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00:08Previously on Across the Pacific...
00:11Can I give you enough time?
00:12Tripp realized early on that all these battles were going to be won in Washington,
00:17not out in the boondocks.
00:19He managed to have captured the Caribbean, all of South America.
00:23Tripp thought, I don't want to just conquer Central and South America.
00:27Actually, I want to conquer the world.
00:29Dad had a vision of making Pan Am a global airline.
00:33So his focus from the beginning was to cross the oceans.
00:38Sikorsky ultimately developed this breakthrough airplane, the S-42.
00:43That airplane thrust America into the forefront.
00:47Nothing in Europe could touch it.
00:49And until the British had an aircraft equally capable of flying the same route,
00:53they would deny the use of their ports to Pan America.
00:56Damn Brits have put us in a box.
00:58What are we going to do with all these big boats if we have no ocean to cross?
01:02Here's what we'll do.
01:04We'll fly from California to China.
01:06Across the Pacific?
01:08Right across the middle.
01:10Uh, Von?
01:12The Pacific.
01:13That's where pilots go to die.
01:16We can make this work.
01:18The Pacific.
01:20The Pacific Sea.
01:21The Pacific Sea.
01:22The Pacific Sea.
01:27Mira Ener hehe.
03:00The first stop for planes flying east would be the Philippines, and 1,500 miles east
03:06of that was U.S.-held Guam.
03:09But that left a gulf of more than 2,600 miles, as wide as the entire United States.
03:16Was there anything in between?
03:18There was a U.S. possession called Wake Island, so tiny and obscure it did not even appear
03:28on most maps.
03:29And he winds up scouring the logs of the old clipper ships, and he begins to find mention
03:37of it here, mention of it there.
03:39Nobody had ever lived on it.
03:40There's no water on the place.
03:42There's nothing to live with.
03:43It was only two square miles, and Rose only 12 feet above sea level at high tide.
03:50But Wake Island was right where he needed it to be, halfway between Midway and Guam.
03:56Without telling anyone, Trip filed that information away for the day he might need it.
04:01Now, with the air route across the Atlantic blocked, that day had come.
04:07Dutch, I need you to do something for me.
04:10What is it?
04:11I need you to find out everything you can about Midway and Wake Island.
04:15The Pacific Islands?
04:17That's right.
04:18Trip instructed Dutch Schildhauer, a former Navy pilot now on the Pan Am staff, to make
04:24inquiries at the Navy Department.
04:26But, um, be quiet about it.
04:27He told Schildhauer, go down to Washington and snoop around.
04:31Don't let anybody know what you're doing.
04:33Schildhauer's research confirmed that Midway would serve Pan Am's purposes.
04:38It's been an undersea cable station for decades, so it's a known commodity.
04:42And there's a string of small islands pointing right at it from Hawaii, so finding it won't
04:46be difficult.
04:47And what about Wake?
04:49Wake is a bit of a mystery.
04:52Fortunately, a team of scientists paid a visit to the island about a decade ago.
04:57The expedition report described a typical Pacific atoll, surrounded by a coral reef.
05:04Most important, in the middle of the island was a sizable lagoon, offering much calmer water
05:10than the surrounding ocean.
05:12A flying boat has to have flat water.
05:15If it landed in the open sea, the waves would break it to pieces, and it can't get up enough
05:20speed in rough water to take off.
05:23It had to be the lagoon.
05:25Is it big enough to land a flying boat in there?
05:27To be determined.
05:29The map makes it seem like it's long enough to land a plane, but we don't know how deep
05:34the water is or if there's any hazards lurking beneath the surface.
05:38Is there any way to find out?
05:40The only way to find out was to visit the island, but Tripp was unwilling to wait.
05:48Juan, this lagoon is the key to the whole Pacific crossing.
05:54If the lagoon didn't work, there was no stepping stone.
05:57The Honorable Claude Swanson, Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D.C.
06:01Dear Mr. Secretary.
06:02Despite the uncertainty about Wake, Tripp wrote the Secretary of the Navy to announce
06:08that Pan Am was ready to fly the Pacific.
06:11There were all kinds of problems that he should have seen, and he probably should have canceled
06:16the whole thing until he had more answers.
06:18Not one trip.
06:19He didn't cancel a thing.
06:21Full speed ahead.
06:23Tripp requested a five-year lease on Wake Island, sight unseen, and landing rights on the other
06:29stepping stone islands where Pan Am would need to build air bases.
06:34He wrote to Postmaster General James Farley, asking if the post office would like to begin
06:40air mail service to Asia.
06:42The answer was a resounding yes.
06:46For President Roosevelt, Pan Am's Pacific plans were a heaven-sent answer to a nagging problem
06:52in that part of the world.
06:54The U.S. Navy welcomed the presence of Pan American going across the Pacific for several reasons.
06:59But the biggest reason was the growing worry about the belligerence of the Japanese.
07:05For more than a decade, Japan had been chafing at the terms of a post-World War I treaty that
07:11limited the size of its navy.
07:13It had given notice that it would opt out of the treaty in two years and begin building
07:18up its fleet of warships.
07:21The bellicose Tokyo government had already overrun Manchuria.
07:24And there were suspicions Japan had violated the treaty by fortifying three chains of Pacific
07:30Islands it had won from Germany after World War I.
07:34As early as 1923, U.S. General Billy Mitchell had warned that the Japanese could use their
07:41Pacific Islands as staging areas for a surprise attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.
07:46But the U.S., leery of antagonizing the Japanese, didn't dare guard against such an attack by
07:54establishing bases on its own Pacific Islands.
07:57The U.S. still wanted to have a greater presence in that sector, but do it in a way that wouldn't
08:04draw the attention of the Japanese.
08:05And one way they could do that is actually by working with Juan Tripp.
08:08Nobody can argue with commercial aviation out in the middle of the ocean.
08:12That's not military.
08:14By developing an air service to China, Pan Am would establish an American presence all
08:19the way across the Pacific.
08:21So Pan Am was, in a sense, kind of operating as a surrogate for the Navy in the Pacific at
08:27a time when actually having naval battleships stationed at these islands would have been
08:32seen by Japan as a provocation.
08:35The U.S. Navy had almost no presence out there.
08:37There was no way of really determining what the Japanese were doing.
08:40Pan Am's presence in the Pacific, in a sense, could serve as a kind of eyes and ears on
08:46Japan.
08:47And the Japanese government was keenly aware of this.
08:51On learning of Pan Am's plans, the former commander of the Japanese Navy charged that
08:56American air routes thrust into the Western Pacific threatened Japan's first line of marine
09:02defense by passing right through the chains of islands the country had acquired after World
09:08War I.
