Night Over Water

AUTHOR’s NOTE

The golden age of the flying boats was very short.

Only twelve Boeing B-314s were built, six of the first model and six more of a slightly modified version called the B-314A. Nine were handed over to the U.S. military early in the war. One of these, the Dixie Clipper, carried President Roosevelt to the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. Another, the Yankee Clipper, crashed at Lisbon in February 1943 with twenty-nine casualties—the only crash in the history of the aircraft.

The three planes Pan American did not give to the U.S. military were sold to the British, and were also used to carry VIPs across the Atlantic: Churchill flew on two, the Bristol and the Berwick.

The point of flying boats was that they did not need expensive long concrete runways. During the war, however, long runways were built in many parts of the world to accommodate heavy bombers, and the advantage of the flying boats disappeared.

After the war the B-314 was uneconomic, and one by one the planes were scrapped or scuttled.

There are now none left anywhere in the world.