China Clipper

by Robert Gandt

  8.Ibid., 153. Despite the readiness of both Lindbergh and Sikorsky to take the blame for the rough landing, the true cause seems to have been, quite simply, the darkness itself. Under the conditions, such a landing in a new flying boat was not at all bad.

  9.Rowe, Under My Wings, 135.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN. THE NEXT STEP

  1.“I. Sikorsky’s Talk to Junior Engineers,” 24 October 1968, 13 (UTC).

  2.Captain J. C. Kelly-Rogers, “Commercial Flying on the North Atlantic,” Aerospace, The Royal Aeronautical Society, January 1976, 20. Though the Graf Zeppelin’s passenger capacity and regularity of schedule were impressive, the trip across the Atlantic took three and sometimes four days, a scarce improvement over the fast transatlantic steamers.

  3.In an article, “The Superiority of the American Transoceanic Airliner 1932–1939,” American Aviation Historical Society Journal, Summer 1984, Richard K. Smith praises the achievements of the S-42. He supports his case with statistical evidence comparing, among other things, the S-42B’s ultimate wing loading (33.5 pounds/square foot) with that of contemporary aircraft such as the DC-2 (19.4), the Boeing 247 (15.1), and the Boeing P-26A fighter (19.5).

  4.For his development of the variable-pitch propeller, Hamilton Standard’s Frank Caldwell received the Collier Trophy, aviation’s highest award, in 1934.

  5.Ralph B. Lightfoot, “Sikorsky Flying Boats,” American Aviation Historical Society Journal, Winter 1979.

  6.Smith, “Superiority of the American Airliner,” 86.

  7.The S-42’s record-gathering flight of 1 August 1934 has been documented by many sources, but is best described by Sikorsky himself in Winged-S, 205–9. On the day of the record attempt, shortly before the flight, Sikorsky received a letter from the president of the National Aeronautic Association urging him to attempt to establish world records. After the flight, Sikorsky was able to reply that “on August 1st we returned to the United States eight world records to be added to the two already obtained by the S-42. By so doing, the United States now holds first place in the tenure of world records—exclusive of light planes—holding seventeen to France’s sixteen.”

  8.In 1932 the British Air Ministry had abandoned the development of a Vickers six-engine flying boat, which was intended for Imperial Airways’ transatlantic service. Not until the appearance in 1936 of the Short S.23 did Imperial Airways have any airplane that even approached the capability of the S-42.

  CHAPTER TWELVE. PACIFIC

  1.In North to the Orient, Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote of the journey she and her husband made in a Lockheed Sirius, surveying the northern route to Asia. Their findings contributed to Trippe’s decision to take the mid-ocean route across the Pacific.

  2.Ibid., 231.

  3.Ibid., 233.

  4.In three books written during his Pan American years, William Grooch chronicled his career and the rise of Pan American. Leaving the navy to join Ralph O’Neill’s NYRBA, he then went to Pan Am where he participated in the China operation, then headed the expedition to Wake. His life was clouded by bizarre tragedy. While on assignment for Pan Am in China, his wife and two young sons leapt to their deaths from a Shanghai apartment building. After the Wake expedition, Grooch left Pan Am to found an airline of his own in Mexico. He was killed soon thereafter in an aircraft accident.

  5.Daley, American Saga, 153. The official who opposed the Pacific flight was Dr. George Lewis. As chairman of the National Committee on Aeronautics, Lewis’s thoughts, if made public, would have been devastating to Trippe’s plans. Trippe, apparently, was able to persuade the well-intentioned scientist that Pan Am did indeed possess the technology to make the flight to Hawaii with a great margin of safety.

  6.Because of a peculiar provision of the Nine-Power Treaty of 1922, Pan American’s subsidiary, CNAC, had landing rights inside China, but Pan Am’s aircraft not based inside the country were still denied landing privileges there.

  7.Turner, Pictorial History of Pan American World Airways, 56–57. The S-42B was capable of carrying a 7,000-pound maximum load over 900-mile stages. A similarly modified version, but with a 40,000-pound maximum gross weight, was designated the S-42A. All other S-42s were eventually modified to either S-42A or S-42B standards in 1936.

  8.Daley, American Saga, 147.

  9.Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, 139.

  10.The portrait of Captain R. O. D. Sullivan was drawn from correspondence and accounts given the author by veteran Pan Am flying boat captains Marius Lodeesen, Horace Brock, and Al Terweleger.

