This article also stirs up some personal emotions: in the 1930’s, the novelty of air travel set the nostalgic myth of adventure and romance in the skies that I still feel today – as a former crewmember for VARIG Brazilian Airlines, I always imagined myself flying in those days, when travelling across the world, before globalization, would have been an thrilling experience. It must have been amazing to travel for six days between California and Macao or Hong Kong on a Clipper. On one of my last flights, I went from Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) to Narita (Japan) via Los Angeles (USA) and back in exactly 6 days – no glamour there!

We will always miss you ‘Clippers’!

This thing must have been some big deal back then, my grandpa worked for TWA back in the day, and as alluded to in the comments above, he said that initially, transcontinental flights used to take multiple days (the planes could only fly during day) and the airline would put you up in hotels overnight. But a plane that flew for 24 hrs straight, through night no less, that must have been amazing.

It’s hard to imagine an aircraft with a dining room in this day and age.

(See: http://www.mcguinnessonline.co.....boat2.htm)

I was taken aback a year ago when I saw a list of celebrities who’d stayed in Shediac, New Brunswick (Lobster capital of the world and a nice small town these days.) It turned out that Bob Hope and the Queen of Sweden and all had stopped over while on “Clipper” flights.