Boeing 314 Clipper
flying boat airliner
The Boeing 314 Clipper was an American long-range flying boat produced by Boeing from 1938 to 1941. One of the largest aircraft of its time, it had the range to cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. For its wing, Boeing re-used the design from the earlier XB-15 bomber prototype. Twelve Clippers were built, nine of which served with Pan Am. It was the first aircraft to carry a sitting American president, when in 1943 Franklin D. Roosevelt flew from Miami to the Casablanca Conference in Morocco, via Trinidad, Brazil, and The Gambia.
Development
Background
As early as 1935 Pan American had identified that a truly trans-Pacific flying boat with unprecedented range and double the passenger payload of the airline's Martin M-130 would be required particularly if they were to provide a service across the longer more difficult Atlantic route and requested proposals from a number of American manufacturers.
In February 1936, not long after the M-130s were introduced into service, Pan American launched a design competition for the first transoceanic airliner. Boeing, Douglas, Consolidated, Martin and Sikorsky were requested to provide preliminary studies and proposals for a long-range, four engine, marine aircraft. The new plane had to be able to transport up to 10,000 pounds of payload with a minimum range of 2,400 miles and cruise speed of 150 mph at an altitude of 10,000 feet. Pan American was also adamant about providing comfort, space, and luxury for their passengers, as well as providing the ultimate in safety.
The public source identifies “Boeing 314 Clipper” as flying boat airliner. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Boeing, Clipper and flying.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q890166. The Library of Congress control number is sh2002009963. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1938, 1941, 1943 and 1935.
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This entry incorporates text from “Boeing 314 Clipper” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.