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Heres one of my collection of first flight covers - 'Samoan Clipper'
Also interesting is the fact that the back stamp is an ERROR - YEAR Jan 6th 1338
Anyone seen a wrong dated one on these before?
Samoan Clipper was one of ten Pan American Airways Sikorsky S-42 flying boats. It exploded over Pago Pago, American Samoa, on January 11, 1938, while piloted by famous aviator, Ed Musick. Musick and his crew of six died in the crash.
The aircraft developed an engine problem shortly after taking off from Pago Pago Harbor. The S-42 was fully loaded with fuel and exceeding the gross weight maximum for a safe landing. Because of this, Captain Musick elected to dump fuel before attempting an emergency landing. However, because of the seaplane's weight and reduced power, the S-42 circled the harbor with flaps extended to maintain lift while fuel dumping was in progress. Apparently, Sikorsky and Pan American had never tested fuel dumping with flaps fully extended. The position of the fuel dump vents on the wing, coupled with the consequent airflow with extended flaps created a back flow of vaporizing fuel which lingered and grew around the trailing edge of the wing.
It is believed that an explosive fuel/air mixture eventually extended to the engine exhaust manifold causing a catastrophic detonation that destroyed the plane in flight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoan_ClipperThe aircraft on the New Zealand Air Mail stamps is a
De Havilland DH84 Dragon, which was one of the aircraft on which the first economic scheduled airline services was started in early 1930's.
Posted 07/04/2011 10:01 pm
