Music: 1932 Alone Together | Catherine Russell 2019
Video: 1931 - 1934 The First Pan Am Clippers | S-40 & S-42 | Miami Dinner Key Terminal
1930s playlist: t.ly/TxIW
Highly recommended - www.acrossthepacific.net/
International airmail delivery contracts with the Postal Service "provided the foundation for Pan Am’s push into the Caribbean and Central America. Over the next few years founder Juan Trippe built up Pan Am’s routes in the region, along with South America, systematically acquiring local airlines or cutting deals with the ones who wouldn’t sell in order to ensure Pan Am’s supremacy.
Pan Am forged routes to countries that lacked runways, let alone concrete runways that could hold up in all kinds of weather conditions. That led Trippe to build Pan Am around seaplanes and amphibians, which could land wherever there was a stretch of water, preferably calm.
Trippe found a co-conspirator in Igor Sikorsky, an aeronautical engineer who escaped Revolutionary Russia and built an airplane factory in Stratford, Connecticut. Sikorsky’s company made the S-38, a sturdy seaplane used by Pan Am, the U.S. Navy, and others.
But the Russian also shared Trippe’s vision of a plane with a lavish interior that would transport passengers in style. In early 1929, Trippe and Sikorsky reached an agreement to construct the S-40, a four-engine seaplane with a cruising speed of 100 miles per hour and accommodations for up to 38 passengers.
In homage to the sleek, fast sailing clipper ships of the mid-19th century, Trippe dubbed the new plane 'Clipper.' He clothed the crew in crisp uniforms that made them look like they just stepped off an ocean liner. The maritime theme, along with a heavy dose of art deco sensibility, extended to the décor. The walls were inlaid with mahogany polished to a shine. The wood obscured the extra insulation used to limit the noise and vibration from the engines. Passengers could make use of full-sized lavatories with hot and cold running water.
On 12 Oct 1931, S-40 'American Clipper' was christened by Lady Lou Hoover, wife of the then US President. The maiden flight, complete with paying passengers, departed Miami on November 19, 1931 bound for Cristobal, Panama. Charles Lindbergh was once again at the controls. While en route to the first stop in Cuba, passengers dined on the very first hot meal prepared in an airplane sailing over water. Sikorsky also was on board, and as they made their way south, Lindbergh and Sikorsky talked about the next step. Lindbergh sketched on menus, envisioning something sleek that could fly 2,500 miles nonstop. The drawings became the S-42.
On August 16, 1934, the S-42 envisioned by Lindbergh and Sikorsky, dubbed Brazilian Clipper, left Miami bound for Buenos Aires. The flight was hailed both for its luxury and for its time saving. If the schedule could be maintained, the journey by air from Florida to Argentina could be reduced from eight days to six days.
Trippe’s attention to luxury paid off. In 1933, 85 percent of Pan Am’s passengers traveled on business. By 1940, businessmen accounted for only 45 percent. The rest were tourists flying south on holiday."
(longreads.com/2015/02/10/glam...)
* * *
"William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich had met as apprentices in the late 1890's at a prominent architectural firm, while still students at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and were tasked with drafting the plans for the winning bid for the soon to be constructed New York Public Library. After they graduated, they formed their own firm in 1903, and were soon winning bids for some very important jobs. One of these was the design of the new home for Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, sculptor and great grand-daughter of 'Commodore' Cornelius Vanderbilt. She was also the mother of Cornelius Vanderbilt 'Sonny' Whitney, who as a confidant to Juan Trippe during their school days would become intimately involved with Pan Am's early development. Perhaps it's this connection that led to Pan Am's choice of Messrs. Delano and Aldrich for their new terminal in Miami.
When the airline began to need more facilities to handle the growing expanse of routes and terminals, Delano and Aldrich were a natural choice. Their first seaplane base for Pan Am was Dinner Key. The new terminal was dedicated March 25, 1934, designed in what was termed the Streamline Moderne style.
In keeping with their approach in designing so many other buildings, Delano and Aldrich thought that the interior design should reflect the motif employed in every other aspect of the design, and so the building was graced with a myriad of design embellishments which has earned the Dinner Key Terminal an enduring place in architectural design history."
(www.panam.org/explorations/51...)
15 мар 2021
