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Kind of an irrelevant question I suppose - but did they have to pay for the fuel at each stop? The way it's written the various bases gave them fuel and other t
by ars 5y ago
Kind of an irrelevant question I suppose - but did they have to pay for the fuel at each stop? The way it's written the various bases gave them fuel and other things out of kindness.
- jpindar 5y agoGood question. I don't know how international commerce worked in the days before credit cards.
- Lazare 5y agoSomeone else linked another version of the story in another comment, which answers it: https://www.panam.org/pan-am-inspirations/634-saga-of-the-pacific-clipper https://www.panam.org/pan-am-inspirations/634-saga-of-the-pa... A banker in Australia advanced them $500 USD, which was enough to finance the rest of the journey. I believe that would be about $9k USD adjusting for inflation, which feels oddly low given the length of the flight, but I suppose they wouldn't have needed to pay for fuel or supplies at PanAm stations.
- andkenneth 5y agoWould be better to look at the rate of 100LL fuel now compared to 100 octane at the time instead of general inflation.