December 1935

"The New Aerial Frontier"

M-130 at Manila Stan Cohen/PAHF Collection photo.

FAST BOAT TO MANILA 

An account by Flight Engineer Vic Wright about the experience aboard the China Clipper's first flight across the Pacific to Manila.

THE RETURN OF THE CHINA CLIPPER TO ALAMEDA  

Hailed as conquerers of a new aerial frontier, the China Clipper and its crew were back in San Francisco by December 6th, 1935 proving to the world that dreams of commercial flight over the vast waters of the Pacific were now a reality. 

New York Times headlines during the return of the China Clipper from Manila (University of Miami Special Collections).

Photo: Time Magazine Cover, December 2, 1935, with Captain Musick at the controls (PAHF Collection).

Pan Am's M-130 China Clipper over San Francisco (PAHF Collection). 

FROM THE LOG OF THE CHINA CLIPPER:

"FRIDAY DECEMBER 6, 1935" 

Coming back from the other side of the world today, we for the first time were impressed by the tremendous distance we had covered. Approaching our terminal at San Francisco we found the only port closed in the entire trip, which necessitated a blind approach. We landed 17 hours and one minute out of Honolulu; 62 hours and fifty-five minutes flying time out of Manila; and 122 hours and forty-two minutes flying time, San Francisco-Manila-San Francisco...

Even to us it seems incredible that we were across the entire Pacific and back again within two weeks of our departure from this same port. The first air mail from the Philippines and Guam would be delivered in New York and Washington within a week of its departure from Manila. The Honolulu mail would reach its destination 24 hours after leaving the islands' post office. The cargo of flowers which we had brought was already en route east by air express, Railway Express Agency special, and would be east the next morning... The 108,000 letters which we had brought back were each a graphic testimonial of the new speed in transport communication over the old clipper ship routes across the Pacific, to speed American trade and commerce to the Orient.

It is difficult to pick out the most striking impression of the trip. All of us agreed that credit must go to the basic Pan American organization in all the sections which made this flight possible the summation of five long years of preparation. The greatest personal credit should go to our flight engineers, Victor and Chan Wright, who averaged less than four hours sleep nightly and who only left the China Clipper at two stations Honolulu and Manila the entire fight, and whose expert knowledge of every mechanical detail of our airliner and engines made possible the efficient handling of the ship by ground crews unfamiliar with this Clipper, never having seen it before.

At Guam, returning, a remarkable example of this spirit of organization occurred when the entire base staff and our flight engineers were up throughout the night on swinging platforms under the great wings, working over the engines and the entire ship in the teeth of an approaching typhoon and lashing rain. Despite tremendous handicaps, the ship was completely serviced and refueled, ready in perfect condition for the scheduled dawn departure the next morning. Never setting foot ashore, they breakfasted after the ship was in flight.

All the Pan American weather stations, from one end of the ocean to the other, stood 24-hour watches, analyzing every minute change in the weather map, reporting to each ground station, or if we were in flight, then to the China Clipper every thirty minutes.

The true significance of this trans-Pacifie service was gained through the expressions of the people of Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines…The manner in which they accepted this inaugural flight was a tribute to American aviation as indicative of the careful preparations, and the sound establishment of the airway between America and their lands, over which future trade and commerce will speed between the peoples of the East and West, no longer separated by the vast Pacific which has been a barrier since time began…" -

- Excerpts from the "China Clipper Log" written by its crew and published in “Pan American Air Ways” Supplement, Two, 1935.

 

PHILIPPINE CLIPPER'S DECEMBER FLIGHT TO MANILA

Big News in Alameda: The China Clipper returned from the first transpacific flight to Manila on December 6, 1935. & the Philippine Clipper took off on the same route -- the new aerial causeway -- three days later.  Photo from "Pan American Air Ways, "November-December 1935, p. 2. (University of Miami Special Collections, Pan American Airways, Inc records).

The sister ship of  Pan Am's M-130 China Clipper,  the Philippine Clipper made Pan Am's second transpacific journey from Alameda on December 9th with Captain Jack Tilton commanding. Aboard the plane was NBC's Burke Miller who broadcast live from the plane and later provided an article about the flight for National Geographic magazine. The plane arrived in Manila December 16, and six days  later embarked on the journey home through the Pan Am island bases  -- Guam, Wake &  Midway -- to Honolulu and the US mainland. Two hours after takeoff from Honolulu the Philippine Clipper was forced to return to the Hawaii base to fix a blown spark plug , but made it to Alameda on schedule December 26th, completing the first of many transpacific voyages. 

Two Pan Am M-130s & Pan Am's S-42 at Alameda, photographed by Flight Engineer Vic Wright c.  1935 (Photo from Vic Wright/Ione Wright Collection, University of Miami Special Collections and Pan Am Historical Foundation).

FURTHER READING

SOURCES 

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