This
is Pan Am's
Brazilian Clipper flying over downtown Miami. It is
a Sikorsky S-42 and was introduced on the Miami-Rio de Janeiro route in
August 1934. The four engined flying boat had a range of 750 miles with
a full load of 32 passengers. Its maximum range was 1200 miles with a cruising
speed of 150 mph. Flying boats dominated the international air lanes
in the 1930's because land planes as large as this required concrete runways
- which were nonexistant. One oddity of the large flying boats was
that they had no doors on the side, passengers entered from a hatch on
the top of the plane.
The photograph shows downtown Miami looking from Biscayne Bay to the west. On the left can be seen the Miami River. The tall building to the right of the ship's tail is the Dade County Courthouse. At the bottom of the picture you can see the finger piers of the boat basin of the Royal Palm Hotel. The ship is flying south, perhaps heading towards its base at Dinner Key in Coconut Grove.
Another version of this photo can be found on page 137 of Mostly Sunny Days, edited by Bob Kearney, where the image is credited to the Miami Herald Library.