Excalibur

CXXV

No sooner was the S-42 on the production line than Igor Sikorsky began planning for an even larger flying boat, the S-44. Sikorsky assumed that the S-44 would be the flying boat that would actually manage to cross the Atlantic on a commercially feasible basis, and he presumed that Pan Am would want it. 

The Sikorsky S-42 in flight. The plane had originally been designed for transoceanic flight, but it proved impractical for its intended purpose. Still, it became famous on the Latin American routes

The S-44 was built for 40-50 transatlantic passengers. She had four huge Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp engines, each producing over 1500 horsepower. The plane’s length over all was 79’ 3” and her wingspan was 124’ 0”. She could cruise at 160 miles per hour and had a range of 3,800 miles, which meant she could fly the Atlantic easily and hop the Pacific without a problem. 

Trippe knew that Sikorsky was designing the S-44 for Pan American; he never, however, contracted for the prototype or any successor models. 

Sikorsky’s S-44 was ultimately marketed as the VS-44. Only four were built. One became a U.S. Navy patrol plane. Though intended for Pan Am the others were bought up by American Export Airways. They were named Excalibur, Excambian (seen above) and Exeter. Each cost $400,000.00 --- even less than Glenn Martin’s starvation budget for the flying boat Juan Trippe eventually bought

 

Trippe had other plans, and, as usual with Juan Trippe’s plans, they involved a degree of deception. After Sikorsky had invested too much in the S-44 to back out, Trippe announced that he needed the S-42’s successor much sooner than Sikorsky could promise the S-44. He threw his long working partnership with Sikorsky overboard, much to Igor’s annoyance. 

A cutaway view of Excambian, one of AEA’s “Flying Aces.”

 

What no one knew was that the next plane in Pan American’s fleet was already well under development. Trippe had contracted with Martin Aircraft to build his next-generation flying boat even before the first S-42 was completed. 

Depending on how someone looked at it, Trippe was either a shrewd businessman or a complete bastard in his handling of Martin Aircraft. Before he’d even approached Glenn Martin he’d visited Pan Am’s beancounters to determine the budget for the next flying boat. All his accountants agreed that Pan Am could pay $630,000.00 per plane. Factoring in cost overruns, that number went up to about $690,000.00. When Trippe handed his specifications to Glenn Martin, the gawky aircraft nebbish quoted him a price of one million dollars per plane. Juan Trippe knew right then he’d found his man. 

Martin Aircraft was on the ropes. Long a builder of military aircraft (including the revolutionary B-10 bomber), Glenn Martin had seen his big government contracts dry up as the country became increasingly isolationist. By the time Trippe appeared asking for a new flying boat, Martin would have kissed him (if Martin was capable of such emotional displays). When Juan heard Martin’s estimate of $1,000,000.00 per plane, he knew that such a ridiculously high number was nothing more than a gambit. Martin had grossly overplayed his hand and telegraphed his desperation to Trippe, who proceeded to abuse him royally. Trippe’s counteroffer was equally absurd --- $200,000.00 per plane.  Slowly (and with apparent pain) Trippe slowly gave ground on the price, until he and Martin agreed on a cost of $425,000.00 per unit. This was well under the $550,000.00 per unit it cost Martin to build the plane, and Trippe knew it. Trippe also knew that Martin was gambling on the fact that this was the beginning of a long relationship with Pan American. In reality, Trippe had every intention of buying Igor Sikorsky’s S-44 when it finally came out of the factory. And he’d saved at least $200,000.00 per unit in the meantime. 

Glenn Martin would discover that fact much later to his everlasting chagrin. In the meantime, the child of his unholy courtship with Juan Trippe and Pan Am was destined to become the most famous flying boat of them all.