Pan American Clippers : The Golden Age of Flying Boats

For a world coming out of economic depression in the 1930s, the Pan American Airways Clipper "flying boats" symbolized elegance and luxury, adventure and romance. Illustrated with rare period photographs, vintage travel posters, magazine ads and colourful company brochures, this fascinating book covers every aspect of the fabulous era of Pan American's graceful clippers. Like their maritime namesakes, the Clippers used the oceans to form a vast global network of travel routes. Pan Am founder Juan Trippe was a visionary who saw the importance of international travel to a changing world. His Clippers would play a key role in the evolution of transoceanic flight, setting time and distance records over the Atlantic and Pacific, providing airmail delivery between continents and eventually serving the Allies as troop and cargo transports during World War II. Pan Am Clippers permanently changed the world's concept of time and space by dramatically reducing travel time and opening up international air travel to the general public. This fascinating, informative and richly illustrated book brings back another time and way of life.

James Trautman is a regular contributor to magazines, newspapers and television. He has worked on projects to uncover the wreckage of one of the Pan Am Clippers lost in World War II.