The 1927 Dole Air Race sent eight planes from Oakland to Hawaii across 2,400 miles of open Pacific - only two finished, and seven people never came home.
In June 1928, Charles Kingsford Smith flew a heavily overloaded Fokker trimotor from Oakland to Brisbane, becoming the first crew to cross the Pacific Ocean by air.
On November 22, 1935, Pan Am's China Clipper completed the first scheduled transpacific flight, covering 8,000 miles from California to Manila in 59 hours and 48 minutes of flying time.