  11.Daley, American Saga, 163–64.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN. WINGS OF EMPIRE

  1.Richard K. Smith, “The Superiority of the American Airliner 1932–1939,” American Aviation Historical Society Journal, Summer 1984, 88. The 1934 MacRobertson race sent a tremor through London. The Times commented, “Thus it has been held by implication that if the United States can produce a Douglas airliner and Sikorsky flying boat then Great Britain should be able to produce something better than the airliners and seaplanes which cruise at speeds between 105 and 125 miles an hour.”

  2.Stroud, Civil Marine Aircraft, 66.

  3.Norris, Geoffrey, Shorts, 3–7.

  4.Smith, “Superiority of the American Airliner,” 94.

  5.Davies, History of the World’s Airlines, 182–86.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN. THE FRENCH FLAIR

  1.Stroud, European Transport Aircraft Since 1910, 142.

  2.Vie-Klaze, Marie-Paul, Les grands Latécoère sur l’Atlantique, 87.

  3.Davies, The World’s Airlines, 93. Aéropostale had run into severe financial difficulties, and its management became involved in a much-publicized scandal.

  4.Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars, 33.

  5.Stroud, European Transport Aircraft, 57–58.

  6.Ibid., 160–62.

  7.Stroud, Civil Marine Aircraft, 84.

  8.Stroud, European Transport Aircraft, 146.

  9.Ibid., 146.

  10.Ibid., 149–50.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN. MARTIN

  1.Who’s Who in America, Vol. 24, 1946–1947.

  2.Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, 244.

  3.Time, 5 June 1935. “Builder Martin’s engineering staff is always of the best, but he is not a good mixer, has had numerous bitter quarrels with business associates and employees. One such is his onetime chief engineer, Donald Douglas, now a famed airplane builder of bombers, amphibians, transports, in his own right.”

  4.Jablonski, Sea Wings, 115. Martin’s optimism about the future of the flying boat was told to his friend and one-time employee, James “Dutch” Kindleberger, who later joined North American Aviation.

  5.Ibid., 114–15. The Martin Company was in financial trouble because of large sums spent on the development of a bomber for the army. No return had yet been realized on this investment. The project would eventually be accepted and become the B-10, an army staple that would win for Martin the Collier Trophy in 1933.

  6.Daley, American Saga, 165–66.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN. CHINA CLIPPER

  1.Time, 2 December 1935, profiled Musick in its cover story. Additional information comes from Chosen Instrument by Bender and Altschul, and From Crate to Clipper by Grooch.

  2.Pan American Archives. The transcript of the China Clipper inaugural ceremony was printed by Pan American’s publicity department and distributed as a handout.

  3.In Pan American Air Ways, November–December 1935, Pacific Supplement No. 2, and in Flight Ops, a Pan Am company publication, No. 6, Feb. 1975, Vic Wright remembered, “It had been our intention to fly over the bridge, but Musick quickly saw that with the engine cowl flaps open he wouldn’t be able to get up enough speed to clear the wires, so he nosed the Clipper down at the last moment and went under the bridge cables, threading his way through the dangling construction wire. We all ducked and held our breath until we were in the clear. I think the little planes must have been as surprised as we were, but they all followed us right through.”

  4.Capt
ains Horace Brock and Marius Lodeesen described the difficulties and techniques of navigation aboard the China Clipper. The problem was compounded by the flying boat’s tendency to wallow, even in smooth air. According to Brock, the China Clipper “was unstable in all three axes.”

  5.“Aim off” was described by Australian navigator Harold Gatty, who flew round the world with Wiley Post in 1931.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. ORIENT EXPRESS

  1.Marius Lodeesen, early flying boat pilot, was recruited as “technical advisor” for the China Clipper film. “Of that picture,” he recalled, “the less said, the better.” Bogart remembered the movie as a mistake for him. “But at least I did not have to go on location,” he told Lodeesen. “You fellows did that for me.”

  2.Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, 254–56.

  3.Wake’s rats vanished during the WW II Japanese occupation. Presumably, the Japanese garrison, isolated from resupply ships for nearly four years, hunted them for food until they became extinct.

  4.Pan Am Clipper, November 1985, Vol. 25, No. 11., 40.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. LOSSES

  1.Wright, Victor, Early Bird. In his unpublished manuscript, retired Pan Am pilot Vic Wright refers to the “flying gas tank” (Samoan Clipper) and Musick’s string of curse words when he first saw Pago Pago harbor.

