When Boeing-314 ACCIDENTALLY flew AROUND THE WORLD: The journey of the Pan Am "Pacific Clipper"

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Don’t you just hate it when you traverse the planet accidentally?

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/Kaiser-Joe 📅︎︎ Aug 08 2021 🗫︎ replies
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"Honey, I'm going to be a little late  tonight. But hold dinner for me, please."   When John Poindexter, a PanAm employee,  said those words over the phone to his wife,   he did not yet know that it would take him  a whole month to get home, and to make it,   he would have to fly around the globe.  As a crewmember of the Boeing-314,   he would complete the first commercial plane  flight in history to circumnavigate the world.   An extraordinary achievement that neither he  nor anyone else even set out to accomplish.   An accidental record, that was forced  by the outbreak of the big war.   LaGuardia Marine Terminal, New York. Radio talks.   Pilot: LAGUARDIA TOWER LAGUARDIA TOWER. THIS IS  PAN AMERICAN CLIPPER NC18602 INBOUND FROM AUCKLAND   NEW ZEALAND. DUE TO ARRIVE PAN AMERICAN MARINE  TERMINAL LAGUARDIA IN SEVEN MINUTES. OVER.   Controller: SORRY PAN AMERICAN CLIPPER 18602 BUT  SAY AGAIN, CONFIRM YOUR DEPARTURE POINT. OVER.   Pilot: I SAY AGAIN, INBOUND FROM  AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND. BY WAY OF   THE LONG WAY ROUND. OVER. The air controller had every reason to ask   the pilot that question. The plane was requesting  to land at the airport in New York. Right here.   And New Zealand is right there. Almost 15 thousand  kilometers apart. What's even more strange is that   the pilot said they flew the long way round, which  means their route was even longer. No airline at   the time had been flying such great distances. But this was not an ordinary flight. The radio   call at LaGuardia was the final moment of a  record flight with a total length of more than   50,000 kilometers. The details and events of this  journey are so incredible and fascinating that it   may seem like the script of a Hollywood movie. But  they all truly happened. A story that would make   the headlines of every newspaper and magazine all  over the world if it weren t for the terrible war,   which pushed this story far  into the background.   In the early days of commercial aviation, the  sky belonged to flying boats. The concept of the   flying boat appeared as a response to the state  of the air transportation industry at the time.   In the 1920s, commercial aviation was still in  its infancy: first, commercial airplanes were   fragile and unreliable but, more importantly, the  industry lacked the airfields that were required   for landings and takeoffs. Meanwhile, there  were already numerous readymade seaports all   over the world and vast areas of open water such  as lakes, rivers, and oceans. Why not develop a   plane that would use water surfaces as runways?  And so, the age of flying boats had begun.   In a way, a flying boat was literally a boat  hull with attached wings and engines. With   time and technology advancement, the design  of airplanes has been constantly improving,   going from clumsy boats with wings  to huge cruise liners in the sky.   Not only did these planes inherit the shipshape  fuselage from the sea liners but also the decks,   which featured spacious lounges, passenger  cabins, restaurants and bars. That was the time   when air travel was a luxurious and unforgettable  experience. The romantic perception of air travel,   although somewhat faded nowadays, owes much  of its image to that period of time.   The 1930s marked the emergence of a legendary  business empire - one of the largest and most   famous airlines in history, Pan American. The company first began to operate as an airmail   carrier between the U.S. and Cuba, but then  also started to make passenger flights to   the Caribbean, and later, to South America.  But the founder of the company, Juan Tripp,   had way more ambitious plans - flights across  the Pacific to Hawaii, Asia, and New Zealand.   At the time, no aircraft was capable of making  nonstop flights on such great distances,   so the air fleet on these  routes consisted only of flying   boats. One of the first flying boats in the  Pan Am fleet became Sikorsky S-40. Juan Tripp,   in homage to the elegant speed  sailing vessels from the 19th century,   suggested to call all PanAm flying boats Clippers  . The first clipper was named "American" and this   tradition - to give each aircraft its own name -  has since been preserved by the company and became   one of the bright and distinguishing features of  Pan Am Airlines. As well as the pilots' white caps   and black blazers that resembled the uniforms  of a naval officer. Juan Tripp believed that   seeing a formally attired seafaring professional  in the pilot seat would allow passengers to feel   safer and more confident about the trip. Pan  American was the first to introduce this type   of pilot's uniform, which was later adopted by  many other airlines all around the world.   