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Boeing 314 to Spontoon Island
Once again, I needed to deviate and try and mojo myself into art, and I enjoyed doing something for 
Heywulf's Spontoon Island last time. So I feature another classic and cool seaplane, The Boeing 314. The China Clippers in the late 30s and early 40s. Them and the Martin M130 Flying Boats were some seriously sexy aircraft. The last of the 12 314s built flew its last in 1946 (3 had crashed). The rest of the fleet was scrapped by 1950. Seems WW2 and the long ranged heavy bomber was its eventual demise as they left numerous large, concrete runways all over the world to be used by DC-4s and later Lockheed Constellations.
The days of the large flying boats were over and gone.
Heywulf's Spontoon Island last time. So I feature another classic and cool seaplane, The Boeing 314. The China Clippers in the late 30s and early 40s. Them and the Martin M130 Flying Boats were some seriously sexy aircraft. The last of the 12 314s built flew its last in 1946 (3 had crashed). The rest of the fleet was scrapped by 1950. Seems WW2 and the long ranged heavy bomber was its eventual demise as they left numerous large, concrete runways all over the world to be used by DC-4s and later Lockheed Constellations.The days of the large flying boats were over and gone.
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and this is the reason the racers all had pontoons back in the 30's... The founder of the races understood that all major cities in the world were near some sort of water, even if they did not have an airport...
this is a great image Tom... In the movie, 'The Black Stallion', they show this aircraft quite nicely...
V.
this is a great image Tom... In the movie, 'The Black Stallion', they show this aircraft quite nicely...
V.
Fantastic work there Rabbi. I've been up close to a section of the aluminum skin of the last Clipper out of Wake Island - had a few 7.7mm holes in it. It is on display at the University of Texas Dallas Library - aviation special collection. I spent a lot of time in that collection - lived 2 miles from it - rode my bike to that library as a kid - was closer than the city library and way better.
Forgot to post the link for the collection https://www.utdallas.edu/library/sp.....ation-archive/
Good to hear that. My father years ago worked with a guy who had piloted a Martin Mars during the war. 3 or so years ago I saw how two of the planes were in use by Carlson - showed it to my dad on the computer - he was amazed that any were left. I need to find his aircraft scrapbook - he saved all sorts of aircraft pics from the papers in the 40s when he was a kid. Hmmm Been to that museum in Pensacola years ago. Was back when the USS Lexington CV16 was still in use as the training Carrier - late 1980s Was a fun vacation
It was a time. They had a certain romance as well. The only reason Midway and Guam were a thing was refueling for the China Clippers.
Bring them back? The main issue is expense. A flying boat is just that. It is 100% plane, and 100% boat. You have to meet all the functional requirements for both. Fail at any of them and you have a crashed plane or a sunk boat.
Rabbi is right. All those concrete strips left for the heavy bombers did in the flying boats. Land only aircraft are much cheaper to maintain as both Martin and Sauder-Roe learned to their regret. They both built post war flying boats for a market that was gone.
Bring them back? The main issue is expense. A flying boat is just that. It is 100% plane, and 100% boat. You have to meet all the functional requirements for both. Fail at any of them and you have a crashed plane or a sunk boat.
Rabbi is right. All those concrete strips left for the heavy bombers did in the flying boats. Land only aircraft are much cheaper to maintain as both Martin and Sauder-Roe learned to their regret. They both built post war flying boats for a market that was gone.
Wake Island was a stop over/fueling point as well along with any needed repairs. The islands residents were a huge bunch of PanAm employees and crew with a equal number of US Marines. It was the Wake Island defenders that were taken out by the Japs in Late December of 41. A large number of PanAm civilian laborers and crew were captured as well.
Excellent, illustration-quality work
I saw one of these at an airshow about thirty years ago, but I'd fired my last exposure on the roll. Quick rewind, drop the old film in the can... and all the other cans are full of exposed film! This is why I latched onto digital photography -- even my go-everywhere camera has a fresh charge and a 64GB chip!
