PACIFIC CLIPPERS

Grey River Argus, 14 August 1937, Page 6

PACIFIC CLIPPERS

MILLION MILES EXCEEDED. Trans-Pacific Clipper planes droned serenely to-nieht towards a longsougl'.t, goal—l.OOb.OOO miles of service living uver the widest ocean without an accident, said a San Francisco message to the “New York Tides’’ on July 11. Pan-American Airways announced that their four big sea-spanning nlanes would complete the millionth mile of commercial operation between California and the Orient with lhe arrival to-morrow of the Philippine Clipper in Manila. The planes rolled up a total of 5,622,124 passenger Julies during,that operation and carried nearly 200 tons of freight exclusive of air mall. A company statement noted that this had been done in the last two years of aviation’s most important decade, but added that the achievement had little in common with the reckless spirit of daring which marked many of the heroic flights over ocean with which the ten-year period opened. “A whole new science of aerial navigation and instrument flying, unknown at the beginning of that decade, has been perfected,” it said. The statement'pointed out that the Clipper plane’s passenger list had included children. grandmothers, whole families, and honeymooners. The 1,000,000-mile mark was computed only on actual commercial voyages, which included the carrying either of air mail, freight, or passengers, or all three. On top of that, Clipner planes flew many times along the 8500-mile ocean air lane between San Francisco and Manila in exploratory and preliminary operations. These survey flights began on Apirl 16, 1935. Routine operations started with “Flight No. 1” on November 22. 1934... The ’ 26-ton planes began carrying passengers on October 21, 1936. Three of these big planes operate regularly between, San Francisco and Manila, via Honolulu, Midway Islands Wake, and Guam. Between Manila and Hong Kong, 500 miles apart, the Hong Kong Clipper shuttles to and fro over the China Sea to complete the air link from America to China. The Hong Kong Clipper started its routine flights on April 27, 1937.