  2.Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, 272.

  3.Flight engineer Wright (later a Pan Am captain) who had been with Musick on the first survey flight and had experienced the fuel mist inside the cabin, theorized that the explosion came from vapor being ignited inside the wing by the actuation of the flap motor. The debris from the crash was found in a proximity to Pago Pago where Musick would probably have begun flap extension prior to his approach.

  4.The Terletsky profile, including Terletsky’s fear of flying, is a composite of descriptions by captains Horace Brock, Marius Lodeesen, Robert Ford, and others.

  5.Noonan had been dismissed by Pan American because of his chronic drinking problem.

  6.Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, 269. The intelligence-gathering theory is supported, at least in part, by evidence of official government sponsorship. The construction of the runway at Howland Island for Earhart’s flight was authorized directly by President Roosevelt, who drew funds from the WPA (Works Progress Administration) to finance the project.

  7.Horace Brock, then a junior flight officer, was assigned as navigator aboard the M-130 when its fuel line became plugged by a cork. (Flying the Oceans, Brock). Though the FBI investigated the incident, there was no evidence of sabotage.

  8.The sabotage theory continued to attract believers. China Clipper, by Ronald Jackson (New York: Everest House, 1980) presented circumstantial evidence to support the idea that two Japanese hijackers stowed away on the Hawaii Clipper during its transit of Guam, then forcibly diverted the flying boat to a Japanese base. However, every veteran Pan Am pilot interviewed in the course of writing this book believed that Leo Terletsky inadvertently flew the Hawaii Clipper into a violent Pacific storm.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN. THE RIGHT VEHICLE

  1.Richard K. Smith, “The Superiority of the American Airliner 1932–1939,” The American Aviation Historical Society Journal, Summer 1984, 90–91.

  2.Imperial Airways Gazette, August 1937, No. 8, Vol.9.

  3.Smith, JAAHS, Summer 1984, 90.

  4.Norris, Shorts. The composite scheme reappeared a few years later during WW II when fighter cover was needed to protect Allied convoys across the Atlantic. A composite of a B-24 Liberator bomber mated to a Hurricane fighter was being developed at Hawker, but the project was dropped when other means of protection became available.

  5.Lindbergh, Autobiography of Values, 116.

  6.Beaty, The Water Jump, 136–37.

  7.Hannah, Shorts, 37.

  CHAPTER TWENTY. BOATS OF THE REICH

  1.Casey and Batchelor, Seaplanes and Flying Boats, 108.

  2.Beaty, Water Jump, 99–100. Following Aéropostale’s bankruptcy and non-use of the Azores facility, the Portuguese government had granted landing authority to both Pan American and Imperial Airways. By way of the many bilateral discussions regarding North Atlantic facilities, Germany, too, was permitted to stage their catapult ships from the Azores.

  3.Stroud, Civil Marine Aircraft, 36–37.

  4.Beaty, Water Jump, 118–20.

  5.Stroud, European Transport Aircraft, 258–59.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE. AMERICAN EXPORT AIRLINES

  1.“Trans-Atlantic Air Line,” Intavia World, September 1945, No. 6, Vol. 5.

  2.Peter Berry, “The Excalibur,” American Aviation Historical Society Journal (Winter 1975), 236–38.

  3.Delear, Igor Sikorsky, 170–71. The problem of the unbreakable champagne bottle was solved by Jack Hospers, Vought-Sikorsky’s service manager.

  4.Blair, Red Ball in the Sky, 42. Excalibur’s fuel tanks still had ninety-five gallons remaining, enough for almost another hundred miles of flight.

  5.Delear, Igor Sikorsky, 171.

  6.The Excalibur’s pilot, Captain Joe Wilson, had chosen to ferry the aircraft from Botwood to a nearby military facility to obtain fuel. Darkness was near and a hurried, unprepared takeoff was made. Because the flap switch was in a vulnerable spot in the cockpit, it is conjectured that the first officer, still scrambling to position himself, inadvertently tripped the electric flap switch with his knee, lowering the flaps to the full landing position. The nose-down pitch of the aircraft could not be overridden by the captain. (F. L. Wallace to author, 1 November 1989)

  7.Juptner, U. S. Civil Aircraft, 185.

