China Clipper Takes Off: Transpacific Air Service Begins
Pan American Airways' Martin M-130 flying boat China Clipper departed Alameda, California, on November 22, 1935, carrying 110,000 pieces of mail on the first transpacific airmail flight to Manila. The route covered 8,200 miles with stops at Honolulu, Midway, Wake, and Guam, each equipped with hotel facilities that Pan Am had built on otherwise uninhabited islands. Captain Edwin Musick and a crew of seven completed the journey in roughly 60 hours of flight time over six days. No passengers were carried on the inaugural flight; the service was initially mail-only. Passenger service began the following year at $799 one-way (about $17,000 today), limiting it to diplomats, executives, and the wealthy. The China Clipper cut Pacific transit time from three weeks by steamship to less than one week, compressing the world in ways that made Pearl Harbor strategically inevitable.
November 22, 1935
91 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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