To whomever wrote the script for this video: that was without doubt the best narration of anything I've seen on UA-cam. Not a wasted word, or fake drama, and most importantly, no stupid music. And all the video content was 100% relevant and informative. You won't get a prize for this, but everyone involved should. Well done.
Yeah this was well narrated and HOW did they find all the footage? Surely a lot of it was of that plane? The engine on fire etc Wonderfully crafted. The lowkey background music fit perfectly and was not distracting, and the script was excellent. A subscribe from me and looking forward to more!
Of all the great pilot jobs in the world in the 20th century, being a Pan Am skipper was the top experience. I met a very old PAA 314 Clipper captain around 20 yrs ago, in his last times. I didn't want to tie him up in conversation, but asked, "How was it?" "He smiled and winked, "It was as wonderful." They were superstars.
Having 3 engines that had been running on low grade gas pushed to their maximum power for twice the rated time is testament to the engineering that went into those monsters
Everything was over built. I've seen cars from the 40s that are crumbled wrecks.. Put a battery on, change fluids, provide fuel and it runs literally like new on the first turn.
The engines had low compression ratio, adjustable supercharger boost and adjustable ignition advance so they could run on this fuel, only they couldn't reach the power necessary for takeoff without blowing the engine.
@@piotrmalewski8178 For cars, yes. Airplanes, no. Car engines are built for longevity and reliability when operated by a noob. Piston engines for airplanes were much more advanced and ran much higher compression ratios, hence the need for 100 octane fuel and an engineer. High octane fuel prevents detonation, or pinging, which is the fuel pre-igniting from the heat and compression, and causing issues. The vibrations are caused by pistons fighting the expanding gasses which ignited too early, which also caused the backfiring. It can burn through pistons, wreck bearings or damage the head, or burn a valve (although that is more when you run lean). It is not a simple matter of not making the power, that was another issue to add to the list. As mentioned in the video, the only real solution is to take off on 100 octane as you need to max out the engines and switch to a mixture of 100 and lower octane fuel when airborne and at speed. They never took off on car fuel, they got into trouble because they were overloaded with extra 100 octane. The car fuel was an issue when they ran into the Japanese sub as they couldn't gain altitude quickly.
On the one hand, I agree that there should be a feature film about this flight. On the other.... We know Hollywood absolutely can not resist needlessly 'embellishing' the story until it's completely ridiculous. They'd have people hanging from the wings of the aircraft, a child needing a critical operation, encounters with the German Luftwaffe, and one of the pilots secretly being a morphine addict and slowly losing control. And to make room for all the embellishments, they'd excise a number of the ACTUAL events.
@@xaenon I was thinking the same thing. Hollywood has become so accustomed to turning up the level on everything I don't think they know how to make a realistic story any more. Maybe that's why it seems like half of all movies are superhero movies. Once the "action" goes past the point of believability, I lose the suspension of disbelief necessary to be scared for the characters. If I can't be scared for the characters there's no drama.
@@5000rgb If it's a superhero or fantasy or sci-fi film, I expect it to be a little unrealistic. I mean, I'm a STAR TREK fan (since the first run of the original show, no less!) and yeah, transporter beams and photon torpedoes and faster-than-light starships. Bring it on, I'll eat it up and ask for seconds. But I know what a movie based on this will turn into. No thanks.
@@xaenon We understand why there isnt a good and historically accurate movie about it, but you dont explain why there isnt even a hollywood version of this story. This is such a great story, its a movie that wrote itself. Might even make a miniseries of it.
@@P44man Because any speculation along those lines would be merely that - speculation. Raw, unfounded conjecture. We know why Hollywood makes movies - MONEY. But why does Hollywood NOT make a movie? The most likely candidate answer is they don't feel it would make enough money. Is that the correct answer? Is it the COMPLETE answer? Damned if I know, I'm not a producer, scriptwriter, or director. All I can do is say I probably would not want to see a modern, 'Hollywood' film based on the event - because Hollywood's track record with regard to 'based on real events' is rather poor. Look at the movie U571, for example. Utter schlock. Depicts the capture of the Enigma machine and code books as an AMERICAN achievement. Real life: It was the British.
The most interesting bit of this video for me was at 4:15. I had no idea that's where the modern commercial aviation Pilot's / Captain's uniform comes from! What a nice little bit of history.
Much of comerical aviation originated with somthing Juan Tripp did. He was the trend setter for some time. It was said he could make or brake and aircrafts furture.
@@kwerk2011 … sooo like American commissioned aircraft. So did United. British Airways and Air France. Pan Am however was a known trend setter. Most notable with the 707 but also later the 747. Commissioning aircraft is nothing. The 737Max was for all intents and purposes commissioned. Juan Trippe who is a personal inspiration of mine didn’t merely commission aircraft.
@@kwerk2011 American Airlines put in an order for another generation of 737 before it was announced. Boeing was getting to the position of retiring the 737 and starting a new line of aircraft.
Of course the largest flying boat in history, Howard Hughes "Hercules" (aka the Spruce Goose) is in a museum in Oregon. Having made its only flight ever 2 years after the war it was meant to serve in ended. It wasn't a "Clipper" but was meant to haul troops and equipment.
I'd heard about this flight as a youngster - my Dad was a Pan Am employee and I remember him mentioning it. There was even an article about it in the Employee magazine at some point. I have a very faded zeros copy of it ... somewhere. Truly an amazing flight. Back in those days, and into the fifties and early sixties (when I was a kid) it was almost a family type company, everybody knowing everyone else at the different stations. Heck, Even on the other side of the Pacific where we were stationed when I was an eight and a half year old, Juan Trippe showed up at the company Christmas party and even took the time to talk to us kids. I told him all about about Cub Scouts.
Its too bad that companies like this no longer exist or CEOs/presidents/owners that engage with their employees or their kids. I recall when I was 6 one of the board members at TWA let me be in the cockpit of a airplane before take off, after and during landing. Just because I told one of the flight crew when I got on the plane that I want to be a pilot when I grow up. I had a little TWA plane that I had gotten when I was 5. The pilot gave me his metal wings/badge and showed me all around the cockpit and explained tons of stuff to a 6 year old me. I was so happy, my mom said I spent about 3 hours on the flighty deck out of a 8 hour flight. The entire time before take off, anout an hour during the flight. I then needed a nap and then asked if I could sit upfront when we landed and the flight crew agreed. I feel sorry for kids today knowing they will never experience what I did as a kid, I will never forget it. I became an engineer instead and plan on one day getting my wings.
