Dixie Clipper
[4] Among the 22 passengers on board were Pan American chairman Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, his wife, William J. Donovan, John M. Franklin, Southern Railway executive William J. Eck, Clara Adams, who was on the first leg of a round-the-world flight; Torkild Rieber, Roger Lapham, investment banker Harold Leonard Stuart and Elizabeth Trippe.
The Dixie Clipper initially continued to provide a passenger service between the United States, Portugal and the United Kingdom, until as the war progressed it was employed to transport high-priority passengers (such as high ranking officers, scientists, war correspondents and USO entertainers), mail and cargo on international routes to Africa, Europe and in the Pacific.
[13][2] On board the Dixie Clipper were nine passengers: Roosevelt, advisor Harry Hopkins, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral William D. Leahy, the president’s physician Rear Admiral Ross T. McIntire, naval aide Captain John L. McCrea, the president’s valet Arthur Perryman, as well as secret service agents, Guy H. Sparman, Elmer R. Hipsley and Charles W.
[13] The passengers all went ashore while both aircraft were fully refueled and replenished with fresh food in preparation for the 2,100 miles (3,400 km) 19-hour journey across the Atlantic to Bathurst in Gambia.
Both aircraft were airborne by 7pm in order to avoid a nighttime take-off and initially cruised at 1,000 feet (300 m) for several hours, due to the weight of their maximum fuel load, which they consumed at a rate of three-fifths of a ton over the course of the crossing.
[14] As the 314’s were not required until the return leg they flew to Pan American’s flying boat base at Fisherman’s Lake in Liberia and remained there for two weeks.
[2] After the end of the conference, Roosevelt visited Rabat and Marrakech before returning to Bathurst from where he took a trip up the Gambia River on HMS Aimwell before flying to Liberia, where he met with its president, Edwin Barclay.
[2] Two hours away from Natal in Brazil, a piston on the number 3 engine of the Atlantic Clipper failed and oil began to spurt out and cover the wing, trailing edge and tail section.
The engine was closed down and slowed, which meant that the Dixie Clipper passed it and touched down on the 28 January, three hours ahead of schedule due to tailwinds, its sister landing 25 minutes later.
[2]While they awaited the arrival, Roosevelt who didn’t want to delay his return to the United States, departed from Parnamarim Field at 6am on the 29 January on two C-54s to Trinidad and stayed in the Macqueripe Beach Hotel.
[2] In passing over Haiti, shortly after noon, the flight circled the city of Port au Prince for a few minutes in order to afford the President a view from the air.
[6] After a smooth flight the, Dixie Clipper landed at Biscayne Bay at 4.35pm and from there the presidential party departed on a waiting train at 6pm back to Washington.
[15][16] As Pan American believed that the future lay with faster and cheaper to operate land based aircraft they declined to take up the option to buy any 314.
Initially it was anchored in the bay until its beaching cradle arrived which allowed it to be moved out of the water and on to the seaplane ramp at the Convair facility at Lindbergh Field in San Diego.
It and the other WAA owned 314s were purchased for $325,000 by Universal Airlines, a non-scheduled carrier and mortgaged to the brokerage firm General Phoenix Corporation of Baltimore.
