The Commercial Flight that Circled the Globe

 The next model is a diecast model.  I wish I could find a proper model of one but I don't think many people make them.  When I ordered the plane, I thought it was bigger but it's not too bad, I guess.  It can fit in with some of my other airliners and not look too out of place.

The Boeing 314 Clipper was a large flying boat that was produced from 1938 to 1941.  In that time, twelve were produced.  They were used by Pan American, the British Overseas Airways (predecessor to British Airways) and the US Navy.  It had a crew of 10 to 16 and could carry 68 day passengers or 38 sleeping passengers.  It had a top speed of 210 miles per hour with a range of 3,685 miles.

I will have to say it is a pretty nice looking plane and is a throwback to more civilized age of passenger flying.  It probably could rival rail service.

Anyway, that's not the story I wanted to tell.

Pan Am Flight NC16802 (also the tail number of the plane but not my model) was a regular scheduled flight from San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand.  On December 2nd, 1941, the pilot took off from Treasure Island in San Francisco.  It landed at Pearl Harbor on the same day, refueled and left for New Zealand.  On the way to New Zealand, it had stops on Canton Island, Suva, Fiji and Noumea, New Caledonia for refueling.  It arrived in New Zealand on December 7th, 1941.

Captain Ron Ford learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor and was instructed not to head back to the United States by way of the Pacific.  He then received instructions to take the employees of Pan Am in Noumea to Gladstone, Australia.   They arrived in Noumea on December 16th and flew to Australia in the same day.

From Gladstone they flew to Darwin, Australia.  There they refueled but they had to do it manually.  They then flew Surabuya where they were intercepted by the Royal Dutch Air Force.  They had to convince them they were non-threatening.  They had to pick up a lower grade of fuel which didn't help their trip to Ceylon.

En route from Surabuya to Ceylon, they saw a submarine and were fired upon but not damaged.  They reported it to the British in Ceylon but they didn't believe.  From Ceylon, they went to Karachi.  He had to drop off two mechanics there so that Pan Am could establish a base.

From Bahrain, they went to Khartoum and had to leave another mechanic.  They landed on the Nile in Khartoum.  From there, they went to Leopoldville.

then they went to Natal and then Port of Spain.

On January 6, 1942, the crew was elated to see the New York city skyline as they landed at LaGuardia Airport.  They struck a sandbar as they were taxiing, but no damage was caused.

A map of the flight.

The plane was purchased by the US Government but operated by Pan Am during the war.  After the war, it was sold to Universal Airlines, then American International Airways in 1947 and World Airways in 1948 and scrapped in 1951.

There are no surviving aircraft although there has been talk of salvaging one of two that sank during operation.  That has never come to fruition.  That's kind of sad since this would be a window into a different era of flying.