09:08They saw this ring of islands as their security fence.
09:13This gave them a barrier against Western intrusion, particularly American intrusion.
09:19They didn't like the idea of American bases all across the Pacific.
09:24You didn't have to tell the Japanese that in time of war, any of those Pan Am bases can
09:28be used by the Navy.
09:30Tripp was undeterred by Japanese objections.
09:33Here in the Pacific, as in Latin America, he would be an instrument of American foreign
09:39policy.
09:40He is an arm of the U.S. government in a very real way.
09:43Anxious to get the Pacific service underway, Tripp set out to build a skyway to Asia.
09:52Claire?
09:53Yes, Mr. Tripp?
09:54Give me Grouch.
09:55In January 1935, he tapped veteran Pan Am hand Bill Grouch to lead an expedition to build
10:03landing facilities at the Stepping Stone Islands along the route.
10:06In a book he later wrote about the adventure, Grouch described the huge quantities of supplies
10:14that were loaded aboard the freighter North Haven under his watchful eye.
10:19Every steamer and freight train that arrived in San Francisco handed us cargo faster than
10:23we could handle it.
10:24Tractors, generators, dock timbers, and radio gear.
10:30The North Haven was like a modern-day ark.
10:33They had barges, they had launches, they had prefab buildings.
10:39Never had a ship had such a cargo or complement of passengers.
10:43Two complete villages, five air bases, a construction force of 74, and food to feed them for months.
10:50To build the Pacific Airway, Grouch hired a mix of skilled technicians, construction workers,
10:57and college boys out for a lark.
11:00It's one of the great adventures of their lifetimes.
11:04They were about to colonize a desert island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
11:10Yet Tripp authorized all this without knowing if crossing the Pacific was even possible.
11:16Tripp did not yet have an airmail contract.
11:18He did not have an airplane capable of reaching the islands.
11:22He still didn't know where the Wake Island was usable.
11:25If any one of them didn't come through, he was finished.
11:30He was a gambler, and he was betting everything he had.
11:34The plane that could cross the Pacific was supposed to have been delivered by now.
11:39But at Glen Martin's Baltimore factory, construction on the giant M-130 flying boat was behind schedule.
11:45So Tripp turned to his old friend Igor Sikorsky and his latest aircraft.
11:54For all its innovations, the S-42 was a plane designed for the Atlantic.
12:00Its range was not up to the critical, 2,400-mile first leg of the Pacific crossing.
12:05But now, with the Martin plane behind schedule, the S-42 was thrust into an unexpected role.
12:14Tripp sent one of the planes back to the Sikorsky factory to be stripped of its passenger fittings.
12:19They turned it into a flying fuel tank to make that 2,400 miles to get to Hawaii.
12:26And then they took it out of Miami out to the Atlantic Ocean and back again, over and over again,
12:31calculating the best fuel ratios, the most efficient speed, and so on.
12:36The man Tripp chose to conduct these critical tests was pilot Ed Musick.
12:42Musick didn't have the youthful charisma of a Lindbergh or any pizzazz of some of the famous racing pilots like Jimmy Doodle.
12:51He was a technician, and a very good one.
12:53He absolutely was always by the book, and everything had to be just right, and it made the co-pilots crazy.
13:00He was called meticulous Musick by his peers for good reason, because he was so precise in everything he did.
13:07On entering a plane, one former colleague said, Musick would almost draw the cockpit around his shoulders like an old shawl.
13:16And then spend minutes getting everything just right, adjusting his seat fore and aft,
13:21till his hands reached the yoke and the throttles at just the right angle.
13:25And finally, not till everything was to his satisfaction, he'd turn over his shoulder and tell the engineer,
13:32start number one.
13:32On March 23rd, 1935, Musick lifted off for a final fuel test.
13:40He flew the S-42 from Miami to the Virgin Islands and back, over 17 hours and 2,600 miles without a stop.
13:52Tripp was satisfied he now had a plane that could make the trip to Hawaii.
13:57Bill, it's a go.
14:02The next day, he gave the order for the North Haven to set sail.
14:09When the ship reached Hawaii, the huge antenna masts for Pan Am's radio navigation station were offloaded,
14:17replaced by a ton of dynamite.
14:20Next stop, Midway.
14:22And the problems arose immediately.
14:24Because the island was surrounded by a coral reef, the ship had to anchor four miles offshore and offload its cargo onto barges in the open sea.
14:37Yeah, the crews on the barges were not seamen, so they had great difficulty keeping their feet as the barge did its dance.
14:44The ship was bouncing up and down, and the boy's scamping around underneath, trying not to get killed by everything.
14:52One boy gets his fingers cut off.
14:55All the while, several good-sized sharks glided about and looked us over.
15:00They gave every evidence of being hungry.
15:02Once loaded, each barge was towed by motor launch through a shallow break in the reef to the shore,
15:10where the crew unloaded it piece by piece onto a dock they had built.
15:16One of the first things to come ashore was a tractor,
15:20which the crew then used to drag the cargo on sleds across the sand.
15:24A critical early assignment fell to engineer Bill Taylor.
15:31As a construction crew erected Pan Am's radio navigation towers,
15:35Taylor climbed up a rickety platform and calibrated the direction finder by taking sightings on the circling North Haven,
15:43as others took radio bearings on the ship from the DF shack below.
15:48The island's tense city offered a few creature comforts,
15:51like solar-heated showers
15:54and movie nights.
15:58But the work was exhausting.
16:01Every morning it's up at 4.30 and work till dark,
16:05one crew member wrote his sweetheart back home.
16:07Today I rowed, hammered, pushed, pulled, lifted and lowered,
16:13drove the launch and gazed into the hot sun.
16:17I'm tired.
16:18Compounding the construction challenge,
16:23Midway was a national bird sanctuary,
16:26so the crew had to take great care not to harm the island's feathered residents,
16:31especially the Laysan albatross.
16:33They're nicknamed goonie birds, and they're big.
16:36Their wingspan can be as much as six feet,
16:39and they are afraid of nothing on the ground,
16:42so they're all over the place.
16:43The adult goonies would collect in groups on the sand
16:48and go through this queer ritual that had all the earmarks of a tribal dance,
16:54and this performance would go on endlessly all over the place.
16:59Bill Taylor remembers the problems they posed for workmen.
17:03The mother goonie flies out to sea every day, catches some fish,
17:08and then flies back and feeds its young.
17:11The young goonie stays exactly in the same spot,
17:14because if he leaves, he doesn't get fed.
17:16The young goonies wouldn't budge even for a tractor,
17:20and we'd have to send a guard ahead that would pick up the youngsters and put them to the side.
