Pan Am Clipper; Leave SF Oct 14, 1936

Any info on the First passenger carrying flight leaving San Fran Oct 14, 1936; the .75¢ franking; and the oval Post Office Express Delivery marking much appreciated. The duplex Fort Worth, TX cancellation is 1936. Cover has no contents. Additional info other than requested is also appreciated. Thank you.

From AI online- unchecked by me
Pan Am did not operate a mail flight to England in 1936. The first scheduled,, direct airmail service across the Atlantic by Pan American Airways launched on May 20, 1939, departing Port Washington, New York, to England using the Boeing 314 Yankee Clipper.

the first scheduled transatlantic passenger and mail service began on June 24, 1939, with the Boeing 314 Yankee Clipper. While Pan Am was developing transatlantic plans in 1936, that year's pioneering efforts focused on establishing Pacific mail and passenger routes

But this was a transpacific flight-
On Paleric.blogspot.com there is an entry- "today in History" Oct 14, 1936 is a story about this flight. It was the first Transpacific flight carrying passengers, mostly reporters and going to Guam. Check it out
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Edit - Added first paragraph and last

Neat.

Although the 10/14 arrival in Guam was an earlier publicity flight with 10 journalists, departing SF 10/7/1936. Your 10/14 departure was also for journalists and VIPs, and then the first paying airline passengers to cross the Pacific departed SF a week after your flight, on 10/21.
https://www.clipperflyingboats.com/...line-service

You can read a bit about the 10/21 first paid-passenger flight here,
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/...enger-flight

The Post Office Express Delivery oval is a British marking, applied to items sent via the Express Delivery service, which provided for delivery by special messenger from the office of destination, at a cost of 6p from 1933-1956 ( https://www.gbps.org.uk/information.../express.php )

This is the cover I have, with the May 20th date

Yet another example of AI drivel and misinformation.

Yes, the flight left Alameda/San Francisco with an envelope mail to and delivered in England. Stupid AI seems unaware the Earth is round and both WEST and east gets to the UK.

On October 14, 1936 Pan Am President, Juan Trippe took 7 of his political and business cronies on a flying boat trip from San Francisco to Hong Kong with stops at Hawaii, Midway Island, Wake Island, Guam, and Manila in the Philippines. Calling this a passenger flight seems a bit of a stretch since it was basically a publicity stunt flight for Trippe to curry favor and get publicity since three of the VIPs Trippe included were presidents (not mere reporters) of major newspapers. They arrived in Hong Kong on October 30. The guy who created this cover, Francis J. Field, was a very active British stamp dealer and creator of first flight covers. Back then, dealers and collectors would not only go to great lengths to get covers flown on actual first flights, but in their enthusiasm they also created covers on speculation to try to get covers flown on flights that were not first flights in the hope of creating rarities that they could sell for high profits. From what I can see on this cover, while it is franked with the 75 cents of postage that covers flown from San Francisco to Manila would require, I do not think it was actually flown on that Pan Am publicity stunt flight for several reasons. First is that the flight arrived in Hong Kong on October 30, 1936 which was 7 days after this cover arrived and was backstamped in the UK. Second, it is not cancelled in San Francisco like Trans=Pacific Pan Am covers are, but rather in Fort Worth, Texas. And third, the first real passenger carrying Pan Am trans-Pacific flight departed San Francisco on October 21, 1936. My guess is Francis Field was trying to create something unique but was unsuccessful and this cover was flown on a regular CAM mail carrying flight from Fort Worth to New York which would have taken one day, or at worst 2 days, where it was forwarded by ship to the UK. As was mentioned above there was no trans-Atlantic airmail service until 1939 and that is not AI drivel. As for it going by air all the way across the Pacific then across Asia, the Middle East and Europe to arrive in the UK, this is not realistic as I mentioned the Pan Am aircraft that left San Francisco did not arrive in Hong Kong until well after this cover was backstamped in the UK.

Kimo, I'm not disputing what you've provided so far with the exception of the Oct 30th arrival date. That is 16 days in transit if leaving Oct 14th. Could the Oct 30th date you reference be in connection with the Oct 21st flight departure?

Hi Chevelle. The 16 day transit time was due to this publicity flight being something of a flying party with several days spent at the various transit points. There was no rush to get to the destination as there was on ordinary passenger flights.