I'm reading
Night Over Water by Ken Follett again.
It's a story told from many differing viewpoints and covers just about all the emotions one would want to read about. The story starts with the individuals who are soon to be aboard a fantastic flying boat heading to America just as WWII is starting. But don't fear, this is no "war story".
Although though the descriptions in the story are very good, even exciting, I wanted to gain a better appreciation for the "flying boat" it's self, the
Boeing 314 "Clipper", operated by the now defunct
Pan American Airways.
Unfortunately, there are no intact Clippers left, there is, however, at least one full size mock up, and plenty of information. In fact if you have the interest in experiencing the flying boat yourself, you can actually "fly" the Clipper from within the Microsoft Flight Simulator. The
version that I downloaded is free, as are many others re-created by aircraft enthusiasts. There are also "paid" versions, and I may buy one in the future. But the free one does "fly" and handle like the original plane.
So for those that may want to actually see what the Clipper is all about they can follow these links. The first link is to one of my albums created just for this post, and will eventually be deleted.
To get it started I'll use this video. It's in the wrong ocean but it does give you an idea of the actual "flying boat".
My
Boeing 314 Clipper album.
Touring a Pan American Airways Flying Clipper
Foynes Flying Boat Museum
I hope you'll enjoy both the story and the plane.