Customer Reviews

China Clipper- Pan Am's Conquest of the Pacific

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dear Customer Service: Thank you very much for this wonderful historic record of the Martin 130, China Clipper, as it opened the Pacific to aviation in 1935 with Pan American Airways. Juan Trippe, the president of Pan American, had great foresight along with his successful business management ability. Pan American set
the standard for all airlines in the many years of it's
existence. This wonderful tribute to the entire Pan American Airways organization is a remarkable achievement.

The video production itself is very cheesy with public-domain sound tracks and titles. The video earned 5 stars from me because in spite of the cheesyness, it clearly captured the spirit of a new age not seen again until the space program came along. I enjoyed following the path of the Clipper in the video as it made its way from San Fancisco to Hong Kong. The stops along the way were as amazing as the flight itself. This video is a treasured part of my colleciton.

The video is what I expected and is an interesting and informative history of the PanAM clipper.

For any Pan Am Clipper enthusiast interested in actual video footage of the "big three" golden-age Clippers (Sikorsky S-42, Martin M-130, and Boeing 314), this DVD is worth every penny of its $25 price! All three planes are introduced and shown in development, but the 314 gets the most coverage, with footage from stops across the Pacific in a travelogue style forming a large chunk of the video. The 314 is my personal favorite, so no complaints here, but some people might like to see more of the other ships (I would, too, if any film survives, of course!). I presume this DVD was transferred from an earlier video (a bit of VHS-looking fuzz at the bottom of my screen), but that and the occasional 1980's synthesized background music did not detract too much from my experience. I've found it difficult to track down video footage of these beauties, so this DVD was a fantastic treat. Even some COLOR film of the 314! Alas for being born too late to be part of this era.

Footage of pioneering Pan Am bases being built on Pacific islands, some shots of the Sikorsky S-40 and VS-44, mention of Pan Am's contribution to the WWII effort, plus brief clips of Juan Trippe, Charles Lindbergh, Igor Sikorsky, and Grace Coolidge really rounded out this bit of history nicely. 11 out of 10 from this flying boat lover--I still have a smile on my face after watching it.

There are a number of well-illustrated books on flying boats and commercial operations employing them. This video provides a unique added dimension to the stories; not new information but film and still sources that expand our sense of how exceptional these huge aircraft were for their time. Still pictures and text cannot convey the drama and luxury of air travel across the Pacific. All the books I have on the Clippers and flying boats miss this emotional experience. This DVD does for Pan Am and it's brief history of Clipper operations what "Triumph of Will" does for the the history of the Nuremberg rallies

I am a big fan of the "golden age" of flying and flying boats. This has a lot of rare shots of various models of Pan Am's flying boats. I really liked this DVD, it has become one of my favorites.