What an amazing adventure masked as forced overtime… That waterfall-gorge run with partly jammed fly-wires and overweight had me on the edge of the chair! Well done Paper Skies!
As a fan of flying boats and inter-war aviation, I’m familiar with this adventure, but you tell it and produce it so well that I’m still sitting as if riveted. Well done, and thank you for making and sharing! 👍
@Jeff Andrews yeah, that would have been something. ❤️ All too few civilian airliners of the time survived, not only the war but also the rapid progress.
@12 Fingers Don't know whether to upvote as mean maybe not for content of comment but the intent or down for the vice versa. Would have made a wonderful companion for the Birch Bird, er, Spruce Goose!
It's kind of amazing how Pan Am weren't just an airline, they were _the_ airline. As for the main subject of the video... this is truly the stuff of legends. The determination in the face of an unprecedented task. The careful planning of the best possible route. The incredible flying by the pilots - weaving through a gorge in a flying boat, with disabled ailerons no less! - and the deft on-the-fly adjustments by the engineer. And of course, some good old luck. I wonder if the crew of that sub lived long enough to learn why a flying boat buzzed them out of nowhere. The age of the flying boat may have ended after World War II, but I think the spirit of them was reborn in the 747.
Lets be real - this is scary and a royal pain. That said there had to be a degree of wild excitement in these men to get to do such an adventure. It tested all their skills and I can only imagine how alive they had to feel. Crazy story and its awesome they made it all the way around.
In a high compression engine (usually use 100/130 octane Av-gas), using 80/87 octane can cause pre-ignition resulting in engine damage. The pilot can run the engine richer to prevent that. Maybe. At the expense of range as fuel consumption will be higher.
Flying at lower altitudes and not requiring high boost on the superchargers to lower the charge air temp should also do the trick, then again it’s not like it’s pressurized anyways.
@Common Sense Realist directly off of Wikipedia: "An octane rating, or octane number, is a standard measure of a fuel's ability to withstand compression in an internal combustion engine without detonating. The higher the octane number, the more compression the fuel can withstand before detonating. Octane rating does not relate directly to the power output or the energy content of the fuel per unit mass or volume, but simply indicates gasoline's capability against compression." So, it's not an additive, though there are additives which can increase the octane rating.
@Common Sense Realist sorry mate, but octane has absolutely nothing to do with power of a fuel or how it burns, different fuels have different octane ratings, but that is not what gives it the different power levels or burn rates. octane is purely a messurment of a fuels ability to resist compression combustion. but yes it do allow for more advanced timing, higher boost levels and a higher compression ratio. making more power and having greater thermal efficency
@Common Sense Realist okay. US Energy Information Administration: "Octane ratings are measures of fuel stability. These ratings are based on the pressure at which a fuel will spontaneously combust (auto-ignite) in a testing engine. The octane number is actually the simple average of two different octane rating methods-motor octane rating (MOR) and research octane rating (RON)-that differ primarily in the specifics of the operating conditions. The higher an octane number, the more stable the fuel."
This could be a movie and you wouldn't even have to add much or even embellish. The outbreak of a war, a difficult situation no one ever faced before, people shooting at them, almost not making it over a waterfall. Amazing.
13:30 Octane is a fuel's resistance to detonating. Detonation increases as the compression of the engine increases. Higher octane can be run with higher compression. It has nothing to do with cleaning ability or power. Power comes from the compression of the engine. More compression means more air, means more power. In the war Esso (later Exxon) developed a very high octane gasoline that allowed the Allies to really crank up the compression of their aircraft engines. This provided much more power, especially at altitude. It also allowed them to fly higher.
Or cylinder pressure in general. I think here they needed the octane for the added boost from the supercharger. Also, I suspect that 1930's road fuel was probably not so consistently refined and carefully tested to meet specs as aircraft fuel. Additionally, war-time fuel shortages may have pressed them into adding ethanol or methanol. Both are rough on the elastomers and methanol can cut though brass floats and float valve seats. They were racking up some hours!
@@antilogism That is true, but the octane did not provide that boost. The boost came from the super/turbo chargers. All they do is pack more air into the engine. That extra air is where the power comes from. Higher octane allows for higher boost. There were developing high performance engines in the 1930's. There wasn't much market for them outside of motor racing and aviation. These engines were quite expensive and not many could afford them thanks to the poor economy of the era.
@@antilogism No, it was "turbo/super charged" Turbo chargers and super chargers are two very different things, though the both do the same thing. Both are basically air pumps used to pressurize the incoming air into the engine.
@@erictaylor5462 They only differ in the power source, mechanically, but they offer very different dynamics. Apparently, toward the end of the war they were experimenting with applying both to an engine. There was the conventional centrifugal supercharger, typically two-speed on this sort of Cyclone, but that was augmented by an exhaust driven super charger or turbocharger. This was not unknown in 1960s in automobile racing, particularly in amateur drag racing (with questionable success), but years ago I was surprised to learn they had done that in 1940s aircraft. There were also some two-stage superchargers applied to these engines when used in fighters but that was not really so unique. My question, in other words, did the Clipper 314 have both mechanically-driven and exhaust-driven superchargers or conventional mechanical only? Edit: Apparently Two-Stage Turbo Superchargers were used extensively: ua-cam.com/video/KFwwgbj9Bi8/v-deo.html Given the low ceiling and non-pressurized cabin I would have to say the 314 wouldn't have a need for it.
@@justarandomtechpriest1578 technically 803.5 since Jerry Cans can be filled up half way and thus it doesn't need to be rounded up as the answer is not a whole number
The age of Flying Clippers was short, but, they were the first to navigate around the World, ie. fly completely around the World. I was a a flying boat captain from 1968 to 2015 retiring after flying North Slope of Alaska to Ft Jefferson NM west of Key West Florida , with over 5000hrs flying G44/ G21 Grummans & float planes of all types.