17:24And the minute the chick was released, he'd scuttle right back.
17:27The birds slowed, but could not stall the construction team's progress.
17:34Day by day, the first of Pan Am's mid-Pacific air bases moved closer to completion.
17:46Meanwhile, Music was flying Sikorsky's stripped-down S-42
17:50across Mexico to Acapulco and up the coast to San Francisco Bay.
17:55Pan Am had established landing facilities on the east side of the bay, in Alameda,
18:01and erected a set of radio navigation towers there.
18:04They start doing practice runs up and down the Pacific coast,
18:08making landmarks, plotting again fuel consumption.
18:12All of this in preparation for the biggest test of all,
18:16a 2,400-mile survey flight from San Francisco to Hawaii.
18:20This was going to be the very first time that a transport airplane had made such a great distance.
18:27The whole country is watching this.
18:29Every place the thing's set down, there's tens of thousands of people watching.
18:33When word got out that Music had made a blind landing,
18:37relying only on his radio direction finder,
18:40the newspapers proclaimed Pan Am ready for the Pacific.
18:44But not everyone was so sure.
18:47When Tripp announced his plan to cross the Pacific,
18:49there were plenty of critics, so-called experts,
18:52stepping forward to explain why this was not feasible,
18:55why it was too dangerous.
18:57True, a team of Navy pilots had flown to Hawaii the year before,
19:02showing it could be done.
19:03But Pan Am was proposing something altogether different.
19:06To many in the aviation community,
19:09regular service across the Pacific seemed like a foolhardy gamble.
19:15Information about weather patterns in the Pacific was scant,
19:18and the navigational challenges were even more formidable.
19:23When you fly the Pacific, there's 2,400 miles that you've got to go,
19:28and there is nothing, nothing but water.
19:32If your navigation is off by the tiniest degree,
19:37your fuel runs out, you crash, you're never heard from again.
19:41The margin for error is minute.
19:46Many people believed that it couldn't be done.
19:48In fact, when Juan Tripp proposed a route across the Pacific
19:52to his own board of directors, they were like,
19:55are you kidding me?
19:56Several of his board members took exception and resigned.
19:59There was a huge number of people that thought this was just
20:02an absolute folly on the part of Pan American.
20:05On the eve of the survey flight,
20:07the government's director of aeronautical research approached Tripp.
20:11He feared that an accident on the Pacific route
20:14would set American aviation back years.
20:17And he tells Tripp,
20:18I'll announce that it can't be done for safety reasons,
20:22so you can get out of it then.
20:24Tripp declined, assuring him that Pan Am was ready.
20:27At 4 p.m. on April 16th,
20:31Musick taxied the S-42 down the bay
20:34and pointed her nose west.
20:37Hour after hour,
20:39the plane passed over steamships en route to Hawaii or San Francisco,
20:44each ship serving as a checkpoint along its flight path.
20:48When they landed safely at Pearl Harbor
20:50after 18 hours and 37 minutes,
20:53they had cut six hours off the record
20:55set by Navy flyers the year before.
20:57The return flight didn't go quite as smoothly.
21:02Musick had no idea
21:04what the winds aloft would be.
21:06Nobody else did either.
21:08Winds in the northern hemisphere
21:10normally blow from the west,
21:12so eastbound pilots can often count on the tailwind
21:15to speed their progress.
21:16But on this flight,
21:18the winds were blowing in the opposite direction.
21:21He's got headwinds,
21:22and they become incredibly hard.
21:25A plane has one speed through the air,
21:27but its forward progress, or ground speed,
21:30depends on what the wind is doing.
21:32When the wind is behind you,
21:34you have a tailwind, you're faster.
21:36When the wind is on your nose,
21:38it's a headwind,
21:39it's kind of like swimming upstream,
21:41you'll be slower.
21:42So you can have a really significant difference
21:44in your ground speed
21:45depending on what the wind was doing.
21:49Musick didn't realize
21:50just how much trouble he was in until nightfall,
21:53when navigator Fred Noonan
21:54could use the stars
21:56to get a fix on the plane's position.
21:58And he comes forward,
21:59and he says,
21:59look at this.
22:00We're making 96 miles an hour maximum,
22:04and they all start to sweat it out.
22:06By an airplane's standards,
22:08they're making almost no progress at all.
22:11Back in Alameda,
22:13Pan Am communications director Hugo Luteritz
22:15and the wives of the crew members
22:18nervously tracked the flight's progress.
22:21They've run into some headwinds.
22:23And back east,
22:25Tripp, Sikorsky,
22:26and chief engineer Andre Priester
22:28followed the events by phone.
22:31They should have landed by now.
22:33Headwinds,
22:35really strong.
22:38From time to time,
22:39those ferocious headwinds
22:41died down for a minute
22:42or swung to one side or the other,
22:45but they always came back.
22:47And it was like a hand
22:48holding the plane up
22:49in the middle of the ocean,
22:50holding it back.
22:51Still no sign of them.
23:05Noonan estimates they're at least an hour away.
23:07And the fuel?
23:09They're doing everything they can to stretch it.
23:10Aboard the plane,
23:17flight engineer Vic Wright
23:18had set the engines to ring
23:20every last mile out of the gas.
23:22But after 18 hours in the air,
23:25there was still no sign of the coast.
23:27They pressed on
23:29and they were an hour late
23:32and they were two hours late.
23:42In Alameda,
23:44Wright's wife finally got up the nerve to ask...
23:46How long can they stay in the air?
23:49About 21 hours.
23:53Don't worry.
23:55Don't make it.
24:01Music kept changing altitudes.
24:04It became so close
24:05that he was down to half an hour's fuel.
24:07Not sure whether or not
24:08they could even make it
24:09to the west coast.
24:19They're gonna make it.
24:26Juan, they've spotted the headlands.
24:28Should be down in 15 minutes.
24:29They're back.
24:31They're gonna be here in 15 minutes.
24:32Thank God.
24:42Finally,
24:43the S-42 emerged from a cloud bank,
24:46settled down on the bay,
24:47and taxied to the Alameda ramp.
24:50The flight had taken 20 hours and 59 minutes.
24:57In a dockside interview,
24:59Music described the flight as routine.
25:01I suppose the first thing to ask you
25:03is what kind of a trip did you have?
25:05Fine.
25:06Trip was excellent in every respect.
25:07Over and back?
25:08Over and back, yes.
25:09The truth was,
25:11they had come perilously close to disaster.
25:14As the rest of the crew filed off,
25:17Vic Wright stayed behind
25:18to measure how much gas was left.
25:21And he says,
25:22those tanks were barely damp
25:24out at the bottom.
