Sikorsky S-42 "Flying Boat" by Dan Witkoff

Based on the earlier Sikorsky S-40 that flew in 1931, Igor Sikorsky and Charles Lindbergh, working at the time as a Pan American Airways consultant, laid out plans for a new, larger flying boat. During the S-40's inaugural flight on 19 November 1931, the two visionaries began preliminary sketches on the back of a menu in the S-40's lounge.

Juan Trippe, the Pan American Airways president had a similar vision of an aircraft that could span oceans. The new design provided for an increased lifting capacity that would permit carrying fuel for a 2,500 mile nonstop flight against a 30 mile-an-hour wind, at a cruising speed far in excess of the average operating speed of any flying boat at that time. Pan Am was also courted by Glen Martin but Sikorsky's S-42 was to be delivered first as Martin's Martin M-130 was still almost a year away from completion.

OPERATIONAL HISTORY

Flying for Pan American Airways, a total of ten S-42s were built, manufactured by the Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft Division of the United Aircraft Corporation in Stratford, Connecticut. The aircraft first flew on 30 March 1934. The S-42 was also known as the Flying Clipper and the Pan Am Clipper.

British Marine Aircraft Ltd. was formed in February 1936 to produce S-42-A flying boats under licence in the United Kingdom but nothing came of this. The company built a factory on the western side of the Hamble peninsula with a slipway to Southampton Water. When the deal fell through the company was sold to H.P. Folland, who renamed it Folland Aircraft Limited.

All Sikorsky S-42s were either scrapped or destroyed in accidents.