I saw one of these at an airshow about thirty years ago, but I'd fired my last exposure on the roll. Quick rewind, drop the old film in the can... and all the other cans are full of exposed film! This is why I latched onto digital photography -- even my go-everywhere camera has a fresh charge and a 64GB chip!
Maybe it was a Catalina (i.e. Consolidated PBY-5A). A great many of those survive (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_.....PBY_Catalinas) There were a number of craft that were built to be amphibious, and could use airstrips and water. Therefore, you wouldn't have to buzz the Charter Oak Bridge.
Heh, I still have one of the Mavicas that uses 80mm CDr's and RW's. Fire it up from time to time but mainly use a 7 year old Canon Rebel I picked up in late 2019 from a local Pawn Shop. That works out great. Spare chip and extra charged batteries for sure. I had issues in the past with film cameras not working and odd stuff with the digitals
Yes'm. But disks fail too. I ran the battery down at the 2017 tall ships festival in Bay City, Michigan. Also doing photography for Conclave, but there I had spares. I never filled a chip.
Canon R3. Nice all around camera. I had a Mavica, it died. I followed it with an Olympus which I still have, but I prefer the Canon. The double A cameras eat batteries day in and out. You never have enough. The Li-on batteries last longer.
Canon R3. Nice all around camera. I had a Mavica, it died. I followed it with an Olympus which I still have, but I prefer the Canon. The double A cameras eat batteries day in and out. You never have enough. The Li-on batteries last longer.
I believe the Mavica disks were rated in Megabytes, not Gigabytes -- but resolution was low enough to get a reasonable number of shots on each. I have yet to fill up a 64GB chip, but we'll see.
Is the R3 a 'thing' yet? Everything I've read implies it's on the way (late September of 2020 -- too late) but still vaporware.
My Olympus EVOLT E-510 took good enough photographs, but as I sad, batteries were like Fritos to it and shooting in RAW meant 30 MB per shot. I have a Canon T2i and a 7D (original). Both of these kick butt in low light levels -- like moonlight. My always-in-the car camera is a Canon Power Shot G15. Ultra reliable.
Is the R3 a 'thing' yet? Everything I've read implies it's on the way (late September of 2020 -- too late) but still vaporware.
My Olympus EVOLT E-510 took good enough photographs, but as I sad, batteries were like Fritos to it and shooting in RAW meant 30 MB per shot. I have a Canon T2i and a 7D (original). Both of these kick butt in low light levels -- like moonlight. My always-in-the car camera is a Canon Power Shot G15. Ultra reliable.
The first two were Floppy Disk based - sold a lot of those when I worked the Sears Electronics department 1999 to 2002. Then the CD Mavica came out followed by a high end one that used the Sony proprietary Memory Stick. I had one of the Floppy disk ones and my boss made sure I'd taken out the replacement plan on it. Kinda ticked me off I was forced to get the plan, so when the CD model came out, well my Floppy Disk Mavica developed a fault - the zoom didn't work... funny if you put it on one setting it disabled the zoom. Store I worked at replaced it with the only Mavica model in stock in that price range...
The point about the concrete runways is the key to the 314's fate. It was an amazing aircraft for its time, and the PanAm crews were the elite of their profession -- they had to be! In one of the stories I helped write, a wealthy family actually owns a 314 (as well as a private rail consist; not just a car, an entire consist).
There are some interesting websites out there with images of the Pan Am Clippers. This one has net pics of the earlier Sikorsky built Clippers arriving in Manila in the mid 1930s http://www.lougopal.com/manila/?p=1463
Images of the Boeing 314 and one of the Martins https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibiti.....ike-to-fly.cfm
This one calls for a Spoonton version: https://longreads.com/2015/02/10/gl.....-in-the-1930s/
Images of the Boeing 314 and one of the Martins https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibiti.....ike-to-fly.cfm
This one calls for a Spoonton version: https://longreads.com/2015/02/10/gl.....-in-the-1930s/
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