On December 1st, 1941, Captain Robert Ford  and his crew were getting ready to fly from   San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand. Robert, of  course, was aware of the war that raged in Europe,   but it was somewhere far away from the  States. Also, like everyone else involved   in the airline s pacific trade, Ford was aware  of the deteriorating [??????????????] relations   between the United States and Japan, but in  general, for him and the rest of the crew,   December the first was just a typical  workday. Except maybe for John Poindexter.   John was the Chief Flight Radio Officer for Pan Am  s Pacific division. Most of the time, he worked in   the office, but Ford's airplane had new radio  equipment installed recently and John wanted to   try it out himself during a flight. So, he asked  Robert Ford to take him on the plane as one of the   radio operators, on the first and the shortest leg  of the trip: from San Francisco to Los Angeles.   Speaking of the plane, Robert Ford was the captain  of the California Clipper, Boeing 314, which is   arguably the apex of the flying boat concept. More  than 30 meters long with a wingspan of 46 meters,   it was the biggest civil airplane of its time. The  flight performance of the aircraft was tremendous:   a maximum speed of 340 kilometers per hour and  an incredible range of almost 6,000 kilometers.   The plane took up to 74 passengers on board  who could enjoy the air travel while relaxing   in the lounge areas, having their meals in the  restaurant and sleeping in comfortable cabins.   There was even a luxurious honeymoon suite  in the tail section of the aircraft.   Without having any problems, the California  Clipper had reached Los Angeles and John   Poindexter had already called his wife saying  that he would soon be flying back home when,   all of a sudden, he was told that the 2nd radioman  of the California Clipper had been taken to the   hospital with appendicitis (????????????).  At the time, Pan Am regulations for long-haul   routes strictly required two radio operators  on board the Clipper. Unable to quickly find   a replacement, John was induced to remain in  the crew and stay in the radioman seat for   their entire flight to New Zealand. That same day, later in the afternoon,   the Clipper took off as scheduled from Los  Angeles and set course for Pearl Harbor.   Somewhere far away in the Pacific, the Japanese  battle fleet did the exact same thing.   December 7th, 1941. Three days had passed since  the clipper left Pearl Harbor and was already   on its final stretch to New Zealand when the  radio operator told Captain Ford the news that   he had just heard on the local radio station:  "Pearl Harbor has been attacked by Japan!"   No one wanted to believe that, but when  they switched to Pan Am radio frequency,   the message dispelled all their doubts:  "Pearl Harbor attacked. Implement Plan A."   With war looming on the horizon, before  each flight, all captains of Pan Am Clippers   received a sealed envelop, which they were to  open at the proper time. Inside the envelope,   they found an order to proceed to the nearest  allied airbase. With Pearl Harbour being attacked,   the way back for them was now cut off,  so this order meant that the California   Clipper would continue the flight to Auckland. At Auckland, the crew received a new order from   Pan Am Headquarters: "Normal return route  canceled. Strip all company markings and   identifiable insignia from exterior surfaces.  Proceed westbound soonest your discretion and   deliver the plane to Marine Terminal  in LaGuardia New York. Good Luck!"   To say that the crew was shocked by the message is  an understatement. They were asked to do something   that no commercial airplane had ever done before.  The final destination of LaGuardia meant flying   back to the US westbound from New Zealand and  that they had to create a new route, which had   never previously existed. They would have to fly  thousands of miles across oceans and territories   none of them were familiar with, service their  aircraft somehow, get fuel and necessary supplies,   and all of that amid the chaos of the  war outbreak when there was yet no clear   understanding of which countries and territories  were hostile, and which were friendly.   Add to this the fact that they simply  had no money. As Ford later recalled,   they were saved by an Australian banker who gave  them $500, after learning their situation.   The librarian was quite surprised when four  men in uniform entered the Auckland Public   Library and asked her to bring all the maps,  navigation charts, and even geography textbooks   they had available in the library. Those men  were the crew of the California Clipper.   After several hours of work with maps, the draft  route was ready. The first stage of the journey,   flying to Australia, was relatively easy and safe.  