When aviation entrepreneur Juan Trippe and Pan American Airways were rebuffed in a dispute with the British over landing rights in their hoped for transatlantic routing, Trippe made the daring decision instead to establish a transpacific air route between San Francisco and China that would employ the new giant flying boat technology that was still under development. Until then, only zeppelin airships had offered the kind of range required for routine commercial transoceanic flights. Capable of crossing the ocean twice as fast as zeppelins with only a fraction of the crew, these new flying boats helped make zeppelins obsolete.
In order to span the vast distances involved for transpacific routing, it became necessary to first establish a series of stepping-stone island bases to refuel and support giant four-engine seaplanes such as the Martin M-130, at the time the largest aircraft ever built in the United States. This flying boat was specially developed to meet Pan American Airways’ challenging requirements for transoceanic flight.
The first of these aircraft was named the China Clipper, recalling the famed 19th century clipper ships that sailed the world’s oceans (Figure 1). Note that in this photo below the aircraft at the lower right is a pile of mailbags with (from left) Postmaster General James A. Farley, Second Assistant Postmaster General Harlee Branch, and Trippe standing nearby.
Figure 1. A China Clipper prepares to leave San Francisco on the transpacific first flight of November 22, 1935.
Since key Pacific islands were controlled by the United States government it was possible to establish an island hopping transpacific route from San Francisco, via Honolulu, Midway Island, Wake Island, Guam and Manila, with the longest single open ocean leg being a flight of about 2,400 miles between San Francisco and Honolulu.
The most difficult base to establish was on tiny Wake Island, an uninhabited coral atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. After much work to remove obstacles such as coral heads, the coral reef surrounding Wake Island’s central lagoon offered a protected area of smooth water for seaplane take-offs and landings.
The proposed transpacific route passed directly through a region of the Pacific Ocean surrounded by the former German colonies of the Marshall, Mariana and Caroline islands that were now controlled by the Japanese Empire under mandate following World War I. These included the islands of Tarawa and Saipan, where some of bloodiest battles of World War II were to be fought.
Thus, developing this commercial transpacific air route was seen as a diplomatically feasible means of projecting American influence in the western Pacific and helping to counter an increasingly aggressive Japan. This caused the effort to be strongly supported by Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United States government. Besides global political and military considerations, FDR and Postmaster General (PMG) James A. Farley were also in favor of establishing a foreign airmail (FAM) contract route across the Pacific, which would be known as FAM-14.
Transpacific flight covers offer a fascinating area for the specialist collector, including survey flights before regular airmail service began, unusual rate combinations or frankings on commercial airmail, etc., continuing up until transpacific airmail service ended due to World War II.
I will begin by illustrating transpacific airmail with two first flight covers on official government stationery that were signed by FDR and Farley, respectively. Between them, these covers show multiples of each of the five different stamps that were produced for transpacific airmail flights and all of these stamps depict the M-130 China Clipper, either in the stamp’s design or as an overprint.
The first cover (Figure 2) is on oversize official White House stationery (7¾ inches by 5¼ inches). This is for the December 2, 1935, return eastbound first flight from Manila to the United States, with a slogan machine cancellation backstamp showing it was processed in San Francisco on December 6 before continuing on to Washington, D.C.
Figure 2. A signed transpacific first flight cover on oversize official White House stationery for the December 2, 1935, flight from Manila to the United States. The cover is franked with four stamps from the Philippines, an overprinted block of four (Scott C53), a vertical pair and single with similar design (Scott C52) along with a Temples of Human Progress commemorative (Scott 398). A backstamp (shown left) dates the cover’s arrival in the U.S.
The handstamped dated cachet shows the island-hopping route, and the cover is attractively franked by engraved stamps of the Philippines. The stamps are overprinted in gold ink with an image of an M-130 seaplane and the words “P.I. U.S. Iinitial Flight December 1935.” Since the official issue date for these stamps was December 2, 1935, this is also a first day cover. In addition, the cover includes a beautifully engraved Commonwealth of the Philippines stamp depicting The Temples of Human Progress. Note that all of these stamps were printed by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Of special interest, the cover is signed “Franklin D. Roosevelt” below typed information about the flight and is addressed to Paul M. Hart at the White House. Hart was a longtime senior member of FDR’s Secret Service protection detail who knew FDR quite well as revealed by other items not shown here. For example, I have other covers sent to or by Hart on official White House stationery illustrating some of his extensive Secret Service travel with FDR, and have seen other FDR autographed items for Hart, including a signed cruise book inscribed “For Paul Hart from his friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt.”
