The Clipper had no shortage of physical comforts for its 74 passengers—including a stateroom and a dining room, dressing rooms, and seats that converted into bunks—but there was no way to eliminate the noise and vibration of reciprocating engines, and the highest cruising altitude (5.9 kilometers) was still too low to put it above the most turbulent atmospheric layers. With three stops it took 15½ hours from New York to Los Angeles, and the first London to Singapore link in 1934 took eight days with 22 layovers, including Athens, Cairo, Baghdad, Basra, Sharjah, Jodhpur, Calcutta, and
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