25:25We didn't have enough fuel
25:26to go once around the bay.
25:28If the S-42 had not made it back,
25:30it would have been a huge setback
25:33for one trip's Pacific plans.
25:35It would have ruined Pan Am,
25:38ruined Trip,
25:39and probably killed a lot of those people.
25:43Wow.
25:45But the plane had made it.
25:48Just.
25:49Pan Am had flown the longest leg
25:51of the Pacific Airway
25:52under the most challenging conditions,
25:54and both plane and crew
25:56had proven up to the task.
26:00Still ahead were the first flights
26:03to the four remaining Pacific Stepping Stones
26:05where Pan Am's men were building air bases.
26:09By this time,
26:10the North Haven had made its way
26:12from Midway to Wake Island.
26:13Because of the prevailing winds,
26:16the ship had to anchor
26:17south of the wishbone-shaped island.
26:21Pan Am's plan
26:22was to build the base on Wilkes,
26:24the nearest of the three islets
26:25that make up Wake.
26:27But as soon as they landed,
26:29they could see Wilkes
26:30was flood-prone and unsuitable.
26:32The village and radio station
26:34would have to be built
26:35on higher ground,
26:36more than a mile
26:37from the landing site,
26:39across the lagoon
26:40on the northern islet,
26:41Peel Island.
26:43How do you get your stuff,
26:44the launch and the barge
26:45and the rest of it,
26:46across that arm of the island
26:48into the lagoon?
26:51They began by hauling
26:52the cargo on their backs,
26:54dragging it across rocks and coral,
26:56and ferrying it
26:58across the lagoon in rowboats.
27:01As readers back home learned,
27:04the progress was agonizingly slow
27:06and painful.
27:10Then, Expedition Chief Bill Grouch
27:13had a brainstorm.
27:15I remember we brought along
27:16two sets of automobile tires
27:18that we planned to use
27:19for a baggage cart.
27:21Inspecting those wheels,
27:22I noticed a deep, wide groove
27:23that suggested they would
27:24ride a rail.
27:26With the tractor leveling trees
27:28and moving boulders
27:29to clear a roadbed,
27:31the crew built what they called
27:32the world's shortest railroad.
27:35It was only 200 yards long,
27:37but each carload could carry
27:39up to two tons of freight
27:41down the gentle slope
27:43to the lagoon,
27:44saving the men many days
27:46of backbreaking work.
27:49Grouch next turned his attention
27:51to the narrow channel
27:52between Wilkes and Wake.
27:55I became convinced
27:56that with good luck,
27:57we could shoot a barge
27:58across the reef at high tide
27:59and work it through
28:00Wilkes Channel
28:01into the lagoon.
28:01To deepen the channel,
28:04a dozen men were put to work
28:06tossing rocks and coral aside.
28:09When the right moment came,
28:10the barge,
28:11with a motor launch
28:12perched on top,
28:14rode a swell across the reef
28:16and into the channel.
28:17With 40 men pushing and pulling
28:19and a little help from the tractor
28:21when it ran aground,
28:23they got the barge
28:24into the lagoon.
28:26Now they could ferry
28:27big loads of cargo
28:28from the railhead
28:30across to Peel.
28:32Despite these well-chronicled triumphs,
28:35the endless work wore
28:37on the Wake Island crew.
28:40We're isolated
28:41on a little mid-Pacific isle
28:43over a thousand miles
28:45from any other land,
28:46one wrote.
28:47Every man among us
28:49has a home,
28:50maybe a wife,
28:51a sweetheart,
28:52babies they love,
28:54mothers,
28:55fathers,
28:56all thousands of miles away.
28:58How are they?
28:59Are they safe?
29:00Are they true?
29:03I want to go home.
29:09While the construction
29:10proceeded on Peel,
29:12others turned their attention
29:13to the lagoon
29:14where the flying boats
29:15were to land.
29:16The news they radioed back
29:18to Alameda
29:19was not good.
29:19The lagoon was studded
29:22with coral heads
29:23that came up
29:24in many places
29:24almost to the surface.
29:26Those things
29:27would rip the bottom
29:27out of a flying boat.
29:28You can't land
29:29on this lagoon.
29:31To make the lagoon
29:32serviceable,
29:33the team would have
29:34to blast out
29:35the coral heads
29:36one at a time
29:37using the dynamite
29:38they had picked up
29:39in Hawaii.
29:40They had a college boy
29:42named Bill Malahi
29:43who had been a swimmer
29:44on the Columbia University
29:45swimming team
29:46and he became
29:47the underwater demolition expert.
29:49He had been given
29:50the job
29:51of one by one
29:52diving and dynamiting
29:53each of those coral heads.
29:56He would swim down,
29:57attach dynamite
29:58to each coral head,
30:00get back on board
30:01and blow it up.
30:02Sometimes one blast
30:07was enough
30:07to do away
30:08with the coral head
30:09and sometimes it wasn't
30:11and you had to do it again.
30:12It was arduous,
30:13dangerous work
30:14and still without
30:15any promise
30:16that it was going
30:16to be successful.
30:19Could they,
30:20in fact,
30:20carve out
30:21a long enough
30:22marine runway
30:23to accommodate
30:24a flying boat?
30:25They didn't know that.
30:27After three months
30:28and a hundred coral heads,
30:29they were barely
30:30halfway across the lagoon.
30:32But Tripp was unwilling
30:34to wait any longer.
30:35Claire?
30:36Yes, Mr. Tripp?
30:38Get me Sullivan
30:39in Alameda.
30:40Yes, sir.
30:40He gave the order
30:41for the S-42
30:42to take off
30:43from California
30:44as the blasting continued.
30:47The lonely men
30:49who'd been marooned
30:50on Wake Island
30:50were excited
30:51about the plane's
30:52imminent arrival.
30:54But would the marine runway
30:56be long enough
30:56for pilot Rod Sullivan
30:58to make a landing?
31:00Sullivan was the first
31:01flying boat captain
31:02to peer down
31:03on Wake Island.
31:05And what Sullivan
31:05saw down there
31:06he didn't like.
31:08From the air,
31:08Sullivan can see
31:09all the coral heads.
31:10He can see how short
31:11the runway is.
31:12And he decides
31:13he's going to try
31:14to side slip in.
31:15There was a crosswind
31:16going right straight
31:17across the so-called runway.
31:20So his first pass,
31:22slipping with one wing down
31:24into the crosswind,
31:25he put it down
31:26too fast,
31:26had to go around
31:27cursing all the way.
31:28One can only imagine
31:30the tension
31:31in Sullivan's cockpit.
31:33There's no other choice.
31:35There's no other alternate field
31:36within 1,000 miles
31:38of Wake Island.
