Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Dec 7, 2010 18:51:30 GMT 12
The upper surfaces of the Clipper that returned to the USA the long way when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor had it's uppersurfaces camouflaged. Do you have any idea of the application and the colour/s?
I've got two books that are specifically about the Boeing 314 Clipper flying-boats.
One is “Last Of The Flying Clippers — The Boeing B-314 Story” by M. D. Klaás; published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd in 1997, Library of Congress Catalog No: 97-81405, ISBN: 0-7643-0562-X. It is a very detailed history of ALL twelve Boeing 314 Clippers, including the three sold by Pan American to BOAC.
The other book is “The Long Way Home — Captain Ford's Epic Journey” by Ed Dover; published by Paladwr Press in 1999, ISBN: 1-888962-07-0. This book tells the full story of the flight from San Francisco to New York City via Auckland, which occured because of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and many other places (including Canton Island) in December 1941.
Looking at both books, neither of them mention any camouflage being applied to the Clipper, although both books state that the crew scrapped all of the Pan American markings and US flags off the airliner before departing from Auckland. In the case of the book written by Ed Dover; he interviewed some of the surviving crew members from the flight during the early 1990s, including Captain Robert Ford, and he was also either given, or in some cases allowed to copy documentation about the flight that the crew members had retained as part of their momentos. The book “Last of the Flying Clippers” also has a photograph of a very tatty-looking flying-boat in New York after the flight, although it doesn't say how long after the flight the photo was taken, but the image doesn't show any signs of camouflage.
Although the story is often told about how the aeroplane invoved was NC18609 “Pacific Clipper”, in actual fact it was the “California Clipper” but there had been a switch in identites between the two flying-boats.
Boeing 314 Clipper, c/n.1989 was the second 314 to be built and was registered NC18602 and named “California Clipper”. It was the first of Pan Am's Boeing Clippers to visit NZ when it arrived in Auckland on 30th August 1939 (a day after ZK-AMA “Aotearoa”) on the first survey flight to NZ via Canton Island and Noumea. The same aircraft flew the second survey flight to NZ, arriving at Auckland on 24th November 1939. The “California Clipper” was also used for the Press Preview Flight to NZ, arriving at Auckland on 15th August 1940 (NC 18601 “Honolulu Clipper” and NC18606 “American Clipper” had already been operating mail flight to and from NZ for several months). “California Clipper” also operated the first service all the way from San Francisco to Singapore (via Honolulu, Midway Island, Wake Island, Guam and Manila), departing San Francisco on 3rd May 1941 and arriving at Singapore on 10th May. It seems strange now taking seven days to flight right across the Pacific Ocean, but it was quicker than going by sea.
Boeing 314A Clipper NC18609 “Pacific Clipper”, c/n.2063, was one of the second batch of Boeing clippers. They had slightly higher-powered engines, bigger fuel tanks, and a beefed-up airframe structure. The other 314A to operate Pacific services (including to NZ) was NC18611 “Anzac Clipper”).
At some point, NC18609 (c/n.2063) became “California Clipper” and NC18602 (c/n.1989) became “Pacific Clipper” although the various records of when this occured are contradictory, although it definitely did occur. Later on, during WWII, NC18609 was further renamed “South Atlantic Clipper”.
However, the story of the epic flight becomes even murkier, because it would appear that the same aeroplane may not have flown all the way from San Francisco around the world to New York. Apparently, it common practice for the aeroplane to often be changed at Honolulu. The flights often stopped over at Honolulu for two nights before carrying on to Auckland, and although the Flight Service Number stayed the same, it was often a different aeroplane departing Honolulu from the one that had flown the San Francisco-Los Angeles-Pearl Harbour sector.
When Ed Dover interviewed surviving crew members in the early 1990s and examined the surviving logbooks, he noticed that First Officer John Mack's logbook listed NC18606 (which was the “American Clipper”) during the initial entry, then the aircraft registration wasn't mentioned during the rest of the entries for the entire flight. However, Fourth Officer John Steers' logbook showed NC18606 for the sector from San Francisco to Pearl Harbour via Los Angeles, then NC18602 from Honolulu onwards all the way to Auckland, then on to New York. It was definitely NC18602 that arrived at New York because records from the control tower at La Guardia Marine Airport show that as being the flying-boat that unexpectedly arrived on 6th January 1942.
The flight had been conducted in total secrecy (the crew were literally on their own) and the air traffic controllers at La Guardia were totally in the dark as to what was headed their way (remember too it was wartime). As related in the book, “The Long Way Home”, NC18602 arrived very early in the morning and Captain Ford called the control tower as follows: “La Guardia Tower, La Guardia Tower....Pan American Clipper NC18602, inbound from Auckland, New Zealand. Captain Ford reporting, due to arrive at Pan American Marine Terminal La Guardia in seven minutes. OVER!” The controller asked Captain Ford to repeat his message, which he did. The controller then asked him to repeat his message again, then yet again, then after the third time it was repeated, asked Captain Ford to fly a holding pattern while the controller obtained further instructions. I imagine it would have been very interesting being a fly on the wall in that control tower watching the reactions of the controller who was probably thinking, “WTF??”!!!
As a matter of interest, Pan American owned a total of 102 flying-boats of various types and operated 99 of them (either themselves, or their wholly-owned subsidiaries). The three they didn't operate themselves were the three Boing 314A clippers they sold to BOAC while they were still on the production line.