ERA | EXPLORATIONS
Enlightening details of the 20 May, 1939 mail-only flight that opened Pan Am's Port Washington-Marseilles service with Capt. La Porte commanding.
After years of on-again-off-again geopolitical negotiations, passengers flew the Atlantic on Pan Am B-314 Dixie Clipper (Photos by Betty Trippe).
The 2nd Pan Am Pacific Survey flight, June 1935: Pilot Ed Musick & his crew celebrate their arrival at the remote Midway Atoll, 1,254 miles beyond Hawaii.
A Grown-Up Job: Flying the Pacific vs. Flying in Latin America. Reminiscenses of the pilots of PAA's flying boat era, from S-38s to M-130s & B-314s.
Panagra Capt. Stephen Dunn, forced in a storm to fly his Sikorsky S-43 "blind" across the Isthmus of Panama, never reached Cristobal.
Celebrating the life of Pan Am pilot Capt. Ed Musick. He is legendary for breaking the isolation of the remote Pacific island of New Zealand.
The Yankee Clipper: In 1939 Pan Am's Boeing-314 flying boat was christened in Washington, DC by Eleanor Roosevelt, with Juan Trippe looking on.
Stepping-stone surveys: Sikorsky S-42 Pan American Clipper extended the Pacific route by one island on each flight, finally arriving in Guam.
After a record-breaking flight to Europe, it must have been trying to veteran flying boat skipper Capt. Charles Lorber to wait to land on the return home.
Adventure of a lifetime: Building the transpacific air route opened the door to a career that led John Borger to the pinnacle of aviation engineering.