The year 1935 was a
phenomenally crucial year for the Philippines. Not only did it gain the stature
of a commonwealth, but it also was the year when it was catapulted into the
world of international aviation.
On November 22, 1935, Pan American Airway's
giant seaplane named China Clipper rose from the waters of Alameda Bay near San
Francisco, California, to start an epochal voyage that took more than 60 hours
to reach the Far East, a voyage that would have taken a ship three weeks to
negotiate.
With a wing span of
130 ft., an overall length of 89 ft. and overall height of 24 ft., the China
Clipper was Pan Am's biggest ocean-going plane at that time, designed to span
the hitherto untraversed Pacific.
It carried mail
destined for Honolulu and the Philippines, and its historic flight marked the
first international airmail flight to the Philippines.
Commanded by
Captain Edwin C. Musick with a crew of six, the flight was negotiated in 60
hours and 7 minutes of actual flying time. The China Clipper landed in Manila
Bay at exactly three thirty-two o'clock in the afternoon of November 29, 1935,
escorted by 16 US army bombing, observation and pursuit planes, amidst sirens
of crafts in the bay and cheers of over 100,000 of the city's population.
The first airline passengers to be ferried across the Pacific to the
Philippines came on the same China Clipper on October 21, 1936. With a maximum
passenger capacity of 46, the China Gipper carried only 10 during this flight
because of the weight of the fuel and the mail.
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