Boeing 314 The Boeing 314 was a long - range flying boat produced by the Boeing Airplane Company between 1938 and 1941 . One of the largest aircraft of the time , it used the massive wing of Boeing ’ s earlier XB - 15 bomber prototype to achieve the range necessary for flights across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans . Twelve Clippers were built for Pan Am . Nine were transferred to the U . S . military . Three were sold to BOAC during the Battle of Britain ( 1940 ) and delivered in early 1941 . ( BOAC ' s 3 Short S . 26 transoceanic flying - boats had been requisitioned by the RAF ) . Design and development . Pan American had requested a flying boat with unprecedented range that could augment the airline ' s trans - Pacific Martin M - 130 . Boeing ' s bid was successful and on July 21 , 1936 , Pan American signed a contract for six . Boeing engineers adapted the cancelled XB - 15 ' s wing , and replaced the Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp radial engines with the Wright Twin Cyclone . Pan Am ordered six more aircraft with increased engine power and capacity for 77 daytime passengers as the Boeing 314A . The huge flying boat was assembled at Boeing ' s Plant 1 on the Duwamish River and towed to Elliott Bay for taxi and flight tests . The first flight was on June 7 , 1938 , piloted by Edmund T . " Eddie " Allen . At first the aircraft had a single vertical tail , and Allen found he had inadequate directional control . The aircraft returned to the factory and was fitted with the endplates on the ends of the horizontal tail in place of the single vertical fin . This too was found to be lacking and finally the centerline vertical fin was restored , after which the aircraft flew satisfactorily . The 314 used a series of heavy ribs and spars to create a robust fuselage and cantilevered wing , obviating the need for external drag - inducing struts to brace the wings . Boeing also incorporated Dornier - style sponsons into the hull structure . The sponsons , broad lateral extensions at the water line on both sides of the hull , served several purposes : they provided a wide platform to stabilize the craft while floating on water , they acted as an entryway for passengers boarding the flying boat and they were shaped to contribute additional lift in flight . Passengers and their baggage were weighed , with each passenger allowed up to free baggage allowance ( in the later 314 series ) but then charged $ 3 . 25 per lb ( $ 7 . 15 / kg ) for exceeding the limit . To fly the long ranges needed for trans - Pacific service , the 314 carried of gasoline . The later 314A model carried a further . To quench the radial engines ’ thirst for oil , a capacity of was required . Pan Am ' s " Clippers " were built for " one - class " luxury air travel , a necessity given the long duration of transoceanic flights . The seats could be converted into 36 bunks for overnight accommodation ; with a cruise speed of only ( typically flights at maximum gross weight were carried out at ) ; in 1940 Pan Am ' s schedule San Francisco to Honolulu was 19 hours . The 314s had a lounge and dining area , and the galleys were crewed by chefs from four - star hotels . Men and women were provided with separate dressing rooms , and white - coated stewards served five and six - course meals with gleaming silver service . The standard of luxury on Pan American ' s Boeing 314s has rarely been matched on heavier - than - air transport since then ; they were a form of travel for the super - rich , at $ 675 return from New York to Southampton , comparable to a round trip aboard Concorde in 2006 . Most of the flights were transpacific with a one - way ticket from San Francisco to Hong Kong , via the " stepping - stone " islands posted at $ 760 ( or $ 1 , 368 round - trip ) . The transatlantic flights continued to neutral Lisbon and Eire after war broke out in Europe in September 1939 ( and until 1945 ) but military passengers and cargoes necessarily got priority and the service was more spartan . Equally critical to the 314 ' s success was the proficiency of its Pan Am flight crews , who were extremely skilled at long - distance , over - water flight operations and navigation . For training , many of the transpacific flights carried a second crew . Only the very best and most experienced flight crews were assigned Boeing 314 flying boat duty . Before coming aboard , all Pan Am captains as well as first and second officers had thousands of hours of flight time in other seaplanes and flying boats . Rigorous training in dead reckoning , timed turns , judging drift from sea current , astral navigation , and radio navigation were conducted . In conditions of poor or no visibility , pilots sometimes made successful landings at fogged - in harbors by landing out to sea , then taxiing the Clipper into port . Operational history . The first 314 , " Honolulu Clipper " , entered regular service on the San Francisco - Hong Kong route in January 1939 . A one - way trip on this route took over six days to complete . Commercial passenger service lasted less than three years , ending when the United States entered World War II in December 1941 . At the outbreak of the war in the Pacific , the " Pacific Clipper " was en route to New Zealand . Rather than risk flying back to Honolulu and being shot down by Japanese fighters , it was decided to fly west to New York . Starting on December 8 , 1941 at Auckland , New Zealand , the " Pacific Clipper " covered over 31 , 500 miles ( 50 , 694 km ) via such exotic locales as Surabaya , Karachi , Bahrain , Khartoum and Leopoldville . The " Pacific Clipper " landed at Pan American ' s LaGuardia Field seaplane base at 7 : 12 on the morning of January 6 , 1942 . The " Yankee Clipper " flew across the Atlantic on a route from Southampton to Port Washington , New York with intermediate stops at Foynes , Ireland , Botwood , Newfoundland , and Shediac , New Brunswick . The inaugural trip occurred on June 24 , 1939 . The " Clipper " fleet was pressed into military service during World War II , and the flying boats were used for ferrying personnel and equipment to the European and Pacific fronts . Only the markings on the aircraft changed : the Clippers continued to be flown by their experienced Pan Am civilian crews . American military cargo was carried via Natal , Brazil to Liberia , to supply the British forces at Cairo and even the Russians , via Teheran . The Model 314 was then the only aircraft in the world that could make the crossing over water . and were given the military designation C - 98 . Since the Pan Am pilots and crews had extensive expertise in using flying boats for extreme long - distance , over - water flights , the company ' s pilots and navigators continued to serve as flight crew . In 1943 , President Franklin D . Roosevelt traveled to the Casablanca Conference in a Pan - Am crewed Boeing 314 " Dixie Clipper " . Winston Churchill flew on the " Bristol " and " Berwick " , adding to the Clippers ’ fame during the war . After the war , several Clippers were returned to Pan American hands . However , even before hostilities had ended , the Clipper had become obsolete . The flying boat ' s advantage had been that it didn ' t require long concrete runways , but during the war a great many such runways were built for heavy bomber s . New long - range airliners such as the Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC - 4 were developed . The new landplanes were relatively easy to fly , and did not require the extensive pilot training programs mandated for seaplane operations . One of the 314 ' s most experienced pilots said , " We were indeed glad to change to DC - 4s , and I argued daily for eliminating all flying boats . The landplanes were much safer . No one in the operations department . . . had any idea of the hazards of flying boat operations . The main problem now was lack of the very high level of experience and competence required of seaplane pilots " Retirement . The last Pan Am 314 to be retired in 1946 , the " California Clipper " NC18602 , had accumulated more than a million flight miles . Of the 12 Boeing 314 Clippers built three were lost to accidents , although only one of those resulted in fatalities : 24 passengers and crew aboard the " Yankee Clipper " NC18603 lost their lives in a landing accident at Lisbon , Portugal on February 22 , 1943 . Among that flight ' s passengers were prominent American author and war correspondent Benjamin Robertson who was killed and the American singer and film / TV actress Jane Froman who was seriously injured . Pan - Am ' s 314 was removed from scheduled service in 1946 and the seven serviceable B - 314s were purchased by the start - up airline New World Airways . These sat at San Diego ' s Lindbergh Field for a long time before all were eventually sold for scrap in 1950 . The last of the fleet , the " Anzac Clipper " NC18611 ( A ) , was resold and scrapped at Baltimore , Maryland in late 1951 . BOAC ' s 314As were withdrawn from the Baltimore - to - Bermuda route in January 1948 , replaced by Lockheed Constellation s flying from New York and Baltimore to Bermuda . Survivors . None of the dozen 314s built between 1939 and 1941 survived beyond 1951 with all 12 having been scrapped , scuttled , cannibalized for parts , or otherwise written off . Underwater Admiralty Sciences , a non - profit oceanographic exploration and science research organization based in Kirkland , Washington , announced in 2005 , at the 70th Anniversary of the first " China Clipper " flight in San Francisco , its plans to survey , photograph , and possibly recover the remains of the hulls of two sunken 314s : NC18601 ( " Honolulu Clipper " ) , scuttled in the Pacific Ocean in 1945 ; and NC18612 ( " Bermuda Sky Queen " , formerly " Cape Town Clipper " ) , sunk in the Atlantic by the Coast Guard in 1947 . UAS has also spent significant time at Pan Am reunions and with individual crewmembers and employees of Pan Am conducting videotaped interviews for the mission ' s companion documentary . There are unconfirmed reports that a private team of French businessmen FRT initiated an expedition to find the " Honolulu Clipper " on February 15 , 2011 using Russian equipment . It was further reported that the aircraft will be kept in a private collection and not open to the public . On June 14 , 2012 the " Honolulu Clipper " was spotted by the French Recovery Team FRT , with very little damage . Studies for recovery of the aircraft continue . There is a life - size 314 mock - up at the Foynes Flying Boat Museum , Foynes , County Limerick , Ireland . The museum is at the site of the original transatlantic flying - boat terminus . Popular culture . The 314 has been featured many times in pop culture , including several novels . The 1940 Alfred Hitchcock film " Foreign Correspondent " features the 314 in a pivotal in - flight disaster . The best - known example , in the film " Raiders of the Lost Ark " , actually used a Short Solent Mark III made to resemble a 314 by use of matte effects . The 1991 novel " Night Over Water " by author Ken Follett centers around a 314 flight from Southampton to New York during the outbreak of World War II .