South Pacific air ferry route in World War II

As the Japanese threat in the Far East increased in 1940, General Douglas MacArthur planned that in the event of war, the United States Army Air Corps would play a major role in defending the Philippines.

[1] After the United States' entry into the Pacific War, the only air service to the Orient was operated by Pan American Airways, while normal shipping lanes were cut off by the Japanese.

[1] Download coordinates as: Ferrying of aircraft to the Philippines from the United States began in 1916 when the First Company, 2d Aero Squadron, was activated at Fort William McKinley, Luzon, on 3 February 1916.

[1] Pan American Airways inaugurated the first regularly-scheduled air mail service from San Francisco to Hawaii and Manila on 22 November 1935.

The ensuing months would provide enough time for the Air Corps to ferry additional B-17 Flying Fortresses from the United States to the Philippines.

To counter this threat, the engineers constructed an easterly alternate route farther removed from Japanese advances by flying south from Christmas Island Airfield .