The Sikorsky S.42 was the United States’ first really successful international airliner. During the 1930s they pioneered many inter-continental air routes for Pan American Airways and flew its regular air services on many of them.

The Sikorsky S.42 was based on the earlier Sikorsky S.40 flying boat and was designed to a requirement issued by Pan American Airways in 1931 for a flying boat capable of spanning the Atlantic Ocean.

The prototype first flew on 30 March 1934 and ten were manufactured for Pan American.

They flew on most of that airline’s air routes across the Atlantic (via Bermuda), into the Carribean and to South America, and into the Pacific Ocean (via Honolulu)..

It pioneered air routes between the United States and China and New Zealand. All were scrapped or destroyed in accidents.

This model represents NC-822M flying for Pan American Airways in the late 1930s.

Air Craft Models 1/144 kit completed by Leigh Edmonds in March 2013.