Pan Americans Flying boat the Sikorsky S 40 Clipper Video

The Sikorsky S-40 was an American amphibious flying boat built by Sikorsky in the early 1930s for Pan American World Airways. It was the largest commercial airliner of its time. A total of three aircraft were built by the Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft Division of the United Aircraft Corporation in Stratford, Connecticut. All three were retired from service during World War II. The first passenger carrying service was on November 19, 1931 and was piloted by Charles Lindbergh from Miami, Florida to the Panama Canal Zone. The S-40 was the first of many aircraft known as Flying Clipper and Pan Am Clipper.
The S-40 was nicknamed the "Flying Forest" for its maze of support struts.

Driven from Russia by the Russian Revolution of 1917, Igor Sikorsky always dreamed of building giant aircraft. His partnership with Juan Trippe and Pan American would give him that opportunity. After the overwhelming success of Sikorsky's S-38, Juan Trippe wanted a plane with greater range, better performance and a greater payload capacity. Sikorsky's opportunity came and the result was the S-40.

The first S-40 was delivered to Pan Am on October 10, 1931. It was flown to the Anacostia Naval Air Station at Washington D.C. to be christened by Mrs. Herbert Hoover as the American Clipper. After Mrs. Hoover smashed a bottle of water from the Caribbean on the nose of the plane, Trippe called it a "flagship," and "the first American example of the great airliner of tomorrow that will speed trade and good will among nations." The Clipper designation was born.

The Clipper name was the brain child of Trippe himself. Trippe felt the flying boats shared a close relationship with the ships of the nineteenth century. Many of the same problems of buoyancy, equilibrium and streamlining that had faced the marine architects of the century before had to be solved on the drawing boards of the designers at Sikorsky and Pan Am as well.

Flying Clippers became one of the most famous names in aviation history. Many of the flight paths of these magnificent flying boats were based on navigational clues that originated in the old Clipper sailing ship logbooks. And the Flying Clipper pilots had to keep the same keen "weather eye" that enabled the salty captains of the Clipper Ship era to sail their way to living legends. Even after the age of the flying boats had ended, Pan Am continued to name their land based planes Clippers.

Specifications (S-40)
Number of Aircraft type: 3
NC-80V: American Clipper
NC-81V: Caribbean Clipper
NC-752V: Southern Clipper
General characteristics
Crew: four
Capacity: 40 passengers
Length: 76 feet 8 inches (23.4 m)
Wingspan: 114 feet 0 inches (34.7 m)
Height: 23 feet 10 inches (7.3 m)
Wing area: 1,875 square feet (174.2 m2)
Empty: 24,748 pounds (11,226 kg)
Loaded: 34,000 pounds (15,000 kg)
Maximum takeoff: lb (kg)
Powerplant: 4x Pratt & Whitney R-1690 radial engines, 575 hp (429 kW) each
Performance
Maximum speed: 135 miles per hour (217 km/h)
Range: 875 miles (1,408 km)
Service ceiling: 13,000 feet (4,000 m)
Rate of climb: ft/min (m/min)
Wing loading: 18 lb/ft² (89 kg/m²)
Power/Mass: 0.07 hp/lb (0.11 kW/kg)

Music: I've Heard That Song Before, Performed by Harry James and Helen Forrest.