Boeing 314 "Clipper"
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WILLIAM WINTER, e-mail, 27.04.2017 17:04

i was hoping someone in and around the boing clipper world had a photo or new my grand dad Charles Wesley Winter , he was a radio, navigation man for Pan Am , i now he has a radion in the Spirit of St Louis , and knew linberg well


DAVE HURSH, e-mail, 21.02.2016 23:47

i may be one of the few remaining lucky people who actually flew on a Clipper. It's a long story: my missionary parents sailed to Nigeria in '42 (by ocean freighter), where my eye-surgeon father founded Kano Eye Hospital. The U.S. State Dept. would not issue passports to children in '42 (I was 3 years old) since German U-boats were sinking too many unprotected ships. I stayed at a mission home in Canada for 2 years, then began a six-month journey with another missionary couple to join my parents. In late '44 we arrived in Natal, Brazil; it was the jumping-off point for US Army Air Corps bombers going to Europe, so I saw lots of B-29's. After3 months it's finally our time to get on a boat and board the Clipper -- which we did twice and got bumped for high-priority military people. Third time was a charm; we took off, flew for half a day, landed and refueled at Ascension Island, then arrived many hours later in Sierra Leone. I had my 6th birthday there, flew to Kano in a DC-3, and finally reunited with my parents. All those great Clipper memories and many more are still with me after 70+ years!


Billy DeWitt, e-mail, 04.10.2015 04:29

There was one at the 1939 worlds fair on Treasure Island. Was in a hanger and we were up high and looked down on it.
I understand the last one was purposely sunk when it was forced down between Bermuda and NY.
The Navy used others for target practice.
I saw the mock up in Foynes. Closest we will come to one.


ROSIE ROSENSTEIN, e-mail, 04.02.2015 05:31

B314 ONE NEEDS T VISIT THE FLYING BOAT B314 MUSEUM IN FOYNES IRELAND, NEAR SHANNON. YOU SURE WILL ENJOY.
ROSIE ROSENSTEIN
PAN AM 1958-1991


Anthony, e-mail, 12.01.2015 05:23

Rafael, your model of the B-314 is amazing. Next to the PBY-5A it is my favorite flying boat.


michael, e-mail, 17.06.2014 17:33

im looking for blue prints to build a balsa wood structure of the boeing 314 float plane ,,,, can you help or send me in the right direction


John Howell, e-mail, 13.05.2014 02:29

I was with my family in San Francisco the summer of 1938 or 1939. We happened to be down near the bay when we saw the clipper take off. Everybody called it the China Clipper. It was something to see. I was 5 or 6 years old


Larry Scrivener, e-mail, 18.10.2013 23:38

The old seaplane base at Foynes Ireland is a museum today, and has what they describe as a "full scale" portion of the B-314. It was built by the museum staff and other volunteers in the Republic, and that is a marvelous story in itself. Check their operating schedule before you go -- I did not, and experienced a serious disappointment on my last trip to the old sod.


James, e-mail, 22.09.2013 18:37

When visiting the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, Fla. about two years ago the tour took us past a building where aircraft were being rebuilt and through am open door I saw the largest Seaplane I have ever seen. It had the shape and contours that could only be a Boing Clipper.


Phil Copeland, e-mail, 11.08.2013 00:00

Actually BOAC continued to use the 314 until 1948 for the Bermuda/USA service.


Phil Copeland, e-mail, 11.08.2013 00:00

Actually BOAC continued to use the 314 until 1948 for the Bermuda/USA service.


Renee Chernoff, e-mail, 04.05.2013 08:08

For those interested in the Pan Am Clipper, check out Ken Follett's book "Night Over Water". Its a great novel with incredible detail about the Boeing 314.


KT, e-mail, 05.12.2012 22:28

My cousin's parents were on a clipper flight to lisbon from ny in October of 1941 and from honolulu to manila in April of 1941. I am wondering if anyone can tell me whether these two flights, or around this time, were the planes still the one class luxury standard or had they already been converted to the spartan military flights?


glm, e-mail, 25.11.2012 19:30

Looking for technical drawings/prints for the Boeing 314. I'd like to recreate them in CAD for a scratch built balsa build. Any info or source would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Gary


Bruce Pattison, e-mail, 08.11.2012 23:09

My Dad, Romney (Pat) Pattison was a navigator on the Pan AM 314's and flew all over the world during the War. He told me many interesting stories of his flights. He later became the chief navigator for Pan Am. Does any one remember him?


PAUL A. JOHNS, e-mail, 30.07.2012 02:54

Iwas with Pan Am for 10 yrs and flew the Boeing 314 clipper
on 20 pacific crossings as Pilot and Pilot Navigation officer.
Also on trips with Capt Ford.
The 314 was a great Plane and of my 220 pacific crosings they
stand out the most allthouh I AM NOW 99 YRS OLD BUT REMEMBER
THEM WELL


Doug Ratchford, e-mail, 16.06.2012 04:48

The only surviving example of the big flying boats from that era is the Vought-Sikorsky VS-44 displayed at the New England Air Museum.
Ken Smith-I'd love hear from you about Capt Ford and the Pacific Clipper.
Don Bansen, if you have no use for those cable splicing tools, there are many vintage aviation museums that would be glad to put them to use. And value your skill with them too.
My dad was a PBY veteran and I love seaplanes
floats up!
Ratch


eddy james, e-mail, 02.04.2012 09:46

I'd give the proverbial left nut to be able to own and afford to fly one of these magnificent pieces of history.


Robert, e-mail, 15.12.2011 18:16

I recently saw some photos of the large models of the B-314 that Boeing built for display at Pan Am offices worldwide. They were cut away on one side to show the inside of the plane. Does anyone know where any of these are? Thanks.