31:39He came back around,
31:41put it down this time,
31:42still fast,
31:43because there was
31:44no headwind
31:44to slow the speed
31:45of the aircraft
31:46over the water.
31:47And managed to slew it
31:49to a stop
31:49before hitting the coral
31:50on the far end.
31:52And Sullivan,
31:53being Sullivan,
31:54he was a rough man,
31:56rough with people,
31:57rough with airplanes.
31:58Storms out of the cockpit,
32:00cursing all the way
32:01up into the mess hall
32:02where this bejaggled crew
32:03was waiting for him.
32:09Welcome to Wake Island.
32:11But back in New York,
32:13Juan Tripp was pleased.
32:15He knew the landings
32:16would get easier
32:17as the runway got longer.
32:19The important thing
32:20was that his enormous bet
32:22was about to pay off.
32:24Wake Island,
32:25the key to the Pacific crossing,
32:27the stepping stone
32:28he'd banked on,
32:29sight unseen,
32:30was going to work out.
32:32The North Haven would go on
32:34to make stops in Guam
32:36and the Philippines.
32:38After four months at sea,
32:39the ship returned
32:40to San Francisco,
32:42its mission complete.
32:43The Skyway to Asia
32:45was ready for service.
32:49Back east,
32:50Glenn Martin's M-130
32:52was finally ready.
32:54The M-130,
32:55when it arrived,
32:56was in a class
32:56all by itself.
32:58It was the biggest airliner
32:59ever built in America
33:01at that time,
33:02and it was a totally
33:04different craft
33:04from anything anybody
33:05had seen before.
33:07Tripp had asked Martin
33:08to build a plane
33:09with a top speed
33:10of 180 miles an hour,
33:12a cruising speed
33:13of 150,
33:14and it would need
33:15to take off
33:16with a weight
33:16of 52,000 pounds.
33:19These were all
33:20astonishing figures
33:21for this day.
33:23From the beginning,
33:24as they're building
33:24this monster,
33:25people thought,
33:26this is crazy.
33:28The chief test pilot
33:29for Martin,
33:30he said that,
33:31everybody said to him,
33:32this thing's never
33:32going to get off the water.
33:34I don't know
33:34what you guys
33:35are thinking of.
33:37The M-130
33:38not only flew,
33:39but easily passed
33:41all its flight tests.
33:43It was a beautiful,
33:44graceful airplane.
33:46Technologically,
33:46it was a marvel.
33:47It was the first airliner
33:48that could carry
33:50a greater load
33:51than the airplane weighed.
33:53Plus, it had a range
33:55of over 3,000 miles.
33:56It catapulted
33:58America and Pan-American
34:00into the forefront
34:01of aviation technology.
34:03At the unveiling ceremony
34:05in October 1935,
34:07Juan Tripp revealed
34:08the plane would be named
34:09the China Clipper.
34:11The launching
34:12of the China Clipper,
34:13biggest plane
34:14ever built in America.
34:15After an American
34:16sailing ship
34:17that had crossed
34:17the Pacific
34:18a hundred years earlier.
34:20Number one aviator
34:21inspects number one airplane,
34:23Colonel Lindbergh.
34:25Charles Lindbergh,
34:26whose role with Pan Am
34:27had diminished
34:28after the kidnapping
34:29and murder of his son,
34:31gave his stamp of approval
34:33to the plane.
34:34But it was Ed Musick
34:36who took the controls,
34:38retracing the path
34:39he'd taken earlier
34:40in the S-42.
34:43Want the whole thing
34:43over again?
34:44In San Diego,
34:46Musick glumly shot
34:47and reshot
34:48the arrival ceremony
34:49for the newsreel cameras.
34:51He abhorred publicity.
34:53He abhorred the flashbulbs
34:54and the handshakes
34:55and the people clamoring
34:56for autographs.
34:58Captain Musick,
34:59welcome to San Diego.
35:01Congratulations
35:01on your wonderful trip.
35:03Thank you ever so much.
35:04I'm afraid of the extent
35:05this was the honor
35:07to come to the station.
35:08He hated being on stage.
35:11Could you say something,
35:13something great, you know?
35:14He says,
35:15and he's up there and says,
35:16we're very glad to be here.
35:19Flight over here
35:19was uneventful.
35:21He was the bane
35:22of the public relations department.
35:24They begged him,
35:25send us something
35:26about the sunset.
35:27So he said he would.
35:29He's radioed back,
35:30sunset, 0639 GMT.
35:34That was it.
35:35He's comfortable only
35:37in the cockpit of an airplane.
35:39He didn't want anything
35:40to do with acclaim or fame.
35:42But he got it anyway,
35:44and it was about
35:45to get even bigger.
35:47Good afternoon, everyone,
35:48from the rim
35:49of the Pacific Ocean.
35:50The occasion of this broadcast
35:51is the inauguration
35:52of the first
35:53Trans-Pacific Air Mail Service
35:54by Pan American Airways
35:56China Clippers.
35:57On November 22nd, 1935,
36:01more than 20,000 people
36:02jammed onto the grounds
36:03of the Pan American Airways
36:05terminal in Alameda.
36:07And 100,000 more
36:09watched from surrounding communities.
36:12All over San Francisco Bay,
36:13they're hanging out of windows.
36:15They're watching this.
36:16They're enthralled.
36:18Directly to our left.
36:18Around the world,
36:20millions followed the events
36:21via the live radio broadcast
36:23reaching four continents.
36:25CBS and NBC
36:27are on the air
36:28an hour before
36:30the plane takes off
36:31and they're describing
36:32the scene.
36:33The China Clipper
36:34in front of us
36:34weighs 25 and 1⁄2 tons,
36:36but she's built, you see,
36:37to cut the air
36:37without even so much
36:38as a rivet to catch it.
36:40Everybody was tuned
36:41to their radios.
36:42Everybody that could
36:43was out there looking.
36:45The launch of China Clipper
36:47was a massive public spectacle.
36:49In a sense,
36:50it was akin to
36:51the rocket launches
36:52of the 60s.
36:53And in fact,
36:55not until NASA's attempts
36:57to orbit the Earth
36:58or to send men
36:59to the moon
37:00was so much
37:01public attention
37:02focused on a single
37:04planned aerospace event.
37:07Pan Am's
37:07public relations department
37:09had prepared
37:09an elaborate ceremony
37:10to mark the loading
37:12of 100,000 pieces
37:13of mail aboard the plane.
37:15Now early today,
37:16an old overland stagecoats
37:17drawn by six hoses
37:18made the trip
37:19to the Clippers' moorage
37:19here as a salute
37:20from the old to the new.
