Ken Follett - Night Over Water

The point of flying boats was that they did not need expensive long concrete runways. During the war, however, long runways were built in many parts of the world to accommodate heavy bombers, and the advantage of the flying boats disappeared.

After the war the B-314 was uneconomic, and one by one the planes were scrapped or scuttled.

There are now none left anywhere in the world.

I thank the many people and organizations who helped me research this book, especially:

In New York: Pan American Airlines, most particularly their librarian, Liwa Chiu;

In London: Lord Willis;

In Manchester : Chris Makepeace;

In Southampton: Ray Facey of Associated British Ports and Ian Sinclair of RAF Hythe;

In Foynes: Margaret O’Shaughnessy of the Flying Boat Museum;

In Botwood: Tip Evans, the Botwood Heritage Museum, and the hospitable people of Botwood;

In Shediac: Ned Belliveau and his family, and Charles Allain and the Moncton Museum;

Former Pan American crew and other employees who flew on the Clipper: Madeline Cuniff, Bob Fordyce, Lew Lindsey, Jim McLeod, States Mead, Roger Wolin and Stan Zedalis;

For finding most of the above: Dan Starer and Pam Mendez.

Ken Follett is the international bestselling author of suspense thrillers and the nonfiction On Wings of Eagles. He lives in England.

Visit Ken Follett’s official Web site at www.ken-follett.com.