This really would make for a fantastic movie, I think Spielberg could do an excellent job with this capturing a unique time in history. A truly globe trotting adventure.
WOW! This without doubt the BEST UA-cam video I’ve seen yet. Many thanks! In the 1980s I met one of the men who’d been on the crew of one of the Clippers - not the one that made this epic flight - out in Marin County, California. He was almost totally deaf, as a result of extended flying between those huge engines, but his stories kept everyone’s attention. After such great service, not one of those Boeing 314’s survived.
In 1988 I was asked by Pan Am to build a 1/8 th scale model of the 314 called "Dixie Clipper" I built it from scratch with a wingspan of 19 feet! This model has been on display at Miami Airport, Florida since that time with engines turning! If anyone goes there, the Clipper is hanging in a long hallway near Concourse E. In Concourse D, you'll find a DC-3 (12 foot wingspan) American Airlines. I built that one also from scratch in 1990. Enjoy if you're there sometime!
Awesome! Congratulations on your incredible creativity and construction capabilities. Jealous. I wish I could see those models in person. That’s super cool how you got the engines to turn too. How’d you pull that off? How long did it take you to build those models?
I would say that the romantic perception of flying from the early days has completely faded when flight attendants have to duct tape passengers to seats!
Reminds me of the message earlier in the war telling all Maersk commercial ships to only take orders from the company office in New York after the home base in Denmark was occupied by Germany. At the time the shipping giant was still run by Mr. A.P. Moeller and "Maersk" was merely the first name of his talented son and future heir.
The math for how many Jerry cans that the crew would need to carry would be 804(I rounded the number up from 16,070 to 16,080liters) in total. That means that each crew member would have to carry 67(if all 12 were still aboard but one was sick so that left them with 11 crew so it would be 73 Jerry Cans each. So that means that between the 11 men. each one carried a total of 1,460 liters of fuel each.) But if you want an accurate answer then the total number of 20 liter Jerry Cans that the 11 men would have needed to carry is… 803.5 or 804 cans.
So if an airplane went the the geographical North Pole and flew in a circle... could the pilot say that he circumnavigated the planet.? By the way... if you go to the north pole (I've been there), and you start walking, can you walk any direction other than south? And if you walked in a big circle, how would you know which direction you were going? By the way.. which direction does a compass point if you are at the magnetic north pole? These are things I just don't know.
I have the book written about this flight, "The Long Way Home" by Ed Dover I believe. A very interesting read. Picked up My autographed copy in Maui in 2003 at the "Paper Airplane Store".
It is indeed odd that a film was never made about it. Maybe the war time and the absolute over-abundance of other feats during and after undeservedly obscured this story.
A film was reportedly in the works but never got to a script stage. I doubt it would be made today, with no representation by women or minorities. But Greyhound got made and it was a tightly-focused WWII story with a mostly white male cast.
They simply don't have a clipper plane left for a movie, they were all scrapped. You can't make such a movie without filming the plane in flight over georgeous sunset backdrop and you cannot fake that !
Great video! Such an amazing story! This should be a movie. Some parts like the canyon run people would think were contrived! Thanks for this great production!
for a mountainous island nation, that's not a bad idea. they probably have more "landable" area in their territorial waters than they do on airfields/land.
Flying boats are also often used to combat forest fires. They load up by skimming water from a lake or river making it a very quick process and the turnaround time short. The fleet is however aging as they tend to use old Canadair planes which hasn't been built since 1990. Well at least I'd call them flying boats as the fuselage acts as a hull, even if they also have the capability to use regular landing strips which makes them technically amphibious hybrids.
For what Pan Amerian and BOAC did for commercial aviation, it's a shame they are not more celebrated today. What do you mean not a single clipper was saved? That is a travesty. Excellent video as always, genuinely brilliant.
Thanks ... a fascinating story of courage and endurance. As a private pilot myself, I often wonder how I would cope in similar circumstances, while simultaneously hoping I never have to find out!
I have been around aviation my whole life (I'm in my 7'th decade) and yet I had not heard of this fantastic feat before! Amazing! The only WW-II Pan Am Clippers I had heard of were the ones at Wake Island when it was attacked.
I just found your channel today! Great stuff, super interesting. I’m a BIG Military History Geek (just as a hobby, in my spare time. It is something I’ve never pursued professionally). In particular, I love how you combine real footage (and/or photographs), with stock/library footage, and awesome animation & custom / in-house animation, to produce some superb sequences, to greatly enhance enhance the viewing experience all along!! (And I don’t just mean on this one production, either!). Awesome stuff!
I have always been a history lover and a fan of Pan Am and the flying boat era. Back in the 1980s, I was in the US Naval Reserve, and had the pleasure of spending a couple of my annual two weeks’ active duty on a Fast Frigate moored to the former Pan Am dock on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay where that famous California clipper flight began. You have footage shot from that very pier in this video. Treasure Island was a training base for the Navy at the outset of Pan Am’s rise. It also served as a seaplane and blimp base back in WWII. I will always have fond memories of the facility. Even in the 80s it felt like a step back in time. I was sorry to hear that it was closed.
This is a great channel, especially considering it's only been around for a few months. Instantly one of my favorite aviation channels, always with interesting stories and incredible detail.
I've flown around the world a couple of times, so this story has me curious about just how hard it would be to re-create a somewhat similar flight path on commercial airlines...certainly not the same as taking a Clipper, but still exciting.
I love Flying Boats. Runways have limit on weight and number of landings before maintenance but landing on water doesn't. It would be cool if airlines would bring back Flying Boats bigger then ever.
@@leechowning2712 Yeah for small charter flights, honestly. I'm surprised the Caribbean or Pacific Islanders haven't engineered and designed it themselves to fit this need. You've smart young people, you've got rich folk. I'm sure something can be done to fill a need for luxury and convenience free of the limitations of a runway. The rich love their yachts and love learning to fly. I'm honestly shocked this isn't a thing already.
This is probably the best aviation channel I have ever watched, maybe even the best channel. The narration, the format and content is all top notch. The only negative thing I see is that there isn’t 100’s of videos on it so far, lol. Hope to see the channel grow and stay around for a long time!
