=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/c/a/2005/11/03/BUG2UFI0NE= 1.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, November 3, 2005 (SF Chronicle) Hopping across the ocean/SFO throwing party for fondly remembered 'flying b= oats' David Armstrong, Chronicle Staff Writer They flew 150 miles per hour and took six days to reach the Far East from the Bay Area, and everyone thought that was simply marvelous. They were Pan American Airways' famous Clipper planes, and they flew headlong into aviation history 70 years ago this month, inaugurating the now-thriving business of intercontinental aviation. These days, about 50,000 people fly across the Pacific Ocean daily, with nearly 5,000 of them landing at or taking off from San Francisco International Airport, according to SFO officials, who will celebrate the legacy of the Clippers with daylong public festivities Friday and Saturday. The silver-bodied Clippers were fitted with pontoons for water landings and take-offs in the days when airport runways on land were rudimentary or scarce. The "flying boats" were the brainchild of Pan Am's visionary founder, Juan Trippe, explained John Hill, SFO's museum curator. "When Trippe said 'We're going to fly the Pacific,' the planes to do that didn't exist," Hill said. "Trippe told the manufacturers what he wanted and pushed them to build the planes." The first flight, by a Martin M-130 dubbed the China Clipper, took off on Nov. 22, 1935, from the waters off Alameda with a load of airmail. Because it had a limited range, the aircraft had to island-hop to reach East Asia, as later Clippers also did, with stops in Honolulu, Midway, Wake Island and Guam. When it touched down on the waters of Manila Bay, 8,210 miles away, thousands cheered the new flying machine. A small fleet of Clippers later flew to additional Asia-Pacific destinations, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Macao and Auckland, New Zealand, giving a huge boost to the fledgling business of commercial global flight. "We bridged the Pacific before we bridged the bay," said Hill, noting th= at the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge were still under construction when the first Clippers flew. Indeed, photographs of the glistening planes seen against the San Francisco skyline and the bridges created iconic images of enduring beauty. A sack of mail on your lap The Clippers began carrying passengers in 1936, inaugurating the world's first regularly scheduled transoceanic passenger service. For three years, the Bay Area was the only U.S. home of transoceanic flying. In 1939, Pam Am commenced service across the Atlantic, using specially built Boeing 314 flying boats to link New York and London. Back in 1935, "Pan American had a contract with the government to fly the U.S. mail," Hill said. "Mail was the first priority, followed by cargo and then by passengers." In the very early days, he said, "You had the option of buying a ticket and flying with a sack of mail on your lap." When the Golden Gate International Exposition opened on Treasure Island = in 1939, the Clippers' base shifted from Alameda to Treasure Island, where watching the planes land and take off on San Francisco Bay was one of the most entertaining diversions for fair-goers. Passengers paid about $20,000 in today's dollars to fly round trip across the Pacific, according to Hill. This meant that Clipper passengers were nearly always the well-heeled and the elite. Few people could afford to fly, especially long distances, during the Depression. Trippe tapped several manufacturers to build successive versions of Clippers, putting in upgrades for improved safety and creature comforts. Sense of adventure required Passengers had their suppers and slept in comfortable Pacific island hotels during layovers. During their 60 hours of flying time, they had comfortable seats and plenty of legroom. They dined on crisp, white linen, used fine silver and drank fine wines and cocktails. But amid the luxury, the limits of aviation technology meant there were discomforts, too, so a Clipper flier had to have a certain elan and sense of adventure. The planes were noisy, a consequence of the continuous drone from four propellers. Moreover, "They flew at 10,000 feet and usually had to go through weather rather than flying above it," SFO marketing manager Jane Sullivan said. "And the cabins weren't pressurized. So, people sat in depressurized cabins eating gourmet food and sipping cocktails. How intrepid were these people?" Despite the planes' technical limitations, the Clippers were a pleasure = to pilot, said former Pan Am captain Ross Butler, who served as a co-pilot on Clippers during World War II when they ferried U.S. troops. He went on to captain jumbo Boeing 747 jets before he retired in 1981. "The Clippers were the easiest planes I ever flew," Butler recalled, saying the ride was usually fairly smooth. But if waves got up to 3 feet in height, things got rough and landings and takeoffs had to be aborted. Flying boats grounded After World War II, the Clipper base moved again, from Treasure Island to SFO, then still called Mills Field. But they were never put back into full-fledged passenger service, as post-war airports were pouring concrete runways on land. In 1945 and '46, Trippe phased in Douglas DC-4s to replace the flying boats. Juan Trippe's son, Charles Trippe, who will keynote this weekend's Pan Am Clipper fete, recalls that his father tried to expand Pan Am in the post-Clipper era in part by bidding for international routes from TWA's famously eccentric owner Howard Hughes, but couldn't cut a deal. Their encounter was dramatized in Martin Scorsese's biopic about Hughes, "The Aviator." "I was present at the meeting in Palm Springs between my old man and Hughes," recalls the younger Trippe, who went on to become vice president of corporate development for Pan Am. "In the movie, Hughes was naked and there was all this smoke blowing around. The scene was absolutely fabricated. It was a reasonable discussion," he said, but Hollywood is "in the entertainment business." Years later, Pan Am went bankrupt and failed, selling its assets in 1991, including the Pan American World Airways name, now owned by a small New England carrier. No intact specimen of a Clipper survives. But the global business the airline spawned with its flying boats thrive= s, with SFO as one of its beneficiaries. In 2004, the airport handled 2 million transpacific passengers. It hosts a dozen U.S. and foreign carriers who span the world's widest ocean in hours, before setting down their planes on terra firma. Pan Am Clipper festivities What: Two-day program with speeches, seminars, flight attendants in vintage Pam Am uniforms, display of old posters, vintage Clipper photographs and air-mail stamps, 1936 movie "China Clipper" with Humphrey Bogart. When: Friday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Where: San Francisco International Airport aviation museum and library, near gateway G in the International Terminal. Parking: Free validated parking at SFO parking garage. Cost: $4 for single lecture, up to $25 for entire program. For more information: www.sfoarts.org or (650) 821-9911 E-mail David Armstrong at davidarmstrong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --------------= -------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2005 SF Chronicle