Sikorsky S-42: Pan Am Brazilian Clipper Flying Boat Flies Chicks to Rio 1939 Chevrolet Leader News Newsreel Vol 5 No 2 (Patreon)

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'CHICKS AIRSHIPPED FROM FLORIDA TO SOUTH AMERICA...

Title Card: "Cheep! Ex-Eggs Bunk in Pullman, Rush Drumsticks to Rio."

Delivery van arrives at sea-plane terminal with load of newly hatched chicks bound for South America.

"Pan American Airways System Air Mail & Express" delivery van driving rapidly on palm tree-lined road. VS sea-plane, propellors spinning, floating beside dock and terminal building. VS passengers boarding sea-plane (Pan American Airways System). VS delivery van speeding around curves. Roadway leading to water. CU pilot, wearing white cap, anxiously checking his watch. Delivery van drives passed airplane hanger; stops on roadway leading to water. 2 men, wearing white coveralls and caps, unloading stacks of boxes from rear of van; walking toward boat; handing boxes to pilot who places them in cargo hold. Pilot reaches o.s for clipboard and signs. VS sea-plane leaving dock; taking off; flying. Delivery van driving on palm tree-lined road; stopping in front of building indicating "Biscayne Hatcheries, Inc. - Baby Chicks"; ECU dozens of baby chicks in 3 wooden drawers; CU several wooden drawers stuffed with hundreds of live chicks; hand gently strokes them; removes, then returns egg to drawer. ECU chick hatching as another chick stands beside it; chick emerges from shell. Hands transferring newly hatched chicks to cardboard carton (empty shells visible); places cardboard lid indicating "Baby Chicks" over carton; hands remove box. Delivery van with rear doors open; man, wearing white coveralls and caps, loading stacks of cardboard boxes into van. CU 2 baby chicks in toy airplane with spinning propeller; ECU same.'

Originally a public domain film from the Library of Congress Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_S-42

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The Sikorsky S-42 was a commercial flying boat designed and built by Sikorsky Aircraft to meet requirements for a long-range flying boat laid out by Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) in 1931. The innovative design included wing flaps, variable-pitch propellers, and a tail-carrying full-length hull. The prototype first flew on 29 March 1934, and, in the period of development and test flying that followed, quickly established ten world records for payload-to-height. The "Flying Clipper" and the "Pan Am Clipper" were other names for the S-42...

During the inaugural flight of Sikorsky's previous flying boat, the S-40, on November 19, 1931, the pilot and Pan American Airways consultant, Charles Lindbergh, who considered the S-40 a monstrosity, engaged designer Igor Sikorsky in a conversation about what he thought the next airplane should look like. The conversation continued that night at the hotel in Jamaica. Sikorsky argued that design development should be incremental and that the safe approach would be a larger S-40. Lindbergh argued that a sleeker design, with a range in still air of 2,500 miles, was needed.

In June 1931 Pan Am president Juan Trippe had requested designs from six aircraft companies for an aircraft able to span the oceans. The new design would need increased lifting capacity to carry enough fuel and 300 pounds of mail, but no passengers, for a 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) nonstop flight against a 30 mph (48 km/h) wind, at a higher cruising speed than the norm for similar flying boats at that time. Of the six companies tenders had been sent to, only Sikorsky and Martin provided submissions. Sikorsky offered the S-42. The other offer was the more ambitious Martin M-130.

The new Sikorsky design, the S-42, had major aerodynamic improvements over the S-40. Igor Sikorsky said, "in its very outline the S-42 represents simplicity. Diverting sharply from the past Sikorsky designs, external bracings have been reduced to a minimum. The tail, instead of being supported by outriggers, is attached directly to the hull." The S-42 had a high wing loading which required flaps to provide acceptable takeoff and landing speeds. Though Lindbergh approved of the S-42, it fell far short of his proposed range...

Pan Am's S-42s were used primarily on the Miami - Rio de Janeiro route. In 1937 S-42s also operated a New York-to-Bermuda service. 1940 saw S-42 flights between Seattle and Alaska. An S-42 was also used between Manila and Hong Kong...