37:21Part of the mystique
37:24and the attraction
37:25of this event
37:26I think was
37:27the implied danger
37:29of the journey itself.
37:33Everybody who was there
37:35celebrating
37:36remembered when
37:37airmail pilots
37:39were dying
37:40on a regular basis
37:41just flying over land
37:43and here's one trip
37:45proposing to fly
37:46the Pacific
37:47for heaven's sake.
37:49The Pacific was still
37:51a great unknown factor.
37:52In Americans' imagination
37:54this was a huge void.
37:57The Martin M-130,
37:58this great airplane,
37:59was mostly untested.
38:00It had never flown
38:01over a great body of water.
38:03You're aiming
38:04at a tiny speck of land
38:06in the middle
38:07of a vast trackless ocean.
38:10You have to be
38:12absolutely perfect
38:14or you'll die.
38:17It was a great adventure
38:18that could possibly
38:19end disastrously.
38:21Nobody knew it.
38:22Now, ladies and gentlemen,
38:23you are to hear
38:23from J.T. Tripp,
38:25president of the
38:26Pan American Airways System.
38:27It is significant
38:28and appropriate
38:29that the first
38:30scheduled air service
38:31over a major ocean route
38:33extending one-third
38:34of the way
38:34around the world
38:35is being started
38:37under the auspices
38:37of the American government
38:39by an American company
38:40and in charge
38:41of American captains
38:43and crews.
38:44Tripp very astutely
38:45portrayed this
38:46as a distinctly
38:47American event.
38:49There's even a bunch
38:50of Boy Scouts
38:51with a flag
38:52that was 120 feet long.
38:54The Tripp saw to it
38:55was laid out there
38:56so everybody could see
38:57this is American.
39:01And it's important
39:02to consider
39:02that this occurred
39:03at the height
39:04of the Depression.
39:05This is 1935.
39:07America,
39:08at that time,
39:09was really
39:11at its nadir.
39:13The Depression
39:14had affected
39:15everybody and everything.
39:18Unemployment
39:19is still very high
39:20in the mid-1930s.
39:21The country's in trouble.
39:23And now,
39:23along comes
39:24an American success story.
39:26This remarkable airplane
39:28has been built
39:28by American industry,
39:30American workers.
39:32So this was not only
39:33a thrilling
39:34technological spectacle,
39:35but it was,
39:36in a sense,
39:37something that gave people
39:38a feeling of hope,
39:39a feeling of progress.
39:40Postmaster General Farley,
39:42whose own department...
39:43One of those
39:44avidly following
39:45the preparations
39:46for the flight
39:46was President Roosevelt,
39:48who had asked
39:49Postmaster General
39:50James Farley
39:51to deliver a letter
39:52on his behalf.
39:53Please convey
39:54to the people
39:55of the Pacific Coast
39:56deep interest
39:57and heartfelt congratulations
39:59of a near-minded sailor.
40:02Even at this distance,
40:04I thrill to the wonder
40:05of it all.
40:09Pan American Mid-Ocean Air Base,
40:11number two,
40:11Midway Island,
40:12standing by for orders.
40:16Pan American Airways,
40:18Mid-Ocean Air Base,
40:19number three,
40:19Wake Island,
40:20standing by for orders.
40:21One by one,
40:23the Pan Am bases
40:24on the five
40:25Stepping Stone Islands
40:26signaled their readiness.
40:27Pan American Airways,
40:27number four, Guam,
40:28standing by for orders.
40:29China Clipper,
40:31are you ready?
40:31Captain Music,
40:34you have your sailing orders.
40:37Cast off
40:37and depart from Manila
40:39in accordance therewith.
40:41All four engines
40:42are started
40:43and Music taxis
40:45out into the bay.
40:49The band is playing
40:50the Star Spangled Banner.
40:52Bombs and rockets
40:53are shooting overhead.
40:56Finally, Music pushes
40:58the four throttles up
40:59and the airplane
40:59slowly accelerates.
41:01And Music goes down
41:07the bay
41:08and the plane
41:08is so heavily loaded
41:09that he can't get it
41:10off the water.
41:13Music finally
41:13got the ship to rise.
41:16Lifted off
41:17to about 50 feet
41:18and that's as high
41:19as it could yet.
41:21And ahead of him
41:22is the Oakland Bay Bridge
41:23which was just being built.
41:26The roadway
41:26didn't exist yet
41:27so it was this
41:28virtual net
41:29metal
41:30hanging in the sky
41:32there.
41:33Music realized
41:34gosh,
41:35we're not going
41:35to clear it.
41:38So Music,
41:39the right man
41:39for the time,
41:40made a critical decision.
41:42Instead of trying
41:42to climb over the bridge
41:44which the China Clipper
41:44was reluctant to do,
41:46he nudged the nose down
41:47and flew under it.
41:48and right behind him
41:53came this entourage
41:54of little airplanes
41:55carrying reporters
41:56and press people
41:56thinking this is part
41:57of the script.
41:59And they all go
41:59under the bridge also.
42:01Only a few people
42:02on the shore
42:03holding their breath
42:04knew the truth
42:05that this was almost
42:06a catastrophe.
42:07It was not part
42:08of the plan.
42:10Slowly gaining altitude,
42:12Music swung the plane
42:14by the San Francisco
42:15waterfront
42:15where a great crowd
42:17of people
42:17was watching.
42:19Then over the
42:19Golden Gate Bridge,
42:21also under construction
42:22at the time.
42:25The spectators
42:26kept their eyes
42:27on the Clipper
42:28until it became
42:28a speck on the horizon.
42:30The media that had
42:34breathlessly chronicled
42:35the Clipper's preparations
42:36now followed
42:38her progress west.
42:40Greeted with lays
42:41at Pearl Harbor,
42:43the crew took on
42:44Thanksgiving turkeys
42:45with all the fixings
42:46for the lonely men
42:48at Pan Am's
42:49island bases.
42:51With Glenn Martin's
42:52M-130
42:53performing flawlessly,
42:55the crew arrived
42:56in Midway
42:56right on schedule.
42:59Between Midway
43:00and wake,
43:01Music flew through
43:02clouds thick
43:03as cotton.
43:04But with the help
43:05of Luteritz's
43:05Adcock antennas,
43:07he hit the tiny
43:08island on the nose.
43:11In Guam,
43:12the crew encountered
43:13the flight's only hitch.
43:15Someone had forgotten
43:16to take the
43:17international dateline
43:18into account.
43:19So they had to
43:20wait a day
43:21in Guam
43:22in order to
43:23arrive in Manila
43:24when the crowd
43:25was waiting for them.
