John Delach

It didn’t take long after the end of the war for Pan American to abandon its flying boat service in favor of a new generation of land planes, particularly the Douglas DC-4, the Lockheed Constellation and the Boeing Strato Cruiser.

Captain William M. Masland ended his book about his ten-year experience operating these “flying boats with wings” with a final chapter about the end of his career flying these unique airplanes. He gave the chapter a simple yet haunting title: Requiem.

In December of 1945, my crew and I waited in Lisbon for Joe Hart and his crew to bring us a ship for the return to New York. This would be winter time, long way round by way of Africa, South America and the West Indies. The route was by now well established, but I sent a message to New York asking them what schedule they wanted us to follow on the return passage.

“We  don’t care,” was the answer. The Atlantic Division had a new interest, land planes. The DC-4’s were operating and the Lockheed Constellations could be  expected any day. They’d forgotten all about the flying boats.

I soon discovered that the passengers and crew all wanted to be in New York for Christmas, so we flew for three days and most of three nights, stopping only for fuel, finally landing at Bowery Bay at two o’clock in the morning the day before Christmas. This marked the last flight of a Pan American boat into New York.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, courageous seafarers explored the watery world. In the twentieth century the great flying boats in similar fashion explored the atmosphere that surrounds the globe. Now the boats were finished, gone where the sailing clippers went.

The night watchman met us, no one else. No flags, no bands, no speeches, just the night watchman making his usual rounds. There never was a quieter end to a brave and glorious era.

American Export Airlines was the first airline to offer regularly scheduled landplane commercial flights across the North Atlantic. Using DC-4 aircraft, it began passenger services from New York and England via Gander on 24 October 1945. PAA started its own flights through Gander very shortly thereafter, also using DC-4s. By the start of the new year, it scheduled five DC-4s per week from London via Gander and two more from Lisbon via Gander and the Azores. A typical DC-4 flight New York-London with a stop at Gander was 17 ½ hours.

Pan American soon upgraded its fleet of aircraft. The first Constellations were delivered on 14 January 1946 and the first Stratocruisers in 1949. All of these flights also stopped at Gander.

The flying boats quickly faded. The last Boeing B-314 operating across the Pacific was the California Clipper withdrawn in 1946 and the last B-314s to go were those operating between Baltimore and Bermuda in late 1951.

In 1947, PAA moved all operations from LaGuardia’s Marine Air Terminal to the  New York International Airport in Idlewild, Queens on Jamacia Bay. Nick-named Idlewild, this facility was re-named after John F. Kennedy in 1964 after he had been assassinated.

The Marine Air Terminal fell on hard times after Pan Am left for JKF. Eventually, it was named a national historical landmark and it was refurbished by the Port of NY and NJ. Today, Delta operates their Boston and DC shuttles from this terminal.

Transatlantic flights continued to improve as newer and aircraft with longer ranges joined their fleets. The introduction of the Douglas DC-7 C Model in 1956 and that of the Lockheed L 1049 Super Constellation in 1955 finally enabled fights to by-pass Gandar. But the success of both these airliners was short lived as the Boeing 707 Jetliner entered Pan American’s trans-Atlantic service in 1958…and that is a whole new story for another time.

Important Notification:

Dear Reader, Unfortunately I must suspend On the Outside Looking In until March due to a medical issue that requires me to undergo a radiation regiment until then. I look forward to rejoining you once this regiment is behind me.

See you on the other side.