Aircraft, airlines, history, and the future of flight.
Picture Charles Lindbergh somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic, thirty-something hours into his flight, fighting sleep with his bare hands. He’s prying his eyelids open. He’s sticking his face into the slipstream through the side window just to feel the cold air bite. Beneath him: nothing but ocean. Ahead: an entire continent holding its…
Picture the scene: New York, 1938. A giant flying boat with four radial engines is being loaded not just with fuel, but with enough fuel to make the entire crossing to Europe — and then some. Because the plan isn’t simply to cross the Atlantic. The plan is to prove it can be done nonstop…
Picture the scene: November 1935, Alameda, California. A giant flying boat sits in the water, its four radial engines ticking over, its hull gleaming. A small crowd watches as the China Clipper lifts off and points its nose west. Nobody aboard knows for certain that they’ll make it. The Pacific Ocean had never been crossed…