Another transpacific first flight cover is for the westbound April 21, 1937, flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong.
This spectacular item (Figure 3) is on large (10½ inches by 6½ inches) official Postmaster General Stationary addressed to Amon Carter, with the embossed corner card signed by James A. Farley.
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Figure 3. A signed transpacific first flight cover on large official Postmaster General Stationary for the April 21, 1937, flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong sent by James A. Farley to Amon Carter. The 16 stamps include a pair of 1935 blue airmails (C20), six each of 1937 airmails (20-cent green, C21; 50-cent carmine, C22) and a pair of airmail Special Delivery stamps. Also shown, the dated Hong Kong backstamp and a detail from the 1935 airmail.
The cover was flown on the China Clipper from San Francisco to Manila, then transferred to the Hong Kong Clipper (a Sikorsky S-42B flying boat) for the final flight to Hong Kong via Macao with the backstamp showing arrival on April 28, 1937.
The cachet depicts an M-130 seaplane in flight at the top, and Chinese junk with a flying goose at the bottom. Unusually, the cover is over-franked with $5.02 in postage using eight vertical pairs of stamps arranged in a colorful and meticulously laid out checkerboard pattern. The stamps include three pairs each of 20- and 50-cent airmail stamps issued two months earlier, plus a pair of 25-cent blue airmails released in 1935. All depict a front view of a Martin M-130 in flight over the Pacific Ocean. There also is a pair of 16-cent airmail Special Delivery stamps.
It is interesting to note that FDR was involved in the approval process for these airmail stamps, and when first shown the proposed model for the blue 25-centers, he noticed that the clipper sailing ship in the background at the lower left had only two masts instead of three. FDR objected and this was corrected in the final stamp design (see closeup).
So, who was Amon Carter and why was such a spectacular first flight cover sent to him by Farley? Simply put, Carter was an especially valued supporter of FDR’s New Deal and the publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a major newspaper with a distribution area of some 350,000 square miles and the largest circulation of any newspaper in the South.
Carter’s status is supported by a significant number of entries over the years 1933-1944 in the White House visitors log that show him meeting with FDR in the Oval Office or visiting as a dinner guest. If the idea is to produce a spectacular cover for a VIP and you are the postmaster general, there would certainly be no shortage of stamps.
Philatelically speaking, Carter himself liked covers created using blocks of airmail stamps, and arranged to have these sent to friends. For example, Trippe in a February 19, 1937, letter to Carter that preceded the first transpacific first flight to Hong Kong, writes “Many thanks for your first day cover, including the blocks of the new twenty and fifty cent transpacific airmail stamps.”
Carter (Figure 4) also received other philatelic favors from the FDR administration, and I have a number of favor first day covers on official Post Office Department stationery in my collection that were sent to Carter, his teenage daughter and son, with signed letters from the postmaster general or other officials. Some are simply addressed to “Mr. Amon Carter, Fort Worth, Texas,” where he was so well known that no street address was required.
Figure 4. Amon Carter wearing his trademark “Shady Oaks” Stetson.
A favorite of mine, Carter was one of the more colorful characters of the FDR era with a Texas-sized personality. Carter was especially well known as a booster for Fort Worth, whose disdain for Dallas was legendary.
It is said that Carter so hated to spend money in Dallas that when visiting that city he would top up the gas tank of his car before leaving Fort Worth and pack a sack lunch to avoid having to eat at a Dallas restaurant. However, his frugality in this regard was apparently undermined by his wife, who is said to have maintained a secret charge account at Neiman Marcus in Dallas.
Once, when local authorities decided to try to end the ongoing feud between Fort Worth and Dallas, a ceremony was held at the county line to officially bury the hatchet on the rivalry. Leaders from both cities were presented with hatchets, and shovels to bury them with. After the ceremony a reporter mentioned to Carter that the handle of his hatchet was still sticking out of the ground, to which Carter replied he “might need his hatchet later.”
