On November 22, 1935 Pan American Airways began carrying mail across the Pacific
with its newly acquired Martin M-130 flying boat. Pan American decided to expand this
transpacific mail service to passenger carrying service on October 21, 1936.
Seven days before the inauguration of this new passenger service, on October 14, 1936 Pan
Am's Juan Trippe organized a personal air trip for some influential associates to fly across
the Pacific. They were:
Juan Trippe - President & General Manager of Pan American Airways
William Mc Adoo - Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee
Wallace Alexander - Chairman of the Matson Steamship Line
William Roth - President of the Matson Steamship Line
Sonny Whitney - Chairman of Pan Am board of directors
Roy Howard - Chairman of Scripps-Howard newspapers
Paul Patterson - President of the Baltimore Sun newspaper
Amon Carter - Publisher of the Fort Worth Star Telegram newspaper
Earlier Trippe's wife, Betty traveled by steamship from San Francisco to Hawaii on the
SS Lurline so she would be there to meet her husband when his flight arrived in Hawaii.
Trippe, Betty and their associates continued their flight across the Pacific mixing
business and pleasure on their many stops.
Itinerary:
Departed San Francisco - on October 14, 1936
Hawaii
Midway
Wake Island
Guam
Manila
Hong Kong - Made a side trip to Peking & Shanghai and other CNAC air routes on
a Douglas Dolphin float plane. Juan and Betty left their associates
and departed on October 30, 1936 via Imperial Airways.
Denang, (Tourane) South Viet Nam
Saigon, South Viet Nam
Penang, Malaysia
Bangkok, Thailand
Calcutta, India
New Delhi, India - Made a side trip to the Taj Mahal via a small chartered plane.
Jodhpur, India
Karachi, Pakistan
Gwadar, Pakistan
Sharjah, UAE
Bahrain
Bagdad, Iraq
Gaza, Palistine
Alexandria, Egypt
Crete, Greece
Brindisi, Italy
Rome, Italy
Marseille, France
Paris, France
London, England - Met with Charles & Anne Lindbergh
Berlin - By train to Frankfurt
Frankfurt (Friedrichshafen) Departed November 5, 1936 for Rio De Janeiro on the
6th South American Flight of the Hindenburg under the assumed
names of Mr & Mrs Brown to avoid any publicity.
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - Departed on November 17, 1936 to Miami, FL on a Pam Am
S-42 with stops at San Juan (Puerto Rico), San Pedro de Macoris,
Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) & Port au Prince (Haiti).
Miami, FL - Departed on November 20, 1936 for New York via Eastern Airlines.
Arrived New York, NY on November 20, 1936
Juan and Betty had traveled from San Francisco round-the-world to New York. They
privately claimed to be the first husband & wife to fly round-the-world by commercial aviation
but did not publicize their adventure as Trippe didn't want his journey to be called a
stunt.