But not the next stage. They decided that flying   straight to Africa over the ocean on the very edge  of the plane's maximum range was too risky, so   they decided to reach Africa by flying north-west  alongside the coast of Java and then India.   This route would provide them with the chance of  getting fuel and necessary supplies from British   and Dutch Forces that were stationed there but on  the other hand taking that route would also mean a   high risk of entering into possible war zones. Anyways, yet another couple of hours later,   the plan had to be slightly changed since captain  Ford received an urgent message from Pan American   asking to evacuate Pan Am employees and their  families from the station in New Caledonia and   bring them to Australia. This simple order, as  it may have seemed at first, actually raised   quite a difficult choice for captain Ford. They  had planned to load their plane with some spare   parts and engines but now, since they would need  that space for passengers, they had to leave   everything behind in New Zealand. Rescuing the  Pan Am employees at the same time meant seriously   decreasing their own chances of getting home. But Captain Ford made his decision, and the   clipper, wasting no time, left Auckland and  headed to New Caledonia. There was still a part   of the American flag left on the plane that  they didn't have time to finish painting over   because of the rush. A small detail that, as it  turned out later, would save their lives.   The flight to Darwin in Australia went relatively  smoothly. Once they had landed, they immediately   went to the seaport to find the fuel. But it  wasn t just regular fuel they were looking for.   The Boeing 314 was an amazing machine, but the  airplane's high performance and long-range were   provided by powerful engines that required 100  octane gas. Boeing was the first commercial   airplane that was designed to use this type of  fuel to achieve a higher flight performance,   something that only military aircrafts  had been using before. In peacetime,   there weren't any issues with this fuel, but  now, there was no guarantee that they would   be able to find it all along their route. What they saw in Darwin was chaos caused by fear   of the expected Japanese invasion. To make  matters worse, as the pilots then recalled,   a freighter full of beer had just arrived in the  harbor and temporarily paralyzed the remainder   of the order in the seaport. Fortunately for  them, the harbourmaster agreed to provide them   with the 100-octane gas, but things were not that  easy. Since there were no fuel trucks available,   the crew of the Clipper had to carry out  all the fuel in regular jerry cans.   The crew finished refueling the  plane late at night and then,   early in the morning, the clipper  set the course for Indonesia.   When the chief officer of the Royal Dutch Naval  Air Station at Surabaya received a report about   an unknown aircraft that was approaching the  airbase, he immediately sent his fighters to   intercept it. The base had been attacked by  the Japanese bombers pretty much every day   and all the Dutch pilots were on constant alert.  He was told by radio that the incoming plane   doesn't have any identification marks, and  fighter pilots asked for permission to open fire.   But for some reason, the commander hesitated. The tension was growing dangerously and things   could have ended tragically if not for one pilot  who, all of a sudden, reported that he saw part   of an American flag on the unknown plane. Captain Ford's rush to fly to New Caledonia   to save the families of Pan Am employees,  eventually ended up saving them too.   The clipper landed safely outside the harbor, but  there was one strange thing: the patrol boat that   had been sent to meet them, for some reason, did  not approach them and stayed in the inner harbor   a couple of kilometers away from the Clipper. Later, the commander of the airbase told captain   Ford that it was very fortunate that their radio  communications worked today because they usually   don't, otherwise the fighters would have  shot them down without even giving it a   second thought. "And of course", he added,  they were very concerned watching them land   outside the breakwater. Since that area is  heavily mined against enemy ships.   The Dutch welcomed the crew and provided them  with all the necessary supplies including spare   parts for the plane, but there was bad news as  well, fuel. They could not give them 100 octane   aviation gas, which they themselves had in limited  supplies and needed for their fighters. But they   were more than willing to share regular 90 octane  automobile gas. It wasn't that the Boeing engines   couldn't run on regular gas, it's just that no one  had ever tried that before and there was no clear   understanding of what it could eventually cause.  The plane may fly normally, or the engines could   overheat and explode right away, or the negative  effect could appear later and the engines could   fail over the ocean. It wasn't even clear if the  engines on such fuel would be able to provide   enough power for the plane to take off. But there wasn't much choice left.   