Besides his close relationship with the FDR White House and members of FDR’s cabinet, Carter had a passionate interest in aviation and his friend, Trippe, of Pan American Airways, often invited him to be a guest on important Clipper flights. In fact, Carter was included among the small number of VIP travelers on pioneering Clipper flights that preceded those for paying passengers on a number of occasions.
An overview of these is briefly summarized in a portion of Carter’s September 16, 1940, letter to FDR’s secretary of state, Cordell Hull, in which Carter states that it has been his observation on four of these Clipper trips (including those to South America, Hong Kong, London, and New Zealand) that “Pan American Airways is doing a grand job for America in its pioneering of both the Pacific and Atlantic.”
After establishing Clipper service between San Francisco and Hong Kong via Manila in the Philippines with the Martin M-130, the next major expansion for Pan American was into the South Pacific by extending Clipper service to Auckland, New Zealand from Honolulu. By then, following the fiery destruction of the Hindenburg, zeppelin travel was a thing of the past and a new Boeing 314 flying boat that could fly even greater distances and carry heavier loads was becoming available.
Initially, Pan American’s survey flights explored a route into the South Pacific via Kingman Reef and Pago Pago. Following a tragic accident, the longer range of the Boeing 314 allowed for a much safer and more desirable route to Auckland via Canton Island and Noumea, New Caledonia.
An exceptionally large (11½ inches by 9 inches) first flight cover on official embossed Postmaster General stationery for the westbound transpacific flight from San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand on the American Clipper is shown (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Transpacific first flight cover on very large official Postmaster General Stationery for the July 12, 1940, flight from San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand.
This piece was mailed on July 12, 1940, with $5.10 in postage arranged in an elaborate design that includes two full plate number blocks of six of the airmail types shown earlier. The recipient was Marvin H. McIntyre, one of FDR’s longtime presidential secretaries, who had been in poor health and was recuperating in Asheville, North Carolina before returning to duty at the White House.
An enlargement of the cachet shows Honolulu-Canton Island-Noumea-Auckland routing. Also handstamped on the front is “Fee claimed at Ashville, N.C.” referring to the post office where the special delivery fee was to be credited. Backstamps show arrival in Auckland, New Zealand on July 18, return to San Francisco on the July 24 with the special delivery backstamp showing the cover’s arrival in Asheville on July 26.
This large cover must have cheered up McIntyre, and the hand-written notation “Amon Carter” above the corner card suggests that this had been arranged for him by his friend.
For passengers, Pan American’s new Boeing 314 Clipper offered unparalleled luxury for transoceanic airline travel. A cutaway illustration (Figure 6) shows how the giant flying boat was divided into a number of compartments.
Figure 6. A cutaway drawing shows accommodations on Pan American Airway’s Boeing 314 Clipper.
There were five cabins for passengers that instead of airline seats had plush armchair seating that converted into Pullman-like sleeping berths, plus there was a deluxe compartment at the back nicknamed the “Bridal Suite.” In addition there was a main lounge and dining room for meal service and relaxation, separate restrooms/changing rooms for men and women, and a galley (kitchen). The wings were so large that the flight engineer could access the engines via internal crawlways, if necessary. There was also a crew deck, crew quarters and baggage compartments.
Carter himself experienced this level of luxury travel on Pan American Airways’ Boeing 314 Clippers during special round trip VIP flights to London, on the Yankee Clipper, in 1939, and to Auckland, New Zealand, on the American Clipper, in 1940. Especially luxurious ground accommodations for passengers were also included.
For example, for Noumea in New Caledonia, Pan Am purchased the 230-foot long yacht formerly owned by Cyrus H.K. Curtis, publisher of The Saturday Evening Post, for use as a floating hotel, renaming it The Southern Seas. I’m fortunate in having a hand-addressed cover written by Carter aboard this luxurious vessel that was sent to McIntyre at the White House (Figure 7).
Figure 7. A hand-addressed censor cover sent by Amon Carter to Marvin McIntyre at the White House during his trip to New Zealand on Pan Am’s Boeing 314 Clipper. It bears a 2½-franc commemorative from New Caledonia (Scott 171).
