Pacific Clipper
the first commercial plane to circumnavigate the world
The Pacific Clipper (civil registration NC18602) was an American Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat, famous for having completed an unplanned nearly around-the-world flight in December 1941 and January 1942 as the California Clipper. Aviation experts called the flight the first commercial circumnavigation of the globe because the aircraft made it back to its country of origin.
History
The Boeing 314 with civil registration NC18602 was delivered to Pan American; it made its shakedown flight from San Francisco, United States to Hong Kong from February 23 to March 3, 1939.
Flight
On December 2, 1941, the Clipper departed from the Pan American base on Treasure Island, San Francisco for its scheduled passenger service to Auckland, New Zealand. It landed at Pan American's LaGuardia Field seaplane base in New York City five weeks later, at 7:12 on the morning of January 6, 1942.
Crew
Captain Robert Ford
First Officer John H. Mack
Second Officer/Navigator Roderick N. Brown
Third Officer James G. Henriksen
Fourth Officer John D. Steers
First Engineer Homans K. "Swede" Roth
Second Engineer John B. "Jocko" Parish
First Radio Officer John Poindexter*
Second Radio Officer Oscar Hendrickson
Radio Operator Edward Leach**
Purser Barney Sawicki
Asst Purser Verne C. Edwards
* Poindexter departed Treasure Island, California as an observer tasked with validating the performance of a new radio set; for that leg of the journey, Hendrickson was first radio officer and the second radio officer position was vacant. Upon arrival in San Pedro, California, Captain Ford learned that the man who was supposed in serve as second radio officer was hospitalized and Poindexter, who was senior to Hendrickson, agreed to continue on the trans-Pacific journey, becoming the first radio officer.
**Leach was a staff passenger, originally being transported from Nouméa, New Caledonia to Auckland, New Zealand. After boarding in Nouméa, Leach remained with the aircraft until its arrival in New York.
Scheduled points
San Pedro, California, United States on December 2, 1941, where the designated second radio officer was scheduled to join the crew; Ford learned that the man had been hospitalized.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Pacific Clipper” is the first commercial plane to circumnavigate the world. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Pacific, Clipper and first, not as a finished interpretation.
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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 Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7122350. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1941, 1942 and 1939.
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