What an incredible story! I'm really surprised I've never heard anything about this before. It's too bad flying boats went by the wayside, That must have been an amazing time to be alive. Great presentation Paper Skies!
Epic. And that bird was so much more elegant than her peers at the time. Hats off to the engineers on that beauty. Slide rulers and draft tables, can you imagine.
An amazing story. The captain and crew are heroes. I grw up near by a military flying boat base after the end of their era and I saw giant airplanes being broken up. Precious memories now. Sad they had to go.
I’m pretty sure the fuselage was still painted in silver paint. Their orders told them to strip the markings, not repaint the airplane, and they probably would not have a resources to do so until they got back home. All the Boeing and Martin Clippers, including the British BOAC birds, were eventually painted in camouflage but that would take a while after Pearl Harbor.
such a shame that this form of flying is gone these days, but such a beautiful story of such an amazing achievement, also the animations are very nicely Done :)
Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: go.nebula.tv/paperskies and *Watch my exclusive video* on Cheating in the Soviet Army and Navy: nebula.tv/videos/paperskies-the-kremlin-wars
@@colelinse6196 this is a scenario similar to a math problem and not what would actually be done. how many jerrycans would be used? if you want to have no half full cans left, you would round DOWN not up.
That story deserves a movie.
I know. I wonder why they haven't done it yet.
My thoughts exactly. This story is Steven Spielberg movie material.
Way hollywood is now i'll pass on watching it but if it was made in 50s or the 60s i would.
Tom Hanks would make a great leading man here
@Andreas Glad naa just
'The long way round'
Poindexter lived the most epic "but it's my _day off"_ story ever.
Hope the boys were on double overtime!
😀👍
"I'm not even supposed to be here today!"
Just imagine how ticked off his wife was by the time he got home.
It never fails....
To whomever wrote the script for this video: that was without doubt the best narration of anything I've seen on UA-cam. Not a wasted word, or fake drama, and most importantly, no stupid music. And all the video content was 100% relevant and informative. You won't get a prize for this, but everyone involved should. Well done.
Being a Russian speaker at that! Guy did a stellar job narrating!
Yeah this was well narrated and HOW did they find all the footage? Surely a lot of it was of that plane? The engine on fire etc
Wonderfully crafted. The lowkey background music fit perfectly and was not distracting, and the script was excellent. A subscribe from me and looking forward to more!
And no trying to force humor every 60 seconds.
@@belisioglipet4655 I knew English wasn't his first tongue. I had an idea he is Russian. Thanks for the input 🤠
So agree 🛩☮️💟☯️
Of all the great pilot jobs in the world in the 20th century, being a Pan Am skipper was the top experience. I met a very old PAA 314 Clipper captain around 20 yrs ago, in his last times. I didn't want to tie him up in conversation, but asked, "How was it?" "He smiled and winked, "It was as wonderful." They were superstars.
It had nothing on being a Spirit Airlines captain, silly.
"They had also sprayed the inside of the captains safe." I lost it at that
Really surprised nobody else picked that up. Took me a second to realise what he meant, but what a good way of phrasing it.
I was like wait a minute..
Bruh moment.
The money clearly had to be quarantined, in case it might spread yellow fever.
The cost of leaving Brazil lmao
Having 3 engines that had been running on low grade gas pushed to their maximum power for twice the rated time is testament to the engineering that went into those monsters
Everything was over built. I've seen cars from the 40s that are crumbled wrecks.. Put a battery on, change fluids, provide fuel and it runs literally like new on the first turn.
The engines had low compression ratio, adjustable supercharger boost and adjustable ignition advance so they could run on this fuel, only they couldn't reach the power necessary for takeoff without blowing the engine.
Or just pure luck
@@piotrmalewski8178 For cars, yes. Airplanes, no. Car engines are built for longevity and reliability when operated by a noob. Piston engines for airplanes were much more advanced and ran much higher compression ratios, hence the need for 100 octane fuel and an engineer. High octane fuel prevents detonation, or pinging, which is the fuel pre-igniting from the heat and compression, and causing issues. The vibrations are caused by pistons fighting the expanding gasses which ignited too early, which also caused the backfiring. It can burn through pistons, wreck bearings or damage the head, or burn a valve (although that is more when you run lean). It is not a simple matter of not making the power, that was another issue to add to the list.
As mentioned in the video, the only real solution is to take off on 100 octane as you need to max out the engines and switch to a mixture of 100 and lower octane fuel when airborne and at speed. They never took off on car fuel, they got into trouble because they were overloaded with extra 100 octane. The car fuel was an issue when they ran into the Japanese sub as they couldn't gain altitude quickly.
Now you have engines falling off, and windows popping out.
What an astonishing story, and so well presented. The canyon scene had me on the edge of my seat. HOW is there not a movie about this?
On the one hand, I agree that there should be a feature film about this flight.
On the other.... We know Hollywood absolutely can not resist needlessly 'embellishing' the story until it's completely ridiculous. They'd have people hanging from the wings of the aircraft, a child needing a critical operation, encounters with the German Luftwaffe, and one of the pilots secretly being a morphine addict and slowly losing control. And to make room for all the embellishments, they'd excise a number of the ACTUAL events.
@@xaenon I was thinking the same thing. Hollywood has become so accustomed to turning up the level on everything I don't think they know how to make a realistic story any more. Maybe that's why it seems like half of all movies are superhero movies. Once the "action" goes past the point of believability, I lose the suspension of disbelief necessary to be scared for the characters. If I can't be scared for the characters there's no drama.
@@5000rgb If it's a superhero or fantasy or sci-fi film, I expect it to be a little unrealistic. I mean, I'm a STAR TREK fan (since the first run of the original show, no less!) and yeah, transporter beams and photon torpedoes and faster-than-light starships. Bring it on, I'll eat it up and ask for seconds.
But I know what a movie based on this will turn into. No thanks.
@@xaenon We understand why there isnt a good and historically accurate movie about it, but you dont explain why there isnt even a hollywood version of this story. This is such a great story, its a movie that wrote itself. Might even make a miniseries of it.
@@P44man Because any speculation along those lines would be merely that - speculation. Raw, unfounded conjecture.