43:30Six days later,
43:33after departing
43:34San Francisco,
43:35they landed
43:36Manila Harbor
43:36to a massive
43:38celebration.
43:39There was a crowd
43:40that was greater
43:41than the one
43:41they'd left
43:41in San Francisco.
43:42More than
43:43200,000 Filipinos
43:45had come out
43:46to greet the airplane.
43:47And all around
43:48Manila Bay,
43:48people hanging
43:49from the windows
43:50and tooting
43:50the car horns
43:51and so on.
43:56The revolution
43:57in transportation.
43:59It's welcomed
44:00as the first
44:00great event
44:01for the independent
44:02Philippines.
44:03Musick fought
44:04through the crowd
44:05to deliver the first
44:06Trans-Pacific
44:07airmail letter
44:08from President
44:09Roosevelt
44:09to President
44:10Kazan.
44:11I want to
44:12congratulate you,
44:14Captain Musick,
44:15a new gentleman
44:16for your
44:17successful flight.
44:19They put him
44:20in front of
44:20dozens of microphones
44:21and they waited
44:23for this great
44:23description and
44:24colorful account
44:25of this glorious
44:26success.
44:27Musick did his
44:28best to stay
44:29in character.
44:30Asked how the
44:30trip was,
44:31he said,
44:32without incident.
44:34Without incident.
44:37Even so,
44:38his Filipino host
44:39showered Musick
44:40with gratitude
44:41at a banquet
44:42and parade.
44:43Musick was thrust
44:44into the spotlight,
44:45decorated, hugged,
44:46hand-grabbed.
44:48And this time,
44:49Musick even
44:50liked it.
44:51There were pictures
44:51of him grinning,
44:52which the music
44:53proves he liked it.
44:56The maiden flight
44:57of the China Clipper
44:58would make this
44:58reluctant hero
44:59one of the most
45:00famous pilots
45:01in the world.
45:03But to the newly
45:04independent Philippines,
45:06the flight represented
45:07something else,
45:09an end to the isolation
45:10they had long felt
45:11from the rest
45:12of the world.
45:13Some historians
45:14use the phrase
45:14the tyranny
45:15of distance.
45:17People lived
45:18very limited lives,
45:20largely because
45:21they were stuck
45:22in one place
45:23for most of their
45:24existence
45:24on this planet.
45:25You have
45:26swept away
45:28forever
45:29the distance
45:31which from
45:32the beginning
45:33of time
45:33has separated
45:35the great
45:38continent of America
45:39from the beautiful
45:41islands of the Pacific.
45:44These people felt
45:45that he had brought
45:45them into the rest
45:46of the world.
45:47These are emotions
45:48we don't understand
45:50because that world
45:50doesn't exist anymore.
45:52This was a tremendous
45:54technological achievement
45:55and it also
45:56sent a signal
45:57to people
45:58that their lives
45:59need not be bounded
46:01by what they had once
46:02thought of
46:03as unimaginable distance.
46:13By the time
46:14the China Clipper
46:15arrived back
46:15in San Francisco
46:16Musick of course
46:17was a huge celebrity
46:18but so was
46:19the China Clipper.
46:21She became
46:21a superstar.
46:22Warner Brothers
46:25produced
46:26China Clipper
46:27starring Humphrey
46:28Bogart
46:28as Musick
46:29and Pat O'Brien
46:31played a version
46:32of Juan Tripp.
46:33Go to fire
46:34Andrews
46:34and put a landing
46:34on the job.
46:35Now wait a minute
46:36Dave you can't do that.
46:37One of the great
46:37lines from the movie
46:38was towards the end
46:39when Bogart
46:41playing Musick
46:42climbs out
46:43of the cockpit
46:43after having just
46:44flown through a typhoon
46:45and he says
46:46referring to his boss.
46:47I was just thinking
46:48how swell it would
46:49have been
46:49if he'd said thanks.
46:50And that got a laugh
46:52from everybody
46:53who knew Juan Tripp.
46:54But there was
46:55no denying
46:56what Tripp
46:57had accomplished.
46:58To go from
46:59a 90 mile crossing
47:00from Key West
47:01to Havana
47:02in 1927
47:03to crossing
47:04the widest ocean
47:05in the world
47:05at the widest point
47:07eight years later
47:08is impossible
47:09to believe.
47:11And it can all
47:12be attributed
47:12to the vision
47:13and the obsession
47:15of this one man.
47:16A year after
47:20the Pacific crossing
47:21Pan Am began
47:22carrying passengers
47:23to Manila
47:24building hotels
47:26on the Stepping Stone
47:27Islands
47:27to accommodate
47:28them in comfort.
47:30And in 1937
47:32Pan Am extended
47:34China Clipper Service
47:35to Hong Kong
47:36completing the link
47:37to the Asian mainland.
47:39That same year
47:41Tripp finally overcame
47:43the log jam
47:44in Europe
47:44introducing service
47:46across the North Atlantic.
47:48Pan Am's
47:49New York-London route
47:50forged the last link
47:52in a chain of airways
47:54encircling the globe.
47:56It made
47:57faraway places
47:58accessible to the layman.
47:59Something that
48:00we take for granted now
48:01but was inconceivable
48:02in 1935.
48:04Just 15 years earlier
48:06aviation had been
48:08for barnstormers
48:09and daredevils.
48:11Now
48:12passengers flew to Europe
48:14on Pan Am's
48:15newest flying boat
48:16the Boeing 314
48:18whose comforts
48:19surpassed even those
48:21of the China Clipper.
48:23There were five
48:24state rooms
48:24with seats
48:25that converted
48:26to sleeping berths
48:27and a tail suite
48:29for VIPs.
48:31The public
48:32seeing these glamorous
48:33pictures of people
48:34having a hot meal
48:35with China
48:36and Crystal
48:37and a steward
48:38serving it
48:39in flight
48:40It creates
48:41a totally different
48:42perception
48:43of aviation travel.
48:45Many people
48:46who never would have
48:47flown in the 20s
48:48are quite willing
48:49to fly.
48:49They see it
48:50as a routine
48:51and safe form
48:51of mass transportation
48:53which of course
48:54is where we are today.
48:56By speeding
48:57critical parts
48:58business correspondence
48:59and people
49:00to their destinations
49:01the trans-oceanic service
49:04accelerated the process
49:05of globalization.
49:08Aviation helped
49:08bind the world together
49:10into a tighter community
49:11just as the telegraph
49:13and the railroad
49:13had done before
49:15and just as the jet engine
49:17television
49:17and the internet
49:18would do in the future.
49:20The advent of aviation
49:22and particularly
49:23the ability
49:24to cross the Pacific
49:25was yet another
49:25technological step
49:27that effectively
49:27shrunk the world.
