"Clipper" call sign question
 

Can anyone tell me when Pan Am began using their "Clipper" call sign?

Pan American started naming their Sikorsky flying boats on the South American run "Clippers" in 1931.
When they actually started using 'Clipper' as part of their radio call-sign might be another matter.
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I believe they changed from "Pan Am" to "Clipper" some time in the 50's.

Can’t answer your question, Oilhead, but I do know that PanAm forced the Piper Aircraft Corp to stop production of the PA16 Clipper because they thought that they owned the word “clipper”! So Piper caved in, redesigned it and it became the PA20 Pacer.

The call sign Clipper came into use when Pan American started flying boat services to South America in 1931. The flights would call up using the aircraft's Clipper name. This was continued on both the Pacific and Atlantic throughout the 1930s.

Post war the aircraft started to use Clipper plus registrations without the NC or later N prefix.

I had access to an HF radio in the late 1950s. Pan American piston engined flights would generally call up as Clipper followed by the last three of the reg. When the 707 started on the Caribbean and the Atlantic, the flights used Jet Clipper plus the last three of the reg. Flight numbers came into radio callsigns around 1962/3

Boeing 314, NC18603, "Yankee Clipper", made the first trans Atlantic flight via the northern route, departing the US on the 24th June 1939. Radio Call sign was KHCJT, which would seem to suggest that "Clipper" may have come later, though "Clipper" may have been used on voice, and the five letter group for morse.

Megan, you are correct. The morse call sign was a "shorthand" identifier. The aircraft name would be used for voice transmission so that all listeners, some or even many of whom would not have the five letter group decode that could identify the origin of the transmission - useful, for instance, in an emergency.

Just to clarify my previous post, once Pan American started to use the PA suffix to its registrations, and before flight numbers where used, the three numerals of the registration were used, thus N705PA, a 707, would call as Jet Clipper 705 in 1960 whereas N751PA, a DC7C at the time would call as Clipper 751.

Really interesting stuff and many thanks for the history lesson!

For a period of time in the 60's the call signs were appended with the prefix "The Clipper." This was not authorized call sign but rather a crew member's idea of call sign enhancement. Always made me cringe just a little. Probably a few, "The Speedbird" around that time as well.

""""Can’t answer your question, Oilhead, but I do know that PanAm forced the Piper Aircraft Corp to stop production of the PA16 Clipper because they thought that they owned the word “clipper”! So Piper caved in, redesigned it and it became the PA20 Pacer. """


Is this really true? Would have thought the change would have been brought on by the normal progress of product development.

Hard to tell whether it's an urban myth or if Pan Am did really lean on Piper - AFAIK there's no evidence that any dispute actually reached court.

Piper came up with a range of names and designations for the basically similar PA-15/16/17/20 models, so the change from PA-16 Clipper to PA-20 Pacer may just have been marketing-driven, to reflect the improved capabilities of the latter.

Robinson Helicopters call one of their models Clipper, the one with the popout floats.
Surely not a coincidence, more likely a nod to those early flying boats.