We know why Hollywood makes movies - MONEY. But why does Hollywood NOT make a movie? The most likely candidate answer is they don't feel it would make enough money.
Is that the correct answer? Is it the COMPLETE answer? Damned if I know, I'm not a producer, scriptwriter, or director.
All I can do is say I probably would not want to see a modern, 'Hollywood' film based on the event - because Hollywood's track record with regard to 'based on real events' is rather poor.
Look at the movie U571, for example. Utter schlock. Depicts the capture of the Enigma machine and code books as an AMERICAN achievement. Real life: It was the British.
This is the most Indiana-Jones esque true story I have ever heard.
Hum the theme while the Clipper flies thru the Leopold Gorge. 17:25
The most interesting bit of this video for me was at 4:15.
I had no idea that's where the modern commercial aviation Pilot's / Captain's uniform comes from! What a nice little bit of history.
Much of comerical aviation originated with somthing Juan Tripp did. He was the trend setter for some time. It was said he could make or brake and aircrafts furture.
@@xanpenguin754 Pan Am didn't just buy aircraft, they COMMISSIONED them. That's the level of pull and respect Trippe had.
@@kwerk2011 … sooo like American commissioned aircraft. So did United. British Airways and Air France.
Pan Am however was a known trend setter. Most notable with the 707 but also later the 747.
Commissioning aircraft is nothing. The 737Max was for all intents and purposes commissioned. Juan Trippe who is a personal inspiration of mine didn’t merely commission aircraft.
@@xanpenguin754 Who commissioned the 737Max?
@@kwerk2011 American Airlines put in an order for another generation of 737 before it was announced. Boeing was getting to the position of retiring the 737 and starting a new line of aircraft.
its tragic nobody bothered to put one of these in a museum before they were all scrapped. these were absolutely amazing planes
One at the Boeing air museum
One in an air museum next to Bradley Intrernational in CT, it’s quite a sight I would recommend going to see it
Many were not scrapped, they crashed. Look up the Clipper story and most did not end well.
Of course the largest flying boat in history, Howard Hughes "Hercules" (aka the Spruce Goose) is in a museum in Oregon. Having made its only flight ever 2 years after the war it was meant to serve in ended. It wasn't a "Clipper" but was meant to haul troops and equipment.
@@crudecaboose8382 I've seen that one, it's incredible to see in person
I'd heard about this flight as a youngster - my Dad was a Pan Am employee and I remember him mentioning it. There was even an article about it in the Employee magazine at some point. I have a very faded zeros copy of it ... somewhere. Truly an amazing flight. Back in those days, and into the fifties and early sixties (when I was a kid) it was almost a family type company, everybody knowing everyone else at the different stations. Heck, Even on the other side of the Pacific where we were stationed when I was an eight and a half year old, Juan Trippe showed up at the company Christmas party and even took the time to talk to us kids. I told him all about about Cub Scouts.
Its too bad that companies like this no longer exist or CEOs/presidents/owners that engage with their employees or their kids. I recall when I was 6 one of the board members at TWA let me be in the cockpit of a airplane before take off, after and during landing. Just because I told one of the flight crew when I got on the plane that I want to be a pilot when I grow up. I had a little TWA plane that I had gotten when I was 5.
The pilot gave me his metal wings/badge and showed me all around the cockpit and explained tons of stuff to a 6 year old me. I was so happy, my mom said I spent about 3 hours on the flighty deck out of a 8 hour flight. The entire time before take off, anout an hour during the flight. I then needed a nap and then asked if I could sit upfront when we landed and the flight crew agreed.
I feel sorry for kids today knowing they will never experience what I did as a kid, I will never forget it. I became an engineer instead and plan on one day getting my wings.
Googling
@@cedric3973 Yours is a great story as well. I was never in the cockpit but remember the days when the door was, most of the time. open. Nevermore.
That would be a Xerox copy, though whether it's a voice to text error or a "bone apple tea" I do not know.
The entire “Waterfalls” chapter is just Ace Combat IRL.
Grand Flight from Joint Assault.
IRL trench run from AC Skies Unknown
Just like Deep Strike in AC4
What an amazing adventure masked as forced overtime… That waterfall-gorge run with partly jammed fly-wires and overweight had me on the edge of the chair! Well done Paper Skies!
So those Madagascar penguins must have seen that and thought they could pull it off also.
As a fan of flying boats and inter-war aviation, I’m familiar with this adventure, but you tell it and produce it so well that I’m still sitting as if riveted. Well done, and thank you for making and sharing! 👍
@Jeff Andrews yeah, that would have been something. ❤️ All too few civilian airliners of the time survived, not only the war but also the rapid progress.
Or the Dornier Do-X
@12 Fingers Don't know whether to upvote as mean maybe not for content of comment but the intent or down for the vice versa. Would have made a wonderful companion for the Birch Bird, er, Spruce Goose!
It's kind of amazing how Pan Am weren't just an airline, they were _the_ airline.
As for the main subject of the video... this is truly the stuff of legends. The determination in the face of an unprecedented task. The careful planning of the best possible route. The incredible flying by the pilots - weaving through a gorge in a flying boat, with disabled ailerons no less! - and the deft on-the-fly adjustments by the engineer. And of course, some good old luck.
I wonder if the crew of that sub lived long enough to learn why a flying boat buzzed them out of nowhere.
The age of the flying boat may have ended after World War II, but I think the spirit of them was reborn in the 747.
Yes the perfect video to watch in the morning with a coffee!
👏🤗
How come this comment only have 30 likes?
Also hi
Indeed
oh hi found and explained
Lets be real - this is scary and a royal pain. That said there had to be a degree of wild excitement in these men to get to do such an adventure. It tested all their skills and I can only imagine how alive they had to feel. Crazy story and its awesome they made it all the way around.
In a high compression engine (usually use 100/130 octane Av-gas), using 80/87 octane can cause pre-ignition resulting in engine damage. The pilot can run the engine richer to prevent that. Maybe. At the expense of range as fuel consumption will be higher.
Flying at lower altitudes and not requiring high boost on the superchargers to lower the charge air temp should also do the trick, then again it’s not like it’s pressurized anyways.
