CLIPPER LANDS AT WAKE ISLE;
PUTS ON SPEED
Crosses Stretch of Ocean from
Midway in 8 hours and 28 Minutes; flies to Guam Today
WAKE ISLAND, Nov. 26.(Via Pan-American Airways Radio.) (AP)
Air mail sped
across another stretch of the vast Pacific Ocean when the China Clipper
landed here today (Tuesday) en route to Manila after a swift 1,191-mile
flight from Midway islands.
The mighty seaplane glided to a landing
at 1:40 p.m. (6:40 p.m. Monday, Pacific Standard Time), taking eight hours
and 28 minutes for the flight, an average of about 125 miles per hour.
The voyage across this shortest link
in the California-Manila route was accomplished in much faster time
than Capt. E.C. Musick, skipper of the 25-ton craft, had anticipated.
DIPS OVER LINCOLN
In
about 38 and one-half hours of flying, the China Clipper has crossed nearly
5,200 miles of the 8,000-mile distance between Alameda, Calif., and Manila,
end of the present journey to establish transpacific air mail service.
Mail and supplies for the Wake Airways
Station arrived aboard the seaplane which also brought nine employes, who
will be stationed here.
En route here, the plane dipped low
over the steamship President Lincoln, which saluted with three whistle
blasts.
The China Clipper left Alameda Friday
afternoon [Nov. 22, 1935], and has stopped overnight at Honolulu and Midway.
DATELINE CROSSED
On todays flight, the international
dateline was crossed, and time aboard the four-motored craft jumped ahead
one whole day.
Ahead of the plane lies a 1,500-mile
flight to Guam, last of the island way stations, and then a flight of 1,700
miles into Manila.
Present schedules call for the voyage
to Guam tomorrow, with Manila being reached Thursday.
San Francisco Examiner
November 26, 1935
Clipper Safe as a
Train
HOP TO WAKE
Engineer Tells of Morning Flight
C.D. Wright, the China Clippers
chief engineer, in todays story, written exclusively for Universal Service
and radioed to Universal wires via the Pan-American base at Alameda Airport
graphically describes the flight to Wake Island. His story follows:
By C.D. WRIGHT
Chief Engineer the China Clipper
(Copyright 1935, by Universal Service)
WAKE ISLAND, Nov. 26.(Tuesday)For
four years I flew over the Spanish Main in Pan American clippers, but I
never enjoyed a flight so much, or go so great a kick out of one, as I
did from this breakfast-to-lunch dash from Midway to Wake Island.
SAFE AS A TRAIN.
The
astonishingly smooth and reliable performance of this 25-ton air juggernaut,
and the precision of the 55 dials and the 42 gadgets that face me as I
sit on duty during the flight just under the 130-foot wing, are never ending
delights to me.
Our veteran skippers and crew men,
and the complete facilities of our bases strung across this big ocean make
a flight like this seem as safe as a train to a suburbas it is.
I am finishing this just before going
ashsore. We have landed at Wake, 8 hours and 28 minutes out of Midway.
CALM IN TROPIC DAWN.
At 10:30 a.m. (our time), four hours
and a quarter after our takeoff from Midway, we pass the halfway mark on
this long voyage to Manila. Picking up our first tail wind of the day only
a short time before, we are clicking along at 160 miles per hour.
We got up with the gooney birds this
morning at a quarter to four, Midway time, and had our breakfast all tucked
away before daylight.
The lagoon was calm in the tropic dawn
as Captain Musick gave our 3,200 horses their heads, and the goonies flapped
up with shrill screams at their roar.
As we cleared the lagoon and swung
into a wide circle by way of salute to our comrades left behind, we headed
into the head winds of a cold front an area where cold air currents are
running in the sun kissed winds of the South Seas. Off to the south we
could see heavy rain squalls darkening the oceans surface, but where we
were the sun was shining.
Almost before we notice it it is tomorrow.
We dont feel any older, but our instruments show us we have flashed over
the international date line, out of Monday into Tuesday. Its a funny idea.
What is this time anyway? The same sun is shining that glinted off our
wings as we lifted from the lagoon at Midway, but its Tuesdays sun now
when it was Mondays then.
San Francisco Examiner
November 26, 1935
Also see Pan-Am
Clippers at Treasure Island.
Philippine Clipper Flight Orders for June 1, 1939
Read exerpts from "Pan Am: An Aviation Legend," by Barnaby Conrad III.
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