On 22 November 1935, Pan American Airways CHINA CLIPPER (NC14716) took off from Alameda, California, bound for Manila, Philippines, inaugurating transpacific commercial air service. Carrying 110,000 pieces of mail but no passengers on that first flight, the Martin M-130 four-engine flying boat was piloted by Edwin C. Musick, with Fred Noonan as his navigator. The CHINA CLIPPER was painted olive drab with a large U.S. flag painted below the cockpit, and was nicknamed Sweet Sixteen by PanAm personnel, referring to the airplanes tail number. Although the flight plan called for the CHINA CLIPPER to fly over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, then under construction, Musick realized the plane would not clear the structure and so he flew under it instead. On 29 November the airplane reached its destination, Manila, after traveling via Honolulu, Midway Island, Wake Island, and Guam. The flight attracted much national and international attention; both the United States and the Philippines, as a U.S. Commonwealth, issued postal stamps commemorating the flight, and the following year First National Pictures released a movie called CHINA CLIPPER, with Humphrey Bogart in one of his early roles.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 11:13:20 +0000
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