China Clipper made the first mail flight across the Pacific from San Francisco Bay to Manila in late November 1935. Edwin Musick's crew set out from Pan Am's seaplane terminal at Alameda Airport, later absorbed by Alameda NAS / Nimitz Field. Photo from: SFO Museum

Pan American Airway's Consolidated "Commodore" at their Alameda base in 1937. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge can be seen in the background. Apologies for the rope in front.

The Consolidated "Commodore" made its first flight in 1929 and was the state-of-the-art flying boat in the early 1930s. It was increasingly obsolete by 1937. The model 16-1 had a capacity of 22 passengers and 3 crew members.

'Navy Mystery Plane'. This is the prototype of the PBY Catalina. It had just flown non-stop from Coco Solo, Panama to San Francisco in 34 hours and 45 minutes. The aircraft underwent modifications over the winter and became the XPBY-1 as the P3Y was redesignated PBY. The building in the background belongs to the old Alameda Airport, just to the east of the new Naval Air Station Alameda which opened in 1940. Photo from: San Francisco Examiner / UC Berkeley Library

Pan Am's one and only China Clipper at Alameda in 1936. I took this with a 620 Box Brownie camera at age 14.

Alameda Island once boasted two airports: San Francisco Bay Airdrome and Alameda Airport / Benton Field. Maddux used the latter and Pan Am had a flying boat terminal here from 1935 until 1939. The site was then expanded as NAS Alameda and the Bay Airdrome was closed. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

Only three examples of the large M-130 flying boat were built for Pan Am. After the outbreak of the Pacific War Philippine Clipper was impressed by the US Navy with her Pan Am crew. It crashed into a mountain near Boonville, California on 21 January 1943, and all 19 people on board were killed. On the tailfin is the Martin company logo. Location thought to be Alameda. Photo from: Utah State History