PAN AM AIRWAYS CHINA CLIPPER ACROSS THE PACIFIC MARTIN M130 SEAPLANE 16754

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This incomplete corporate promo film from Pan Am Airways shows how the company built bases across the Pacific, in support of trans-Pacific passenger service. The Martin M-130 is shown, including the China Clipper piloted by famed Capt. Ed Musick. The flight shown was the first commercial trans-Pacific flight, carrying mail to the Philippines; the Martin M-130 China Clipper departed from Alameda on November 21, 1935, and landed in Manila on November 29, 6 days, 7 hours, and 40 minutes later, logging nearly 60 hours of flight time. The aircraft flew the trans-Pacific route surveyed in four earlier flights, with stops in Honolulu, Midway, Wake, and Guam. The flight arrived after 21 hours, 13 minutes of flight time. China Clipper returned to Alameda on December 6, 1935.

The M-130 was a commercial flying boat designed and built in 1935 by the Glenn L. Martin Company in Baltimore, Maryland, for Pan American Airways. Three were built: the China Clipper, the Philippine Clipper and the Hawaii Clipper. All three had crashed by 1945.

The film starts with a meteorologist speaking about PAA's work to chart the weather. At :52, a weather balloon is deployed to assess wind speed. At 1:14, the seven man crew of a Martin M130 Pan Am Clipper are shown about to attempt the longest over-water flight ever attempted by any airline to date. At 1:21, the China Clipper is seen being prepared for the flight. A 1:37, the China Clipper's commander, Captain Ed Musick, is shown. (Prior to his death in an accident in a clipper in 1938, Musick was chief pilot for Pan American World Airways and pioneered many of Pan Am's transoceanic routes including the famous route across the Pacific Ocean on the China Clipper.) At 1:42, the Pan Am radio station at San Francisco provides route information; at 1:49 Morse code is tapped out from Honolulu to Midway Island and Wake Island, as well as Guam, and finally the Philippines. At 2:23, China Clipper departs. (Note: the tall man walking out of the aircraft at that point appears to be Charles Lindbergh, who knew a thing about distance flying.) At 2:40, ships salute the take-off of the first leg of the flight to Honolulu. At 3:06, the steamer Northaven is shown, which was used to set up Pan Am's remote bases across the Pacific. At 3:12, it is shown at Pier 22 in San Francisco loading supplies of all types. At 3:34, a map shows the arrival at Honolulu and then Midway Island (4:00). Midway's desolation is shown, as crews work to assemble a terminal and hotel with hot and cold running water. At (4:35) work on Wake Island is shown, with a surveyor overseeing construction and the dynamiting of obstructions in the harbor. At (5:23) drums of gasoline are shown being moved. At (5:30), a radio announcer mentions that the Clipper has landed at Honolulu on schedule. At (6:20), the title card proclaims "Trans-Pacific!" and shows a Pan Am Airways Sikorsky S-42 clipper operating to Shanghai, China. At (6:50) other airlines, including European airlines, are shown operating in China. A map shows various air routes to China, including one through the Middle East favored by British carriers, and another showing a route through Moscow. At (7:26) a route map from Alameda, California across the Pacific is shown. At (8:05), the Gooney Birds of Midway Island are shown. At (9:06) Capt. Ed Musick poses for the newsreel camera. The film concludes with fragments showing construction at Midway, Guam and other island bases.

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