Boeing C98 Clipper

In 1936, Pan Am requested for a flying boat with capability that could fly across the ocean. Boeing's bid of Model 314 Clipper was successful. Pan Am signed a contract for six Clippers. Boeing engineers used the wings of the cancelled XB-15 bomber on the flying boat body. The installation of new Wright Cyclone engines eliminated the lack of power that handicapped the XB-15. The Clipper made its first flight in 1938. It was the one of large flying boats of its time. At the outbreak of the World war II, the Clipper fleet was pressed into military service for ferrying personnel and equipment to the European and the Pacific fronts. It was given the military designation C-98. In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled to the Casablanca Conference in a Pan-Am crewed C-98. Prime minister Winston Churchill also flew on them several times adding to the Clippers¡¦ fame during the war. After the war, several C-98 Clippers were returned to Pan Am. As the new landplanes were relatively easy to fly, the Clipper had become obsolete. The last Clipper was retired in 1946.