My car does this automatically. It suggests using 91 octane, but in a pinch, I can use 87 or 89. If I do though, the mileage suffers greatly.
@Common Sense Realist directly off of Wikipedia: "An octane rating, or octane number, is a standard measure of a fuel's ability to withstand compression in an internal combustion engine without detonating. The higher the octane number, the more compression the fuel can withstand before detonating. Octane rating does not relate directly to the power output or the energy content of the fuel per unit mass or volume, but simply indicates gasoline's capability against compression."
So, it's not an additive, though there are additives which can increase the octane rating.
@Common Sense Realist sorry mate, but octane has absolutely nothing to do with power of a fuel or how it burns, different fuels have different octane ratings, but that is not what gives it the different power levels or burn rates. octane is purely a messurment of a fuels ability to resist compression combustion.
but yes it do allow for more advanced timing, higher boost levels and a higher compression ratio. making more power and having greater thermal efficency
@Common Sense Realist okay. US Energy Information Administration:
"Octane ratings are measures of fuel stability. These ratings are based on the pressure at which a fuel will spontaneously combust (auto-ignite) in a testing engine. The octane number is actually the simple average of two different octane rating methods-motor octane rating (MOR) and research octane rating (RON)-that differ primarily in the specifics of the operating conditions. The higher an octane number, the more stable the fuel."
This could be a movie and you wouldn't even have to add much or even embellish. The outbreak of a war, a difficult situation no one ever faced before, people shooting at them, almost not making it over a waterfall. Amazing.
13:30 Octane is a fuel's resistance to detonating. Detonation increases as the compression of the engine increases. Higher octane can be run with higher compression. It has nothing to do with cleaning ability or power.
Power comes from the compression of the engine. More compression means more air, means more power.
In the war Esso (later Exxon) developed a very high octane gasoline that allowed the Allies to really crank up the compression of their aircraft engines. This provided much more power, especially at altitude.
It also allowed them to fly higher.
Or cylinder pressure in general. I think here they needed the octane for the added boost from the supercharger. Also, I suspect that 1930's road fuel was probably not so consistently refined and carefully tested to meet specs as aircraft fuel. Additionally, war-time fuel shortages may have pressed them into adding ethanol or methanol. Both are rough on the elastomers and methanol can cut though brass floats and float valve seats. They were racking up some hours!
@@antilogism That is true, but the octane did not provide that boost. The boost came from the super/turbo chargers. All they do is pack more air into the engine. That extra air is where the power comes from.
Higher octane allows for higher boost.
There were developing high performance engines in the 1930's. There wasn't much market for them outside of motor racing and aviation. These engines were quite expensive and not many could afford them thanks to the poor economy of the era.
@@erictaylor5462 Was that turbo-supercharged? I was looking for specs on the Wright 709C-14AC1 but haven't turned up much.
@@antilogism No, it was "turbo/super charged"
Turbo chargers and super chargers are two very different things, though the both do the same thing.
Both are basically air pumps used to pressurize the incoming air into the engine.
@@erictaylor5462 They only differ in the power source, mechanically, but they offer very different dynamics. Apparently, toward the end of the war they were experimenting with applying both to an engine. There was the conventional centrifugal supercharger, typically two-speed on this sort of Cyclone, but that was augmented by an exhaust driven super charger or turbocharger. This was not unknown in 1960s in automobile racing, particularly in amateur drag racing (with questionable success), but years ago I was surprised to learn they had done that in 1940s aircraft. There were also some two-stage superchargers applied to these engines when used in fighters but that was not really so unique. My question, in other words, did the Clipper 314 have both mechanically-driven and exhaust-driven superchargers or conventional mechanical only?
Edit: Apparently Two-Stage Turbo Superchargers were used extensively: ua-cam.com/video/KFwwgbj9Bi8/v-deo.html
Given the low ceiling and non-pressurized cabin I would have to say the 314 wouldn't have a need for it.
"how many Jerry cans of fuel would the crew need to refuel their aircraft?"
me: *"yes"*
Well 20 liters per Jerry can so do the math
@@justarandomtechpriest1578 technically 803.5 since Jerry Cans can be filled up half way and thus it doesn't need to be rounded up as the answer is not a whole number
The correct answer is: All of them.
The thing is; math is the one thing but who has 804 jerry cans lying around?
My guess is they had to make several rounds.
The age of Flying Clippers was short, but, they were the first to navigate around the World, ie. fly completely around the World.
I was a a flying boat captain from 1968 to 2015 retiring after flying North Slope of Alaska to Ft Jefferson NM west of Key West Florida , with over 5000hrs flying G44/ G21 Grummans & float planes of all types.
Thanks for commenting! You must have had some incredible experiences during such a career.
This really would make for a fantastic movie, I think Spielberg could do an excellent job with this capturing a unique time in history. A truly globe trotting adventure.
Love the “good luck” at the end of the letter, Like they weren’t just asked to circumnavigate the globe.
WOW! This without doubt the BEST UA-cam video I’ve seen yet. Many thanks!
In the 1980s I met one of the men who’d been on the crew of one of the Clippers - not the one that made this epic flight - out in Marin County, California. He was almost totally deaf, as a result of extended flying between those huge engines, but his stories kept everyone’s attention. After such great service, not one of those Boeing 314’s survived.
In 1988 I was asked by Pan Am to build a 1/8 th scale model of the 314 called "Dixie Clipper" I built it from scratch with a wingspan of 19 feet! This model has been on display at Miami Airport, Florida since that time with engines turning! If anyone goes there, the Clipper is hanging in a long hallway near Concourse E. In Concourse D, you'll find a DC-3 (12 foot wingspan) American Airlines. I built that one also from scratch in 1990. Enjoy if you're there sometime!
Awesome! Congratulations on your incredible creativity and construction capabilities. Jealous. I wish I could see those models in person. That’s super cool how you got the engines to turn too. How’d you pull that off? How long did it take you to build those models?
Bravo!
If I ever happen to be there I shall, and think of the random UA-cam commenter
that I just vaguely met, sort of. God bless!
Love me a good model aircraft
I would say that the romantic perception of flying from the early days has completely faded when flight attendants have to duct tape passengers to seats!
