The China Clipper
In 1935 a very special airplane was commissioned by Pan American Airlines. On it's first commercial flight it became the first trans-pacific airmail and passenger service. She was the China Clipper, the first of three M-130's built.
The mood of the country was in transition. The boom of the
twenties had collapsed into the depression. The country was still riding
the euphoria of the Lindberg flight. Aviation was considered the new
frontier. At the same time the winds of war were in the air in Europe and
Asia. Aviation technology would to take a major jump with the war effort,
but in the early thirties the technology was still being invented. For
instance, the China Clipper was the first commercial aircraft to use the twin
radial engine called the wasp. It was also the largest US aircraft when it
was commissioned.
Prior to WWII there were very few airports capable of the loads of a large transport plane. This is why the passenger planes of the era were seaplanes. The travel time to the Orient was reduced from over two weeks to five days. The US subsidized these flights with airmail.
The Martin aircraft company designed and built three M-130 aircraft to Pan Am specs.
53,000 pound gross weight and 25,000 empty weight. It carry could more than its own weight.
Unique design and use of aluminum. Water wings and double step hull.
It had a range of 3,600 miles with a cruise speed of 150 mph.
Cost in 1935....$414,000.00 In 15,000 hours of operation it created 4.1 million in revenue. In 1942 the China Clipper was drafted into the Navy. She did not survive the war.
Pan American Airlines was the brain child of fighter ace, race car
driver, and entrepreneur Eddie Rickenbacker and General Hap Arnold, father of
the army air corps and later the US air Force. Arnold saw that the
important trans-oceanic air routes were all covered by French, German, and
Italian airlines, but no US carriers. The airmail subsidy was the means of
funding. But it was a man named Juan Tripp who was the visionary for world
travel. Under his command as president of the airline, in just a few years
Pan Am became the global leader in scheduled trans-oceanic flight.
See the movie- "China Clipper", 1936, staring Humphrey Bogart.
Or check-out the permanent Pan Am display at the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of Aviation and Space new in Washington, DC.
