TRANSPACIFIC

"Transpacific"
15 min. version. Black & White and Color, Sound, 1939. Pan American World Airways corporate film collection.

With the advent of the new Boeing B-314, Pan American's transpacific service took a big leap. The new plane was more than half-again as large as its predecessor the Martin M-130, carried more payload, and had greater effective range. This shorter version of the hour+ film provides the highlights of a trip from Pan Am's new Treasure Island base in San Francisco Bay to far off Manila, with stops along the way at Hawaii, Midway, Wake, and Guam. The film begins with a preamble of sorts —an historic introduction to the beginnings of Pan Am's service across the ocean that began in 1935, with clips of the base-building expedition that made the route possible.

Given the historic significance of "Transpacific," we wanted to provide this version of the film that was captured from a 1980s film-to-tape transfer. We hope to have a higher resolution version available for viewing in the future.