The flying boats probably had a separate brig, no need to use duct tape, just slap 'em in chains.
Well, first it's ruined by passengers getting drunk off their own alcohol, then more so by the response of the flight crew.
@@Aviator27J I would have duct taped the unruly sob too.
You mean to tell me duct tape isn't romantic.....
@@vw8886 yeah the worst was not the fact that he was drunk but violent and a creep wish he was just trow out of the plane in a rendom airport
that message they recieved telling them to go westbound was something else,, and they pulled it off. What an amazing adventure!
Reminds me of the message earlier in the war telling all Maersk commercial ships to only take orders from the company office in New York after the home base in Denmark was occupied by Germany. At the time the shipping giant was still run by Mr. A.P. Moeller and "Maersk" was merely the first name of his talented son and future heir.
*New video is coming soon. Subscribe so you don't miss it.* 🔔
Sorry, that chapter and how you narrated it is a must... I am joining your Patreon.
The math for how many Jerry cans that the crew would need to carry would be 804(I rounded the number up from 16,070 to 16,080liters) in total. That means that each crew member would have to carry 67(if all 12 were still aboard but one was sick so that left them with 11 crew so it would be 73 Jerry Cans each. So that means that between the 11 men. each one carried a total of 1,460 liters of fuel each.)
But if you want an accurate answer then the total number of 20 liter Jerry Cans that the 11 men would have needed to carry is…
803.5 or 804 cans.
So if an airplane went the the geographical North Pole and flew in a circle... could the pilot say that he circumnavigated the planet.? By the way... if you go to the north pole (I've been there), and you start walking, can you walk any direction other than south? And if you walked in a big circle, how would you know which direction you were going? By the way.. which direction does a compass point if you are at the magnetic north pole? These are things I just don't know.
Never heard of this channel, but i am so glad i saw this video in my feed. Instant subscription from me!
These planes today with modern engines would be awesome.
I have the book written about this flight, "The Long Way Home" by Ed Dover I believe. A very interesting read. Picked up My autographed copy in Maui in 2003 at the "Paper Airplane Store".
Fabulous video, thank you! That radio signal, Pacific Clipper inbound to New York from Auckland, New Zealand, is epic!
So well presented it would be easy to believe that the narrator had been on the flight himself. Absolutely fascinating video.
It is indeed odd that a film was never made about it. Maybe the war time and the absolute over-abundance of other feats during and after undeservedly obscured this story.
Yes, that's exactly why every single Hollywood loser wants to film yet another movie about d-day. Screw your d-day already
@@512TheWolf512 How many movies were made about D-day, anyway? I only know about The Longest Day.
A film was reportedly in the works but never got to a script stage. I doubt it would be made today, with no representation by women or minorities. But Greyhound got made and it was a tightly-focused WWII story with a mostly white male cast.
@@Hogtown1986 Yeah, I know what you say. Inclusivity is the death of historical representations, not that the lemmings out there give a fuck about it.
They simply don't have a clipper plane left for a movie, they were all scrapped. You can't make such a movie without filming the plane in flight over georgeous sunset backdrop and you cannot fake that !
Great video! Such an amazing story! This should be a movie. Some parts like the canyon run people would think were contrived! Thanks for this great production!
The Japan MSDF still uses flying boats as troop transports and sea rescue vehicles. They initiated a new flying boat back in 2007.
Do you have the name of that flying boat so I can look it up?
I was aware of the Beriev BE200 as the only modern flying boat.
@@someoneelse7629 ShinMaywa US-2
@@douro20 Wow it's an actual flying boat as well not just a float plane.
for a mountainous island nation, that's not a bad idea. they probably have more "landable" area in their territorial waters than they do on airfields/land.
Flying boats are also often used to combat forest fires. They load up by skimming water from a lake or river making it a very quick process and the turnaround time short. The fleet is however aging as they tend to use old Canadair planes which hasn't been built since 1990.
Well at least I'd call them flying boats as the fuselage acts as a hull, even if they also have the capability to use regular landing strips which makes them technically amphibious hybrids.
For what Pan Amerian and BOAC did for commercial aviation, it's a shame they are not more celebrated today. What do you mean not a single clipper was saved? That is a travesty. Excellent video as always, genuinely brilliant.
What an absolutely spectacular story. I would LOVE to see this adapted to a film... And you should get a cameo as a radio operator!
Thanks ... a fascinating story of courage and endurance. As a private pilot myself, I often wonder how I would cope in similar circumstances, while simultaneously hoping I never have to find out!
This is a best seller story, someone has to film this. Raising my hat for the crew. Full respect.
The clips of the plane taking off was from Alameda near San Francisco. There is still a landing place in Alameda called "Clipper Lagoon"
I have been around aviation my whole life (I'm in my 7'th decade) and yet I had not heard of this fantastic feat before! Amazing! The only WW-II Pan Am Clippers I had heard of were the ones at Wake Island when it was attacked.
Danke!
I just found your channel today! Great stuff, super interesting. I’m a BIG Military History Geek (just as a hobby, in my spare time. It is something I’ve never pursued professionally).
In particular, I love how you combine real footage (and/or photographs), with stock/library footage, and awesome animation & custom / in-house animation, to produce some superb sequences, to greatly enhance enhance the viewing experience all along!! (And I don’t just mean on this one production, either!).
Awesome stuff!
I have always been a history lover and a fan of Pan Am and the flying boat era.
Back in the 1980s, I was in the US Naval Reserve, and had the pleasure of spending a couple of my annual two weeks’ active duty on a Fast Frigate moored to the former Pan Am dock on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay where that famous California clipper flight began. You have footage shot from that very pier in this video. Treasure Island was a training base for the Navy at the outset of Pan Am’s rise. It also served as a seaplane and blimp base back in WWII. I will always have fond memories of the facility. Even in the 80s it felt like a step back in time. I was sorry to hear that it was closed.
This is by far the best video I've seen on this story, fantastic work.
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is a great channel, especially considering it's only been around for a few months. Instantly one of my favorite aviation channels, always with interesting stories and incredible detail.
