China Clipper (NC14716) was the first of three Martin M-130 four-engine flying boats built for Pan American Airways and was used to inaugurate the first commercial transpacific airmail service from San Francisco to Manila on November 22, 1935. Built at a cost of $417,000 by the Glenn L. Martin Company in Baltimore, Maryland, it was delivered to Pan Am on October 9, 1935. It was one of the largest airplanes of its time.
China Clipper
Sikorsky S-42 Clipper at Sumay, Guam
Item of mail carried aboard the China Clipper for the first contract trans-Pacific flight. Signed by crew members: Captain Ed Musick, First Officer R. O. D. Sullivan, Fred Noonan (later Amelia Earhart's navigator), C. D. Wright, Victor Wright, George King, and William Jarboe, postmarked San Francisco, November 22, 1935
Air Mail Across the Pacific ad
The Martin M-130 was a commercial flying boat designed and built in 1935 by the Glenn L. Martin Company in Baltimore, Maryland, for Pan American Airways. Three were built: the China Clipper, the Philippine Clipper and the Hawaii Clipper. All three had crashed by 1945. A similar flying boat design called the Martin 156) and named Russian Clipper, was built for the Soviet Union; it had a larger wing and twin vertical stabilizers.
Martin M-130
Artwork highlighting the aircraft in the context of other clippers
Cover flown on the "China Clipper" on the first commercial transpacific flight from Alameda, California, to Manila, Philippines (FAM 14) November 22–29, 1935
Cabin area
