China Clipper

[A4sForever]

Web-san:
This has nothing to do with this thread, but Great Avatar ... that is the subject of a book I am working on. Co-incidently, did a lot of research @ the Bishop Museum. They have a lot of original HNL China Clipper info. I also found the remnants of the old PAA Clipper landing in Middle Loch and some of the original buildings are CAPEHART HOUSING !!!

 

[webmaster]

A4,

One of my hobbies has been collecting old photos of the clippers, and any vintage Pan Am promotional stuff. When you get done with the book, I'll buy one!

The avatar fit my mood, and I took a picture of the photo (didn't feel like taking the frame apart and scanning it), and put it up, in pace with the earlier thread we had.

I have attached a larger version.

Cheers!

John

 

[H20man]

that looks like warm so cal right now, sweet photo.

 

[A4sForever]

China Clippers, Martin 130

Web-san:
You probably have this, but here it is a nice link anyway ...

http://www.flyingclippers.com/M130.html

The one that I am focusing on is Hawaii Clipper, which disappeared July 29, 1938 enroute from Guam to Manila.

 

[webmaster]

A4, GREAT website, thanks for the link.

H20, that is in front of of Diamondhead in Hawaii.

 

[Flash]

I was on Wake Island a couple of hours a few years ago (the XO of the VR squadron who was one of the pilots of the C-9 I was on wanted to go swimming so we spent 5 hours on the island) and I got a book with a decent history of the Clipper at the gift shop there. Never have seen it anywhere else. I have no idea where it is now, but a good book none the less.

 

[A4sForever]

I was on Wake Island a couple of hours a few years ago

Did any residual buildings remain from the old PanAm facility? Or any original USMC fortifications or buildings?

I suppose not, as carrier airgroups transiting the area used to use Wake as a "work-up" for new air groups and aviators while on the way to "hotter" areas further west.

We use Wake as an emergency bingo field enroute HNL-NRT when we are forced to take the "southern" route(s).

 

[SteveG75]

When we were on cruise in 2003, we pulled into Guam a few times. There is a plaque on the Navy base at the site of the old Clipper landing. In fact, that is where we did our dive quals.

As for the loss of the Hawaii Clipper, I would be suspicious of the Japanese. After all, the Japanese owned all of the Northern Marianas at that time (Rota, Tinian, Sapain, etc.). Maybe, the clipper was seen as military spy plane. I am thinking KAL 007, 50 years earlier.

 

[Flash]

Did any residual buildings remain from the old PanAm facility? Or any original USMC fortifications or buildings?

I suppose not, as carrier airgroups transiting the area used to use Wake as a "work-up" for new air groups and aviators while on the way to "hotter" areas further west.

We use Wake as an emergency bingo field enroute HNL-NRT when we are forced to take the "southern" route(s).

There were a couple of remnants around that I presume were either old Marine or Pan Am buildings. Most of the island structures are you standard boring government buildings that could be 5 or 50 years old. They did have a small memorial to the Marines who died and another for a VQ EC-130 crew that died in the 80's I think (predecessor to the E-6).

 

[A4sForever]

As for the loss of the Hawaii Clipper, I would be suspicious of the Japanese. After all, the Japanese owned all of the Northern Marianas at that time ....

I agree with your call on the possible -- some say "probable(?) -- complicity of the Japanese in the disappearance of Hawaii Clipper. "Revisionist" history generally gets a bad rap from those who want a more doctrinaire version of history to prevail, but that doesn't make "revisionist" history wrong. It sometimes just means the accepted, "doctrinaire" view is based on established, traditional views or an agenda.

The US Navy and PanAm were tied at the hip for much of the Clippers' pioneering days in the Pacific during the 1930's. On the other hand, the Japanese had a vested interest in keeping this "exploitation and exploration" of Pacific air routes away from the Mandates.

One needs to ... DO THE RESEARCH ... and then come up with some conclusions or put forth some possibilities. There is so much information available today that was tough to find prior to the advent of the internet and the FOIA.

 

[A4sForever]

What Were The Clippers Like .... ???

The below link is a read straight out of a brochure from Pan American Airways as the airline began to fly its "blue water ops" across the Pacific during the middle 1930's. Perhaps a little too "flowery" and innocent for the jaded, cynical tastes of modern USA --- it comes from a kinder, gentler time in our society. But then, maybe that is part of our problem today, huh?

It sure beats the heck out of the airborne people movers we fly today that represent what remains of something called the airlines .....

Try this link .... I think you will find the 5-10 minutes spent reading it worthwhile ..... and for you Marines --- the pictures are swell.

http://users.ev1.net/~gpmoran/PanAmClipper.htm

 

[A4sForever]

The First Of The First ... TransPac 1935 Style

November 22, 1935...Pan American Airway's China Clipper piloted by Captain Edwin C. Musick (above right), made the first transpacific airmail flight from San Francisco to Honolulu, Midway Island, Wake Island, Guam, and Manila, The Philippines. November 22, 1935: Alameda, California. Capt Musick was truly a pioneer in Pacific flying and was highly respected at Pan American for his experience and ability. Plus, when you get right down to it, he looks pretty steely-eyed and "studly" in that cockpit, doesn't he?? WHERE DO WE GET SUCH MEN ???

Captain Edwin Musick and First Officer R.O.D. Sullivan stand next to the "China Clipper" before it leaves San Francisco for Manila with the first transpacific airmail (top left). On the ground, left to right are: Postmaster General James A. Farley, Assistant Postmaster General Harllee Branch, and Pan Am President Juan Trippe. (The top center graphic is from the original 1935 PanAm brochure) (note: -- upper left picture taken in front of Building 1, former Alameda Naval Air Station. Unfortunately, nothing remains of the site of the Clipper launch --- A4s)

California State Historic Landmark 968 --- all that remains of the historic event.​

Pan American World Airways fabled China Clipper (Martin M/130 Flying Boat) left Alameda Marina on November 22, 1935, under the command of Captain Musick. (note: Capt Musick would be later listed as missing in the disappearance of the Samoan Clipper --- A4s) The flight would reach Manila via Honolulu, Midway, Wake, and Guam. The inauguration of ocean airmail service and commercial airflight across the Pacific was a significant event for both the U.S and the world, especially with the deteriorating situation in the Western Pacific and the rise of Japanese militarism.

 

[ACurry]

Any of you hear about some people rebuilt a Clipper to transport surfers all over the world to search for the best waves. I think I found my retirement job!

 

[A4sForever]

First TransPac -- Proving Run

TransPacific Survey Flight Number 1 (April 17, 1935). This is a photograph taken at the arrival of the Sikorsky S-42 NR 823 M Pan American Clipper in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The back of the photograph has the following text: "Crew of 'Pan American Clipper' receive Honolulu's 'Aloha' upon completion of first trans-Pacific Airmail, April 16-17, 1935 - 18 hours 39 minutes, San Francisco to Honolulu."

In the photograph, kneeling, from left to right (and, in the manner in which they signed the back of the photograph):

W.T. Jarboe Jr., Radio Officer
Harry R. Canaday, Junior Officer
ROD Sullivan, First Officer
Edwin Musick, Captain
F.J. Noonan, Navigator -- *** went down with Amelia Earhart ***
V.A. Wright, Engineering Officer

This photograph was sent by Harry Canaday to friends in Coconut Grove, Florida, in the envelope shown below.

 

[NS38th_Aristaus]

I found this thread while looking for info on the Hawaii Clipper and since there was some debate as to it's fate I thought I would pass along another site that I have found. I purchased the book and it is a good read.
www.hawaiiclipper.com