49:29destinations
49:31that once took
49:32weeks to get to
49:33by ship
49:33could now be
49:35reached in days.
49:37But I think
49:38the real legacy
49:38is in the way
49:39it transformed
49:40our understanding
49:41of geography.
49:43For hundreds of years
49:45people's image
49:46of the world
49:46had been based
49:47largely on the
49:48Mercator projection
49:49a map that flattened
49:51the round earth
49:52in a particular way.
49:53And essentially
49:54what that did
49:55was to give Americans
49:56a sense of
49:56comfortable distance
49:58between North America
49:59and Europe
50:00on the one hand
50:01and Asia on the other.
50:03But soon after
50:03Pan Am began
50:04flying the oceans
50:06cartographers began
50:07depicting the world
50:08in a new way.
50:10Those maps
50:11give you
50:12the sensation
50:13of being a pilot
50:14floating above
50:15the terrain.
50:16There was no
50:17isolation anymore.
50:19What you have
50:19is a sense
50:19that the United States
50:20is now inextricably
50:21linked to the rest
50:23of the world.
50:25That sense
50:26of connection
50:26helped revive
50:27an idea
50:28that had been around
50:29since the dawn
50:29of aviation
50:30that by exposing
50:32people to different
50:33cultures
50:33the airplane
50:34would make the world
50:35a more peaceful place.
50:38Air transport
50:38is making possible
50:39a community spirit
50:40among nations.
50:42No longer
50:42are the oceans
50:43a barrier.
50:45The world
50:45is a neighborhood.
50:46We know the other
50:47fellow's problems
50:48and he knows ours.
50:50Aviation
50:51will bring peace
50:52to the world
50:52when people travel
50:53they get to know
50:54other people
50:55they don't go
50:56to war against them.
50:57That's Tripp's vision.
51:02But the same
51:03technology
51:04that gave us
51:04access to other
51:05cultures
51:06also left us
51:07vulnerable.
51:10On December 7th
51:121941
51:13the Japanese
51:14attacked
51:15not only
51:15Pearl Harbor
51:16but each
51:17of the stepping stones
51:18Pan Am
51:18had used
51:19to cross
51:20the Pacific.
51:20even with
51:22the Pacific Airway
51:23severed
51:24Pan Am
51:25would play
51:25a key role
51:26in the American
51:27war effort.
51:29The company
51:29had signed
51:30secret contracts
51:31to establish
51:32air bases
51:32throughout South America.
51:35Pan Am
51:35flew supplies
51:36from the United States
51:38via these airports
51:39in South America
51:40across the Atlantic Ocean
51:41to North African
51:43Allied bases
51:44and this supply chain
51:46played a key role
51:47in Allied victories
51:48in 1942.
51:49In crossing
51:51the oceans
51:51and establishing
51:52air bases
51:53around the world
51:54Pan Am
51:55was writing
51:56a blueprint
51:56for a new
51:57kind of empire.
51:59Earlier imperial
52:00powers had
52:01established colonies
52:02and ruled
52:03over their people.
52:05That's not
52:06the way
52:06we did it.
52:07We had
52:08bases
52:09around the world
52:10and those
52:11bases
52:12were increasingly
52:13linked
52:14by airplanes.
52:16Just as
52:17Britain's
52:1719th century
52:18global dominance
52:19had been founded
52:20on naval power
52:21the United States
52:2220th century
52:23global dominance
52:24would be founded
52:25on air power.
52:26Pan Am
52:27was very much
52:27part of the
52:28early construction
52:30of that network
52:31of bases
52:32from which
52:33to this very day
52:34we still project
52:35American power.
52:36The United States
52:37would have an empire
52:38of the air
52:39wouldn't conquer
52:40other places
52:41it would be an empire
52:42of transportation
52:43and commerce
52:44and not of colonization.
52:46The bigger
52:48faster transport
52:49planes developed
52:50during the war
52:50would be the foundation
52:52of future
52:53civil aviation
52:54supporting a post-war
52:55travel boom
52:56and rendering
52:58the flying boat
52:59obsolete.
53:02All three
53:03of the flying boats
53:04built by Glenn Martin
53:05including the China Clipper
53:07had crashed
53:08by the end
53:08of the war.
53:10All of Igor Sikorsky's
53:12big flying boats
53:13also met their ends
53:14most notably
53:15when an S-42
53:16piloted by Ed Musick
53:18exploded on approach
53:20to Samoa
53:21in 1938
53:22killing all aboard.
53:26With the era
53:27of the flying boat
53:28coming to an end
53:29Igor Sikorsky
53:30turned to one
53:31of his childhood dreams.
53:34He had a chance
53:35to live his life again
53:36to build a machine
53:38without knowing
53:39if it would fly
53:40and get in there
53:41and push the throttle
53:42forward.
53:43At the age of 50
53:45Sikorsky began
53:46a new career
53:47becoming a leading
53:48designer of helicopters
53:50the craft
53:51for which he's
53:52known today.
53:55Hugo Luteritz
53:56left Pan Am
53:57after the war
53:57and formed a company
53:59to make aerial
53:59navigation equipment.
54:02Today
54:02all flying machines
54:04find their way
54:05using navigational
54:06systems that rely
54:07on radio.
54:08We routinely now
54:11fly in the clouds
54:13in poor weather
54:14close to the ground
54:16and then we do this
54:17hundreds of thousands
54:18of times a day
54:19all over the world.
54:21One trip continued
54:22to be a catalyst
54:23for technological
54:24innovation
54:25prodding the aviation
54:27industry into adopting
54:28jet engines
54:30and large transports
54:31like the 747.
54:34He was always pushing
54:35for bigger, better,
54:36faster, safer planes.
54:38Tripp retired in 1968
54:41and died in 1981.
54:44A decade later
54:45the airline he had built
54:47into a dominant force
54:48in world aviation
54:49went out of business.
54:52But the path blazed
54:54by Tripp, Lindbergh,
54:55Sikorsky, and Luteritz
54:57remains open
54:59and ever more vital.
55:01Air travel
55:02knits the world together.
55:03every day
55:05five million passengers
55:07board 34,000
55:09international flights
55:10many of them
55:12across the oceans.
55:14to learn more about the people,
55:37stories, and technologies
55:38behind Across the Pacific,
55:39please visit our website
55:41at
55:42www.acrossthepacific.net
55:45� in Narrate
55:47And one sent us
55:49to access Facebook
55:50to Verizon
55:52www.acrossthepacific.net
55:53to find a unique
55:54website
55:54at
55:56www.acrossthepacige.net
56:01www.acrossthepacific.net
56:017 Simply