  8.The dimensions of the VS-44A are from a brochure written by Harvey Lippincott, “Sikorsky VS-44A Flying Boat,” contained in Factsheet, printed by United Technologies, Sikorsky Aircraft.

  9.Davies, History of the World’s Airlines, 326.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO. BOEING

  1.Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, 264.

  2.Peter Bowers, “The Great Clippers,” Wings, January–March 1974, 28.

  3.Ibid., 32. The XB-15 had been designed to use the Allison V-3240 engines, then ultimately handicapped with the undersized Pratt and Whitney R-1830s. Pan American and Boeing were taking a gamble that the Wright R-2600 would provide the advertised performance for the 314.

  4.Juptner, U. S. Civil Aircraft, 23. The 314’s airfoil was NACA-23018 at the root and NACA-23010 at the tip.

  5.Jablonski, Sea Wings, 179–80.

  6.Juptner, U. S. Civil Aircraft, 23.

  7.Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, 291. The British Air Ministry’s dismissal of Clause H came as the result of a blunt inquiry via the American embassy in London. Were the British ready to begin service to the U.S.? If not, would they object if Pan American went ahead? In a rare display of realism, the Air Ministry gave the go ahead.

  8.Ibid., 293. Ironically, on the day of Trippe’s transatlantic victory, Pan American’s board of directors had deposed him as chief executive and appointed Sonny Whitney in his place. Trippe would not return to power until January 1940 after Whitney proved unequal to the job.

  9.Ibid., 299.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE. WAR DAY

  1.New Horizons, January 1942, the Pan American in- house newsletter, describes the adventures of all four clippers caught in the Pacific on Pearl Harbor day.

  2.New Horizons, January 1942. Also left behind on Wake were the stewards at the Pan American hotel. These were Chamorros—natives of Guam. Another Pan Am employee, Waldo Raugust, had been working on another part of the island and missed the departure of the Philippine Clipper. Like other survivors of Wake, he spent the next three-and-a-half years as a prisoner of the Japanese.

  3.Ibid., 21.

  4.Ibid. 22. The circumstances of the attack on the Hong Kong Clipper and Fred Ralph’s refuge in an open sewer were described in correspondence from Ralph to the author, May 1977.

  5.Ford to author 3 November 1989.

  6.Ford to author 19 September 1989.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-
FOUR. IN SERVICE

  1.Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, 364–65.

  2.In Back Doors of the World and Captain Lodi Speaking, Captains Masland and Lodeesen each related the incident with a supercilious army major in the Seychelles.

  3.Stroud, Civil Marine Aircraft, 68.

  4.Churchill, The Grand Alliance, 707–11. Kelly-Rogers was a renowned BOAC flying boat captain. During the flight aboard the Berwick, he made a favorable impression on Churchill, who thought he “seemed a man of high quality and experience.”

  5.Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, 365.

  6.“Tamara Reported Missing In Lisbon Clipper Crackup,” New York Times, 24 February 1943.

  7.Jane Froman’s story was made into a popular movie, With A Song In My Heart, starring Susan Hayward.

  8.M. D. Klaas, “Yankee Vs. Dixie,” Air Classics, Vol. 23, No. 4, April 1987, 74. Rod Sullivan continued to deny any fault in the crash of the Yankee Clipper. His spirit broken, he died in 1955.

  9.Jablonski, Sea Wings, 143–44. It was not believed that the Philippine Clipper could have been so far off course. A Mrs. Wallach, who lived in a farmhouse near Ukiah, California, heard the roar of aircraft engines that morning and saw a large plane flying north at low altitude. Worried, she tried to telephone, but the storm had washed out the lines. She then reported the incident in a letter to the district attorney. The information was ignored, however, while search planes combed the wrong area.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE. REQUIEM FOR THE BIG BOATS

  1.Jablonski, Sea Wings, 188–90.

  2.To westerners, the fate of the Russian Clipper remained for many years an intriguing mystery. During a 1990 visit to the museum of the Aeroflot Far Eastern Regional Center at Khabarovsk, Mr. R. E. G. Davies, Curator of Air Transport at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, obtained the information about the missing M-156. The account is based in part from the translation of a report by A. P. Bajkov, an Aeroflot technician who had serviced the clipper.

  3.Marijane Nelson, “Twilight for the Sikorsky Giants,” Air Classics (March 1973), 51–58. The captain of the wrecked Exeter had been checked out by Charlie Blair for daylight operations only when the flying boat was ferried from Baltimore to Montevideo.