Note that the front upper left corner of the stationery is imprinted “On Board, M.V. Southern Seas,” and has a Pan Am logo on the back. It is franked with a 2½-franc New Caledonia stamp and was postmarked September 5, 1940, at Noumea, New Caledonia. Later, in Carter’s own words to Trippe in a letter of September 16 sent following his return wrote, “The Southern Seas was a life saver. The service on the yacht was 100%-plus. It was like an oasis in a desert. We had delightful accommodations and the very best of food.”
By this time, the influence of World War II in Europe was being felt in the South Pacific and wartime censorship rules applied to this cover. The paper censor tape is from Australia’s 2nd Military District in New South Wales (Sydney).
The situation in New Caledonia itself had been in turmoil since the fall of France in June 1940, when a pro-Axis Vichy French government under Marshall Pétain came into power. However, the Conseil General of New Caledonia instead voted unanimously to support Charles de Gaulle and the Free French government in-exile. As a result, in September, the pro-Vichy governor was forced to leave for Indochina and this was followed by a Free French representative backed by the Australian navy arrived in Noumea.
Interestingly, McIntyre was on duty at the White House on the afternoon of December 7, 1941, while FDR was receiving news concerning the attack at Pearl Harbor. McIntyre then attended the emergency meeting that FDR called that same afternoon with his top White House aides and key cabinet officials, which included the Secretaries of War and the Navy. This traumatic event led to a declaration of war on Japan the next day. Soon afterwards the Army and Navy took possession of all Pan Am aircraft with Pan Am crews continuing to fly them, but all routing and schedules were subordinated to military needs.
In January 1943, President Roosevelt himself flew on the Pan American’s Boeing 314 Dixie Clipper to the wartime Casablanca Conference in Morocco, becoming the first American president to fly while in office. Of special note, during the return journey from the conference on January 30, FDR celebrated his 61st birthday while in-flight. Roosevelt is shown preparing to cut his birthday cake while seated next to Admiral William Leahy in the Boeing 314 Clipper’s dining room (Figure 8). Across the table is his close aide, Harry Hopkins, who is seated next to Captain Cone, the Clipper’s pilot.
Figure 8. FDR aboard Boeing 314 Clipper on his birthday, January 30, 1943.
By the time of Roosevelt’s death in 1945, rapid advances in aviation technology during World War II coupled with the development of new and expanded airport facilities around the world, brought the era of luxury travel by giant flying boats to an end.
These iconic symbols of pre-war glamour were replaced by faster, longer-range, land-based aircraft that could fly at high altitudes to avoid weather turbulence. Pan American Airways became a world leader in this trend, transitioning to four-engine land-based DC-4 and Lockheed Constellation aircraft for nearly all of its transatlantic and transpacific flights by January 1946. As a result, the end of the golden age of giant flying boats for transoceanic travel seemed to coincide with the end of the FDR era.
Resource
Krupnick, Jon E., Pan American’s Pacific Pioneers: The Rest of the Story, A Pictorial History of Pan Am’s Pacific First Flights 1935-1946 (Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Co. Inc, 2000).
Acknowledgments
The author would like to acknowledge Allison Kirchner, of Special Collections, Mary Couts Burnett Library at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas, for help with information from the Amon G. Carter papers held at TCU; and Dann Mayo for help with the censor cover sent by Amon Carter to Marvin McIntyre at the White House.
The Author
Paul M. Holland, from Santa Barbara, California, is a specialist collector of the Franklin D. Roosevelt era, broadly defined. He also maintains a representative worldwide stamp collection from 1840 to 1945, with a special fondness for early classic stamps.
For Further Learning
Recommendations from the APRL research staff:
Cohen, Norman Alan. A Philatelic Guide to The Postal History of West Indian Aerial Express and Pan American Airways, 1927-1931 (Dallas, TX: A. Cohen, 1997). [HE6238 .C679p 1997]
Johnson, R.I. “Transpacific Airmails, 1941- 1942,” Postal History Journal (February 1982).
“Pan American World Airways System,” Jack Knight Air Log (October-December 1947).
Plass, Gilbert N. “First Transpacific Airmail Service,” Possessions (1984, 1Q).
“Transpacific Air Mail Service,” Stamps (March 27, 1937).