ERA | WORLD WAR TWO
Air Mail & Pan Am History: China Clipper Endnote, a cover from Ken Sanford's impressive collection of stamps, courtesy of Jon Krupnick. Read the PDF.
The M-130 China Clipper was the first out of the gate, but it was the Philippine Clipper that saw WW2 up close on Wake Island in 1941 for Pan Am.
Flying Cloud's debut: In Feb.1940 Boeing's famed test pilot Eddie Allen & PAA's Francis Jacobs flew the airline's first B-307 down to Brownsville TX.
Pan Am's Air Ferry Service to Africa in World War 2: August 18 [1941] Pres. Roosevelt announced plans for the world’s most ambitious airways project.
A B-314 in World War 2: "The 'Round The World Saga of the "Pacific Clipper" by John A. Marshall (1999), appeared in "Air and Space Magazine."
Pan American Airways in World War Two by Bob Gandt: A story that began December 7, 1941 with the bombing at Pearl Harbor. Read the PDF.
The day Geo. E. Warren III watched the last B-314 in 'Warpaint' and its final landing and take off in Miami with his dad, a PAA flying boat mechanic.
"The Day Wendell Willkie Chose To Fly Pan Am" by Tom Culbert: Willkie's tour around the world for FDR, and a story about an unusual WW2 mission.
A Mighty Design: The story of the development and construction of Pan Am's famous Boeing B-314 flying boat, written by Doug Miller. Read the PDF
July 12, 1940, a B-314 mail survey flightwith Capt."Pop" Tilton commanding, flew from San Francisco to New Zealand via Canton & Noumea.
"When Passengers Were News." Pan Am's flying clipper ships were a lifeline in June 1941, prior to United States' involvement in World War Two.
After the Pearl Harbor attack, Churchill sailed to Washington DC to meet with FDR, but flew home on the B-314 Clipper Berwick due to safety concerns.
As WW2 began in Europe, PAA Pilot Charles Lorber landed his B-314 in Bermuda and British censors & marines removed all mail bound for Germany.
A look at Pan Am-Africa during WW2. Later the United Nations would use airfields built by Pan Am for humanitarian purposes in Sudan.
The Commodore and the President, from John C. Leslie's memoir: Arranging Pres. Roosevelt's daring WW2 flight to Casablanca on B-314 Dixie Clipper.
NYC's 1965 Landmarks Preservation Law preserved the Interior at the MAT, LaGuardia with its Art Deco Design and stunning WPA Mural by James Brooks.
The building of Treasure Island Terminal and seaplane base in San Francisco Bay, and the Pan Am flying boats that took part in World War Two.
Loading the China Clipper: An Excerpt from Morten Beyer's book about Pan American World Airways' China Clipper cargo, "Flying Higher" (2010).