Phellonie Jackson, e-mail, 26.05.2011 23:11

Nice plane, I want to see one!


DR PRINCE SABASTINE, e-mail, 26.04.2011 14:59

IS IT POSSIBLE TO USE MY OLD BOEING 727 TO CONVERT TO A FLYING BOAT,IF YES HOW CAN I GET A COSTING FOR THIS IMMIDIATELY.


Dave Durham, e-mail, 28.03.2011 23:43

I have fallen in love of sorts with the B 314 when I found a poster advertising Pan Am in Hawaii- i bought the poster and had it mounted so I could display it on my patio each summer with some other Tiki stuff. I would have loved to see one up close and fly in one, but I was born too late.
Living near Seattle. I wish I had the $$$$ to request they build one up to original specs, and a new one out of modern materials for tourist flight useage.could happen maybe if...
but I don't have connections.


Bob Harrell, e-mail, 24.11.2010 21:20

As a kid I dreamed of flying a China Clipper and built a model of it. After the war,on the GI bill I became a commercial pilot on mostly seaplanes. Later I flew for PAA and also for United. Sadly, the PAA's flying boats were gone by that time.


Buz Allen, e-mail, 10.10.2010 03:20

What most people can't appreciate is the guts it took for the crews of these aircraft to blast off into the darkness of that Vast Pacific Ocean without any firm idea of the weather that lay ahead,no satellite wx back then or a backup plan to navigate without the stars or moon being visible! I did it in the early 1970's and it was scary then, in a Boeing KC-135, nothing compares to being Lost in the Pacific!!! Unless you are lost and on FIRE!!!


mel, e-mail, 05.11.2009 18:06

There is nothing quite like it. I can't believe they're all scrapped. They are breautiful aircraft. I wish I could have seen one in person. I love the flying boats. The closest i've come to seeing something like that was a beautifully restored Grumman Goose that I saw this year at the airport on Catalina Island off the coast of California. I can't blame him for not wanting to put it in the water. I'm honestly a little hear broken they don't fly the 314 anymore. How amazing would it have been to be a passenger much less a pilot of that gorgeous craft. All of the above comments and especially the stories have been awesome to read. thanks for taking the time to write them.

whipper snapper


Richard, e-mail, 29.09.2009 16:11

It should be noted, that this was the first airplane that a sitting president flew in. In 1943, FDR flew in NC-18605 to the Casablanca Conference to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss wartime issues. He was flown from Miami to Brazil, South America then across the Atlantic to Gambia,Africa, he then flew in a C-54 to Casablanca and returned over the same route to the US.


Art deco, 09.07.2009 23:13

Beauty! Landings are tricky,huh?


Rafael Ramirez, e-mail, 09.07.2009 18:44

I will never know how the Fling Boat Museum of Botwood, New Foundland, found me to build a 1:12th Scale Model of the B-314 Yankee Clipper. I dedicate many hours to design a model that could reflect the dignity of the Clipper design. I invite you to see a short video taken from that model and others I have made, at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZSDwQTzHIY
Your comments will be highly appreciated. Last year I accomplished 50 years building Animated Scale models for World Class Trade Shows and Interactive Museums.


John Wilson, e-mail, 05.07.2009 12:53

Along with two other elderly enthusiasts I am trying to assemble flight records for this amazing aircraft so that we can tell the story of just how PanAm crews flew the world in wartime conditions. Some of the stories around have been distorted by the passage of time and the only way to get at the truth is to use the crew logbooks, so if anyone has their father's PanAm logs from the war years I would be delighted to have a few details. I'm a bit later than these crews but still flew behind propellors in the RAF i the 1950s. Any help will be much appreciated.


Ken Smith, e-mail, 24.01.2009 02:27

As a young Engine Mechanic enlisted in the British Fleet Air Arm, I was based at China Bay Ceylon. (Sri Lanka.

Just before Xmas '41 a giant flying boat arrived, a Pan American Clipper. The ocean hopping monster tied up near our slipway, dwarfing our tiny seaplanes. The crew came ashore, telling us in their Yankee accents, how they’d been dodging those Zeroes. Their Wright Cyclone engines had been stressed by ‘too much boost’ so they asked for tools at our Engine Shop; but our British tools weren’t suitable. They took off on Xmas Eve but lacking climb power in the humid air, returned after dumping fuel. Managing impromptu repairs they took off finally to fly the long way home to New York, via central Africa; a record that stood for years.

That giant boat impressed us with the power of our new Ally - the USA.


Roy Arthur Phillips, e-mail, 02.09.2008 04:42

Boeing Clippers are a peace of ART. Nothing to day can match it' beauty.
I grew up in Seattle, not to far from the Boeing plant.
One day they tied a clipper to a large tug boat to test it's power. The Clipper pulled the tug boat back wards.
Boeing Plant and the Boeing Air field was the high light of my younger year. I am 82. Boeings has always been a class A act in Seattle. It has never changed.
Roy


Don Bansen, e-mail, 12.07.2008 05:39

I was a mechanic working on this aircraft, fresh out of aviation school. I worked at the Marine Terminal at La Guardia Field from Nov. 1940 until I joined the Navy in 1943. I specialized in flight controls and spliced many cables since all the flight controls were cable controlled.
I still have my cable splicing tools but they will probably get thrown out when I go. I still remember the day NC 18602 arrived at Bowery Bay, unannounced, after flying around the world because the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. The plane was dirty and oil streaked and certainly not up to Pan Am standards for appearance.


buzz darcy, e-mail, 04.05.2008 21:59

My Dad, Chuck Darcy, was a flight engineer for Pan Am and flew in the 314's before and during the war. I've read his log books from that period and they are awesome. The 314 was an incredibly beautiful aircraft and certainly an end to an era of the flying boats.




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