They decided to take the risk and use their  remaining 100 octane aviation gas for takeoff   and then later in the flight, switch to  fuel tanks filled with automobile gas.   The next morning, they left Surabaya. After  gaining the altitude, holding their breath   and crossing their fingers, they switched the  engines to automobile fuel. As Ford then recalled,   at the beginning, the backfires  and engine vibrations were so   violent that it seemed the engines would simply  fall out of the nacelles. But fortunately,   the flight engineer was able to adjust the  fuel mixture to the most optimal level,   which decreased the severity of vibrations and  the clipper set the course for Ceylon.   When the dawn came, the clipper had been in the  air for 19 hours already. The navigator estimated   that they would be approaching Ceylon soon.  The low clouds didn't help with the navigation,   so they decided to go down below the edge of the  cloud cover. The plane was now flying at a mere   100 meters or so and the crew was searching  the horizon looking for the coastline.   Suddenly, the co-pilot noticed an object dead  ahead of them. At first, they thought it was a   whale. But as they were coming closer and closer,  the silhouette of the whale became more and more   distinct, as did the conning tower on its "back".  On which they now suddenly saw, with horror, the   symbol of the rising sun and also sailors running  towards the deck gun. The Japanese submarine   didn't seem to expect to encounter an airplane  either. The pilots pulled the yoke vigorously, but   the heavy Boeing flying on the automobile gas was  very reluctant to gain the altitude. The seconds   that ticked by while they were seeking cover  in the clouds, in those moments, probably felt   like an eternity. It was right after the plane had  disappeared in the clouds when they heard several   explosions in the air below and behind them.  Fortunately, no damage was done to the plane.   An hour later, the plane  safely landed in Ceylon.   In Ceylon, they had to stay a little longer than  they had planned to. In half an hour, after they   took off and headed towards the next point  of their journey, one of the engines suddenly   exploded. The consequence of bad fuel mixture  eventually revealed itself. Fortunately for them,   it didn t happen while they were flying somewhere  far away over the ocean. Pilots were able to keep   the wounded plane in the air long enough to make  it back to Ceylon, but the crew of the California   Clipper had to celebrate Christmas while still  in Ceylon repairing the damaged plane.   The next landings were in Karachi,  Bahrain, Khartoum, and finally a landing in   Leopoldville. The flight along this route  was relatively uneventful. Relatively,   if we don`t take into account the Arabs shooting  at them as they flew over Mecca. And in general,   flying in a Clipper over land always meant great  risk because any emergency landing on the ground   would have meant serious damage to the plane since  the Clipper literally had no landing gear.   According to captain Ford, Leopoldville was  one of the most enjoyable parts of their trip.   After landing, the staff at the local Pan Am  station treated them with a cold beer.   But the best part was that they could provide them  with enough 100-octane gas for the long flight   across the Atlantic Ocean. Their next destination  was Natal, in Brazil. But since the distance to   Natal was 5,600 kilometers and the maximum range  of the Clipper was 5800, that meant that even   the slightest deviation in the course or just  a headwind would mean they wouldn't be able to   reach the coast of Brazil. As a solution, Captain  Ford decided to load the plane with extra fuel.   Sure, it would require a much longer take off run  to get the plane airborne, but more fuel would   definitely help them cross the ocean safely. But the decision that was supposed to give   them more chances to survive instead  might have cost them their lives.   Knowing that the plane was overloaded but having  no other options, the crew began to prepare the   Clipper for takeoff. They found a straight stretch  of the Congo River that was about 5 kilometers   long. The river ended with multiple waterfalls  and rapids running through a maze of canyons but,   based on their calculations, 5 kilometers should  be enough for the Clipper to get airborne.   When everyone was ready, Captain Ford put engines  on maximum power and the plane rushed down the   river. But Ford quickly discovered that he couldn  t lift the overweight plane in hot and thin air.   The maximum time that was allowed to keep  Clipper's engines on full power was only 90   seconds. If the time is exceeded, you face the  risk of the engines overheating and exploding.   They were already running beyond that time, but  the plane simply refused to take off. But worse,   they were getting closer and closer to  the waterfall. At the very last moment,   somehow Ford managed to lift the heavy plane in  the air, but only a few feet above the water.   