky S-42, the Martin M-130, and the Boeing 314 are depicted in a fanciful tribute to the era of the flying boats.

The story of the "Flying Clippers" really begins with the first successful airplane crossing of the Pacific in 1928 and the commercial interests of Pan American to run an air route from the United States to the Far East using American owned islands in the Pacific as stepping stones.  Bases were set up at Wake Island and Guam and Pan American Airways soon requested aircraft capable of flying the stages - which varied from 1,500 to 2400 miles long - from San Francisco to Hawaii, to Wake, to Guam and to Manila.  In April, 1937, the route was extended to Hong Kong and later that year also to Auckland, New Zealand.



Sikorsky S-42
 

The first aircraft used were the Sikorsky S-40 and S-42 flying boats.  Next the Martin Aircraft Company built three M-130 Flying Boats for Pan American which were named 'China Clipper', 'Philippine Clipper' and 'Hawaii Clipper'.  In fact, the names of all previous Sikorsky aircraft operated by Pan American always ended with the word 'Clipper' which was a throw-back to the days of clipper sailing ships that first carried passengers across the oceans.  Soon the generic term "Flying Clipper" became associated for any large flying boat and was even applied later to the Boeing 314.
 


Martin M-130


Boeing 314
 

The Boeing 314 was the last "flying clipper" and the largest commercial plane until the coming of the jumbo jets some thirty years later.  The Model 314 was a combination of the Wellwood Beall design and the Boeing XB-15 bomber.  The aircraft first flew on 7 June, 1938.  A total of twelve of the Boeing aircraft were built and the last one was retired in 1951.
 


 


 

The flying boats are depicted near the newly-built Oakland Bay Bridge.   The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was opened to vehicular traffic on 12 November, 1936 and was built for a total cost of $77.6 million.  Upon its completion, the Bay Bridge was recognized as the greatest bridge in the world for its length, cost, weight, depth, amount of steel and concrete used, number of piers, and versatility of engineering.
 


Martin M-130 flies over the Oakland Bay Bridge

 

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