After visiting Marshall College and Indy’s house, we thought we might as well see Dr. Jones off and so we visited the magnificent flying boat that was used in the filming of Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Epitomizing the glamour of the golden age of flight, the Pan American China Clipper took Indy to Manila en route to Marion’s Bar in Nepal.

The flying boat used in the movie is a Short Solent Mark III once owned by Howard Hughes.  As you can see it has been repainted to match its original paint scheme.  The City of Cardiff (operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation or BOAC) originally offered flights from Southampton, England to Johannesburg, South Africa with stops in Sicily, Egypt (anchoring in the Nile River next to Luxor), Lake Victoria, the Congo and Victoria Falls, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

As one of the only remaining examples of the great flying boats of that glamorous era, the City of Cardiff stood in for the Pan American China Clipper in Raiders.  While the flying boat was real, much of the backdrop in the movie was a matte painting, which can be seen here.

To kick off our then and now tour, here’s the entryway:

Notice the support structure in front of the windows that holds the temporary landing gear on (since the flying boat is not currently sitting in water).  You can see it in both of the shots of the above comparison (including the shot with Dennis Muren from the film), whereas if you look at the comparison long shot at the top of this article you can see that a tall wooden post was added to the landing pier in the matte painting to hide the landing gear structure.

Here’s the stairwell Indy climbs to reach the upper deck passenger compartment (notice the bamboo wallpaper):

And now that we’ve entered the main passenger cabin, here’s Indy’s seat (complete with fedora):

The seats where Dennis Muren read his Life Magazine on the other side of the aisle have been removed but everything else is still just as it was in the movie.  For comparison:

And for a little more detail, check out the seat adjustment controls:

Unfortunately the sea floats were damaged a few years ago during a storm and removed:

From the other side you can see one of the damaged floats:

And get a sense of the sheer size of this massive flying boat:

You, too, can visit the flying boat used in the filming of Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Tours are available on Sundays at the Oakland Aviation Museum in Oakland, CA.

If you’re interested in checking out the actual Life Magazine issue that Dennis Muren reads while on the Clipper, you can find that in our library here.

Don’t forget to browse our Library for other location photography, things we’ve discussed on the show and anything else we think might be pertinent to the movie so far.