Luckily for them, it was enough to fly  over the rim of the gorge. But now,   the plane began to descend into the canyon and,  in just a few seconds, they were flying along   narrow rock walls of the Congo valley. It may  seem that the situation couldn't get any worse   but while approaching a shallow turn in the  canyon, Ford suddenly discovered that the plane   wasn't responding to controls. What happened was  that the extra fuel in wing tanks bent the wings   slightly but just enough so the aileron cables  got jammed. Captain Ford immediately pounded the   rudder pedals and just in time to barely avoid  the crash. The Boeing's engines roared on the   maximum throttle for 3 minutes already,  instead of 90 seconds that were allowed.   Pilots pushed the rudder pedals vigorously,  making turns to evade the canyon rocks,   and probably in that moment, it may have seemed  that the gorge would never end. Fortunately,   the Boeing s engines didn't fail and finally,  they managed to break free from the canyon.   Slowly gaining altitude, the clipper  set the course for Brazil.   23 hours and 35 minutes in the air, a new record  for Boeing 314 and the long-awaited landing in the   harbor of Natal. The local Brazilian authorities  asked the crew to leave the plane so they could   sort out some formalities and also spray the  plane for yellow fever. Within a couple of hours,   the Clipper was again in the air, heading for  Trinidad. But it was not until after takeoff   that the crew discovered that the Brazilian  fumigators had sprayed for yellow fever,   not just the interior of the plane, but also the  captain's safe and everything inside of it making   all their documents and money disappear.  Fortunately, the next stop for the Clipper   was at Pan Am station in Trinidad,  so it wasn't a big deal now.   On January 6th, 1942, at 5:54 a.m., John  Poindexter gave a signal to Capt. Ford that he   got set on LaGuardia Terminal's radio channel. "LaGuardia Tower. LaGuardia Tower. Over." ...   The funny irony was that, after making such  a long trip, they had to spend another hour   circling over New York City, since the regulations  didn't allow landing at the terminal until after   7 a.m. For them, it may have been the  longest hour of their entire trip.   With landing in New York City, the California  Clipper became the first commercial airplane   to circumnavigate the world. 209 hours  in the air, more than 50,000 kilometers,   18 landings in 12 countries  on five continents.   For this achievement, Clipper California was later  renamed to Pacific Clipper and, together with the   other Pan Am Clippers, continued its service,  although now performing military missions.   But despite its meritorious service, the end  of the war was also the end of the age of   flying boats. During the war, a large number of  military airfields were built around the world,   which now began to be actively used by commercial  aviation. Complex and expensive flying boats were   no longer needed. A short but incredibly  bright age of flying boats had come to an   end. Now The golden age of high speeds and  sleek airliners was emerging. An age where   Pan Am Airlines would long be one of the main  trendsetters in the air travel industry.   But that's another story altogether. The journey of the California Clipper was so   rich in various events that it's impossible to  cover them all in one video. If you want to know   more about the adventures of captain Ford and his  crew, I highly suggest you check out the amazing   article "The Plane Accidentally Flew Around the  World" by John Bull, which inspired me to create   this video. Just make sure you set aside the time  for reading because you won't even notice how it   flies by when you dive into the story. But beyond that, the most definitive account   of the California Clipper s journey would be the  fascinating book "The Long Way Home" by Ed Dover,   a former Pan Am employee. Dover actually  spent time with captain Robert Ford himself,   collecting the priceless details about  California Clipper's incredible journey,   like crew conversations for instance, and he  then put them onto the pages of his book. I   will leave the link below in the  description so you can check it out   the perfect gift for either yourself or  a friend of yours who loves aviation.   That's all for now. Thanks for watching and  see you in the next video. Good-Bye!
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Channel: Paper Skies
Views: 418,545
Rating: 4.9552045 out of 5
Keywords: aviation, history, aviation history, paper skies, history of aviation, boeing 314, boeing 314 documentary, boeing 314 flying boat, flying boat, pan american, california clipper, pacific clipper, panam clipper
Id: hW03fbBHDNI
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 22min 8sec (1328 seconds)
Published: Sat Aug 07 2021
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