Latin Laboratory -
across the pacific

As they push southward, Trippe, Sikorsky, Lindbergh and Leuteritz build larger flying boats, harness radio to navigate safely over great distances, and, with help from the U.S. government, outwit all competing airlines to dominate service to Latin America and launch the global air tourism industry. But all of this is merely preparation for their ultimate goal: flying the oceans. Trippe spends six years carefully laying plans for an Atlantic crossing - only to have his hopes dashed when Britain refuses to let Pan Am's planes land because their own planes can't make the ocean crossing. With $2 million in new planes on order, Trippe is stymied, with no ocean to cross.

Episode Duration: 56 minutes and 46 seconds

Episode Number: 102

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About Across The Pacific:

ACROSS THE PACIFIC tells the story of a great milestone in aviation history: the 1935 crossing of the Pacific Ocean by a Pan American Airways flying boat known as the China Clipper.

The documentary series recounts the development of this technological innovation - led by Pan Am's chief executive Juan Trippe, pilot Charles Lindbergh, airplane engineer Igor Sikorsky and radio engineer Hugo Leuteritz - with dramatic re-enactments, interviews with historians and biographers, and archival photographs, newsreel clips and film.