
The Long Way Round (2014) - matt_the_bass
http://lapsedhistorian.com/long-way-round-part-1/
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nikanj
I'm extremely happy that HN takes a broad view to hacker interests, and we get
to read gems like this - not just the daily techcrunch spiel.

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jacquesm
Awesome writing, incredible flight. Be sure to read all the parts.

I've flown in waterplanes more than once from Ranger Lake in Northern Ontario
and that take off story had me biting my nails. The pilot on one of those
flights said that if you didn't end up with a few branches in the struts that
it wasn't really close. Definitely an old timer trying to put some more fear
into his passengers but judging by the number of patches on the floats it
wasn't complete nonsense. Water take-offs (and landings) are an entirely
different experience than on land, especially on rivers.

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gumby
A side point: the Boeing 314 was a _huge_ plane: a double decker with
passenger compartment (seating and sleeping) above and a dining room and
lounge below.

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King-Aaron
Reading about the 314 has suddenly triggered a memory for me about the Hughes
H-4 Hercules (another huge flying boat from the same era, though never made it
to production). That was another massive aircraft/flying boat.

From there, I recall a movie where Yogi Bear and his mates stole the Hercules
(read: Spruce Goose) for some reason. And then I went all nostalgic.

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larkeith
If you ever happen to visit Portland, Oregon, I strongly recommend heading
down to the Evergreen Aviation Museum - seeing the Spruce Goose in person is
just breathtaking.

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gumby
I second this (though it’s in McMinnville, about an hour south of Portland).
Quite a collection of aircraft and spacecraft. Next door you kids can go in a
pool with a water slide that starts in a 747 on top of a building!

Plus your taxes paid for it (via a CIA front company)!

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CalChris
A great story. It reminds me of _Southern Mail_ and _Night Flight_ by Antoine
de Saint-Exupéry. A different era altogether. FWIW, the Oakland Air Museum has
the _City of Cardiff_ , a Solent which is similar to the Clipper.

[http://www.oaklandaviationmuseum.org/solent_flying_boat_32.h...](http://www.oaklandaviationmuseum.org/solent_flying_boat_32.html)

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erentz
Great story. But doesn’t it seem like flying westward wound up being more
dangerous and putting them closer to contact with the Japanese that flying the
return route via Fiji, Kiribati, Hawaii?

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gumby
No, consider the course of the war; immediately after taking Pearl Harbor,
Japan also attacked the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and the Dutch and
French East Indies. In Europe it would have been called Blitzkreig. All
thorough 1942 they headed south along the chain of islands towards Australia.
Even in December the pacific route was dangerous. The west route put the
largest amount of distance between the plane and the Japanese home islands.

You could imagine a southern route Aukland -> Papa'ete, Hanga Roa -> Lima
which was probably completely out of any military risk, but there would not
have been facilities, most notably fuel.

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toomanybeersies
I guess it's a trade-off.

They flew right through the war zone in Asia, Darwin was being bombed, so was
Indonesia, and then they almost got taken out by a submarine off India.

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gumby
We're talking the first 30 _days_ of the war. Singapore hadn't fallen yet, nor
had Djakarta. Even though Darwin had been bombed (and my grandmother said that
left her convinced that the whole country was about to be invaded) in reality
Australia was a long way from Japanese forces. (Of course so was Hawaii).

I was wrong by the way about French Indochina which had been taken after the
fall of France.

So hairy, but not as hairy as it would be two months later. They couldn't know
that at the time of course, but they had little choice. The only other
alternative would have been to stay in Aukland and then be sucked up into the
US war machine as MacArthur retreated to Australia.

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gumby
I can't edit, so I want to clarify that when I wrote, "first 30 _days_ of the
war" I meant from the perspective of the plane's crew and most of the regions
they planned to fly through.

There were millions in Japan, Korea, Manchuria, Indochina, Germany, France,
Poland, etc for whom the war had been going on for years or decades.

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remarkEon
Really neat story, and a very enjoyable read.

Somewhat unrelated but it reminds me of this episode of The Twilight Zone. A
Classic.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arrival_(The_Twilight_Zo...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arrival_\(The_Twilight_Zone\))

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greedo
Great read, I love longform writing. Coincidentally, my grandfather flew
Clipper boats for Pan Am. He started out in biplanes, and the last aircraft he
flew was the 707. What a change in technology!

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dankohn1
Seems perfect for a screenplay.

~~~
moomin
Almost inevitably starting Tom Hanks.

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khc
do people know why they need to strip the paint instead of painting over?

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gkanai
I thought it wasn't the weight so much as it was the Pan-Am markings.

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peteboyd
I believe it was because they were going to be flying through a war zone and
did not want the US and Pan Am insignia on the planes. Of course, it actually
helped them when they flew into the Dutch port as the Dutch flighters saw the
US flag and backed off.

