Martin M-130 Flying Boat: China Clipper’s Trans-Pacific Flights

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It was Friday, November 22, 1935. Crowds were gathered along the shores of San Francisco Bay to witness an epoch-making event–the first commercial airmail flight across the Pacific to Asia. Although it was a working weekday, a holiday mood prevailed as an estimated 20,000 people made their way to the Pan American Airways operating base at Alameda, where the inauguration ceremonies were about to begin.

On the shore’s edge, near the marine ramp, a raised platform held numerous dignitaries, out to sanctify the occasion with the laudatory prose of their speeches. The chief guest was U.S. Postmaster General James A. Farley, but others were also due to speak, including California Governor Frank Merriam and Pan Am President Juan Trippe. A radio hookup stood ready to broadcast the proceedings to the world.

Just offshore, only a few yards from the speaker’s dais, nose and cockpit looming over the speaker’s platform like a giant eavesdropper, floated the China Clipper–Martin M-130 flying boat, one of the most advanced aircraft of its day.

All the press, hoopla and publicity was designed to celebrate Pan Am’s triumph and also lift some of the gloom from a Depression-plagued public. Earlier, Postmaster Farley had made a great show of ‘loading’ the sacks of mail into the plane himself. To underscore the great progress that had been made since the 19th century, a horse-drawn Concord coach rattled up to deposit the final sacks of letters. All told, there were 58 sacks in the cargo, totaling some 110,865 pieces of mail that weighed 1,837 pounds.

After a round of speeches, and the reading of a letter from President Franklin Roosevelt. The China Clipper made its way beyond a protective breakwater and onto the broad bay. Its audience was not confined to Alameda; an estimated 150,000 people watched from San Francisco, the Marin Headlands and other points around the bay.

With veteran pilot Edwin Musick at the controls, China Clipper’s quartet of engines revved up. When the ‘all clear’ signal was given, China Clipper plowed bay waters into a foam-flecked wake before lifting off at 3:46 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. The giant aircraft made its way toward the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge then under construction. A swarm of smaller planes followed in escort, little knowing a crisis loomed ahead.

Within seconds, Captain Musick realized China Clipper was in danger. The bridge’s roadbed wasn’t yet built, but the suspension cables that linked the towers had wires dangling below them like metal fringe. ‘It had been our intention to fly over the bridge,’ second engineering officer Victor Wright recalled years later, ‘but Musick quickly saw that with the engine cowl flaps open he wouldn’t be able to get up enough speed to clear the wires, so he nosed the Clipper down at the last moment and went under the bridge cables, threading his way through dangling construction wires. We all ducked and held our breath until we were in the clear.’

The crisis averted, China Clipper headed out into the Pacific, its ultimate destination Manila, the Philippines. Gaping crowds marveled, thrilled at the aerial drama they had just witnessed. Later local newspapers played down the incident, declaring the nose dive had been a planned ‘part of the program.’

After island-hopping stops at Hawaii, Midway Island, Wake Island and Guam, China Clipper successfully completed its inaugural run by landing in Manila, November 29, 1935. The journey had taken 59 hours and 48 minutes flying time, and had traversed 8,210 miles. With this one historic flight, the world had become smaller; the China Clipper took 6 1/2 days to do what would take 21 days in the fastest passenger ship.

China Clipper’s trans-Pacific flight was the product of one man’s vision, Pan Am President Juan Trippe. This was a man with a mission, and the mission was to blaze a network of international air routes that would gird the glob. But Trippe needed an instrument to put his idea into effect, and that tool was Pan American Airways.

Founded by Trippe in 1927, the company was truly ‘Pan American’ as it extended service throughout Latin America and forged pioneering links between the United States and its neighbors to the south. By 1931, a scant four years after Pan Am’s birth, Trippe’s ambitions already extended beyond the Western Hemisphere.

Blocked by political problems from developing service across the Atlantic to Europe, Trippe turned his attention to the Pacific instead. On June 26, 1931, Trippe and his chief engineer, Andre Priester, issued what amounted to a challenge to the aircraft industry–they wanted a large, long-range seaplane capable of transoceanic flight.

The Glenn L. Martin Company of Baltimore, Md., took up the gauntlet. Determined to succeed, Martin and his engineers huddled and sweat over hundreds of sketches, mulling over everything from wing design to color schemes for passenger cabins. Martin’s proposals were deemed satisfactory, and Pan Am placed an order for three flying boats late in 1932. The result of all this trepidation, inspirations and perspiration was the Martin M-130.

Now that he had airplanes in the works, Trippe’s next step was to find a feasible route across the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific is immense, and the Pan Am president knew that well over 8,000 miles separated the west cost of the United States from China and other potentially lucrative markets.

Trippe realized they had two basic route options: The ‘great circle’ or island-hopping. The great circle route–partly blazed by famed aviator Charles A. Lindbergh in 1931–would run up the west coast of Alaska, arc across the Aleutian chain of islands, and then hop across to the edges of Siberia before dropping down to China and the Philippines.

There were drawbacks to the great circle. Meteorological conditions in the far north could be harsh, and the Aleutians were plagued by thick fogs. But above all, the Soviet government refused to grant landing rights in Siberia.

Trippe decided on a bolder course. He would strike out directly across the Pacific, island-hopping as he went. Among the advantages to this plan was the fact that the United States owned Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, and other Pacific islands that were ready-made way stations.

In 1934, Trippe caused a commotion among his board of directors by prematurely announcing, ‘We are now ready to fly the Pacific.’ In December of that year, the first China Clipper emerged from the Baltimore factory. Extensive testing proved the soundness of her design, and she was delivered in October 1935.

The China Clipper and her two sister ships were giants by anyone’s definition, measuring 130 feet from wingtip to wingtip and 91 feet from nose to tail. Four Pratt and Whitney 830-hp engines provided the power needed to lift the airplane’s 52,850-pound gross weight, and once they hit their stride, an air-speed of 130 mph could be attained.

The spacious fuselage could accommodate up to 32 passengers, and with the exception of fabric covering for the wing trailing edge, the airplane boasted an all-metal construction. The hull was double-bottomed, and to provide lateral stability on the water, stubby sea wings protruded from under the fuselage, connected to the great main wings by struts. The sea wings were a more efficient substitute for the drag-inducing wingtip floats that kept earlier seaplanes from tipping over on the water.

Meanwhile, Pan Am’s trailblazing Pacific leaps were being planned with infinite care. The first leg of the journey would also be the most daunting: 2,400 miles of open ocean between the California coast and Hawaii. After that, the distances were also great but less formidable: Honolulu to Midway Island, 1,260 miles; Midway to Wake Island, 1,320 miles; Wake to Guam, 1,500 miles; Guam to Manila, 1,600 miles and, finally, Manila to Hong Kong, 600 miles.

Manila was Pan Am’s first air terminus, not the British crown colony of Hong Kong, because His Majesty’s government refused Trippe landing rights. In fact, one of their own carriers, Imperial Airways, had plans to develop the territory, and the British were not about to let an impudent Yankee in.

But Juan Trippe was an old hand at overcoming obstacles. He simply entered into negotiations with the Portuguese for landing rights at nearby Macao. When Lisbon granted these rights in 1936, the British reluctantly allowed Pan Am to use Hong Kong as well.

To achieve its objectives, Pan Am chartered an merchant steamer New Haven and loaded it with 6,000 tons of supplies. Two complete villages, seagoing motor launches, diesel generators, water distillations units, and many other items went into its gaping hold. The passenger roster included 44 airline technicians and a 74-man construction crew.

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