DAMMIT PAPER SKIES!! This was a fantastic video. Wow
I've flown around the world a couple of times, so this story has me curious about just how hard it would be to re-create a somewhat similar flight path on commercial airlines...certainly not the same as taking a Clipper, but still exciting.
I love Flying Boats. Runways have limit on weight and number of landings before maintenance but landing on water doesn't. It would be cool if airlines would bring back Flying Boats bigger then ever.
Sea water says ''hello''.
I agree...given the popularity of cruising nowadays, Could it be made to pay? I'd jump at the chance!
Well it probably wouldn't be real popular in the US, areas like the Caribbean or the Pacific Islands seriously need this.
Check “List of seaplane operators” on Wikipedia. (Not entirely current).
@@leechowning2712 Yeah for small charter flights, honestly. I'm surprised the Caribbean or Pacific Islanders haven't engineered and designed it themselves to fit this need. You've smart young people, you've got rich folk. I'm sure something can be done to fill a need for luxury and convenience free of the limitations of a runway. The rich love their yachts and love learning to fly. I'm honestly shocked this isn't a thing already.
This is probably the best aviation channel I have ever watched, maybe even the best channel. The narration, the format and content is all top notch. The only negative thing I see is that there isn’t 100’s of videos on it so far, lol. Hope to see the channel grow and stay around for a long time!
Always immediately jump when a new video drops!
Those guys on the clipper were HEROS.. The story deserves a MOVIE! AMAZING...
What an amazing story and great production value on this channel! Keep em coming, Paper Skies :)
Thank you! Will do! :)
This channel and Mustard’s are my favorite aviation history channels. They both have different styles and the production value is top notch.
Superb, as ever. Thank you for sharing this interesting piece of aviation history!
I read the book about this flight a couple of years ago. Absolutely amazing journey on an incredible aircraft.
What an incredible story! I'm really surprised I've never heard anything about this before. It's too bad flying boats went by the wayside, That must have been an amazing time to be alive. Great presentation Paper Skies!
I like how you can feel the tension without having to over dramaticize everything
it's a great day if a paper skies video drops
While I live in Auckland, New Zealand I wasn't alive back then . Fantastic tale from the past Thank You
What an incredible story. Thank you for sharing it.
Epic. And that bird was so much more elegant than her peers at the time. Hats off to the engineers on that beauty. Slide rulers and draft tables, can you imagine.
@ 11:19 The total number of 20lr jerry can would be 803.5 cans...
actually 804 jerrycans, you cant have half a jerry can...
@@nomedocanal8496 ...
That Y there is .5
Which is half filled...
@@ElTelBaby i mean that you can only transport 804 or 803 jerry cans
@@nomedocanal8496 You can also just call it a day at 800 jerry cans.
@@flopsinator5817 sure, way easier
Wow, great video. I haven’t heard this one before so thanks for that! The production quality is fantastic too! Really good mate
Knocked it out of the park again man, another fantastic video. I'm so glad I've subbed to your channel.
Thank you, Mart!
This was a really great telling of this extraordinary story. Thank you for taking so much effort to put it together!
Those planes were absolutly beautiful!
"Truth is stranger then fiction"
This is an amazing story, thank you for sharing it.
Really awesome content! Good quality, interesting, well edited video - waiting for new videos, hope your channel will grow.
Thank you so much!
Great story
Glad you enjoyed it Sam! 👍
An amazing story. The captain and crew are heroes. I grw up near by a military flying boat base after the end of their era and I saw giant airplanes being broken up. Precious memories now. Sad they had to go.
This whole story reads like something out of a game or movie, its truly astonishing!
Also, cool animation on that takeoff portion! The fuselage wasn't painted over as it should've been but the animation itself was neat.
I’m pretty sure the fuselage was still painted in silver paint. Their orders told them to strip the markings, not repaint the airplane, and they probably would not have a resources to do so until they got back home. All the Boeing and Martin Clippers, including the British BOAC birds, were eventually painted in camouflage but that would take a while after Pearl Harbor.
The book "The Long Way Home", goes into a lot more detail about this extraordinary flight and all the difficulties the crew overcame.
This video couldn't have dropped at a better time. Brb, grabbing beer and some snacks.
This video was so good that I watched it after two years again.
What an incredible story! 😱😱😱
Great, great work you did here. What a feat of airmanship.
This story would make the basis for a fantastic movie
What a story. Great material for a movie.
such a shame that this form of flying is gone these days, but such a beautiful story of such an amazing achievement, also the animations are very nicely Done :)
This story needs to be made into a movie!
Great documentary!! Fascinating story, well-told!
Beautifully told story. So well illustrated!
Yeah! Nice to see you back =)
I'll do my best to make new videos faster :)
the cell shaded plane sequence was cool!
Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: go.nebula.tv/paperskies
and *Watch my exclusive video* on Cheating in the Soviet Army and Navy: nebula.tv/videos/paperskies-the-kremlin-wars
Another interesting story highlighting the bravery and resourcefulness of the pilot and crew. Thank you for sharing.
I have the book about this (haven't read it yet though). It's an awesome story! I'd have loved being on that adventure, despite the dangers.
Now this should be a movie!
How come this TRUE STORY OF BRAVERY, VALOUR and INGENUITY…..hasn’t been turned into a blockbuster movie?!! 😳
Nice video - thank you!!! 😊
Thanks for reminding us of these little but significant events!
I'd heard of this before but still this was a great version.
Thanks!
Incredible story I would have likely not heard of without your video. Thanks for sharing.
The math part was interesting.
What a fun idea!
The answer is 803.5
The it would simply be 804, since you can't hold any fuel if you only have half a Jerry can :)
yes, but you can fill a jerrycans halfway
the context of the scenario implies that they have full Jerry cans, so I'd assume that you would just round up to the nearest whole
@@colelinse6196 this is a scenario similar to a math problem and not what would actually be done. how many jerrycans would be used? if you want to have no half full cans left, you would round DOWN not up.
after the initial shock wore off, baring the canyon run, it must've seen like a great adventure after a while.
That canyon part is something straight out of a movie. I can't believe this trip is something that actually happened.
Excellent video and amazing journey! Hats off!!
I like to listen/learn from you, keep it up