Posted on 11/09/2019 1:22:57 PM PST by ameribbean expat
This is an amazing story. “The History Guy” on YouTube has an episode about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0GbkM6n90o
For later.
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Thanks for posting this!
Need a movie about this.
Absolutely. Can offset the Chicom “Midway” BS in theaters.
I knew of this flight, but WOW! thanks for posting this and putting flesh and blood on the story!
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Action scenes I was told were pretty good but disjointed, no connectivity as though each one was a separate action. I liked this version on Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd8_vO5zrjo
Excellent read.
On youtube there is an original 1943 recreation of the Clipper’s circuitous route home. It begins with the radioman picking up traffic that Pearl Harbor was bombed, then the captain orders the passengers woken & to assemble in the dining saloon where he gives them the news of war breaking out.
What is amazing even now was Pan Am’s global communications network and how the Clipper was able to find refueling points all the way to New York.
Ping
I just toured the National Air & Space Museum in Washington and spent a lot of time with the exhibits on the development of aviation from 1903 through today. There’s a great exhibit on the development of navigation together with the aircraft. It was an amazing period of tech progress, bold executive leadership, great airmen (and women) and the formation of huge companies. I really enjoyed the exhibit about the Lindberghs and especially learning about Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
I had no idea that the Pan Am created “Plan A” to prevent their Clippers from falling into enemy hands. What this crew did to bring their aircraft home WESTWARD from Caledonia is astonishing.
Thanks, will check that out.
Good story, but New York is is 3,000 short of around the world.
And why did they need to go all the way to NYC if corporate headquarters were in Miami?
Would you know? Did the plane continue on to Khartoum and then to Leopoldville in the Belgian Congo? That flight also went around the world, and had a terrifying takeoff on both the Nile and Congo rivers.
Great story to read again.
That was an amazing story that I had to read to the very end.
That was one hell of a nail biting journey that even today would be a hell of an experience to take.
My thanks to the Crew who flew the plane and the author of the article. Without the article I probably would have never known about that astounding flight.
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