Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its financial collapse on December 4, 1991. Founded in 1927 as a scheduled air mail and passenger service operating between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba, the airline became a major company credited with many innovations that shaped the international airline industry, including the widespread use of jet aircraft, jumbo jets, and computerized reservation systems. Identified by its blue globe logo and the use of the word "Clipper" in aircraft names and call signs, the airline was a cultural icon of the 20th century and the unofficial flag carrier of the United States.[1] Contents 1 History 1.1 Formation 1.2 Pan Am and its flight crews 1.3 The Clipper Era 1.4 Postwar developments 1.5 Downturn 1.6 Bankruptcy 1.7 Reuse of name 1.7.1 Airlines 1.7.2 Railways 2 Destinations 3 Record-setting flig! hts 4 Popular culture 5 Acquisitions and divestitures 6 Accidents and terrorist events 6.1 Pan Am Flight 103 6.2 Pan Am Flight 281 7 Fleet 8 See also 9 Notes and Citations 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links [edit] History [edit] Formation Juan Trippe surveying his office globe Pan American Airways Incorporated was founded as a shell company on March 14, 1927, by Air Corps Majors Henry H . "Hap" Arnold, Carl A. Spaatz, and John H. Jouett as a counterbalance to the German-owned Colombian carrier SCADTA,[2] operating in Colombia since 1923. SCADTA lobbied hard for landing rights in the Panama Canal Zone, ostensibly to survey air routes for a connection to the United States, which the Air Corps viewed as a precursor to a possible German aerial threat to the canal. Arnold and Spaatz drew up the prospectus for Pan American when SCADTA chartered a company in Delaware to obtain air mail contracts from the US government. Pan American was able to obtain th! e US mail delivery contract to Cuba, but lacked any aircraft t! o perfor m the job and did not have landing rights in Cuba.[3] On June 2, 1927, Juan Trippe formed the Aviation Corporation of America (ACA) with the backing of powerful and politically connected financiers who included Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney and W. Averell Harriman, and raised $250,000 in startup capital from the sale of stock.[4] Their operation had the all-important landing rights for Havana, having acquired American International Airways, a small airline established in 1926 by John K. Montgomery and Richard B. Bevier as a seaplane service from Key West, Florida to Havana. ACA met its deadline of having an air mail service operating by October 19, 1927, by chartering a Fairchild FC-2 floatplane from a small Dominican Republic carrier, West Indian Aerial Express.[5][6] The Atlantic, Gulf, and Caribbean Airways company was established on October 11, 1927, by New York City investment banker Richard Hoyt, who served as president.[5] The three companies merged into a holding comp! any called the Aviation Corporation of the Americas on June 23, 1928.[5] Richard Hoyt was named as chairman of the new company, but Trippe and his partners held forty percent of the equity and Whitney was made president. Trippe became the operational head of the new Pan American Airways Incorporated, created as the primary operating subsidiary of Aviation Corporation of the Americas.[5] Flown cover autographed by pilot Cy Caldwell and carried from Key West, FL, to Havana, Cuba, on the first contract air mail flight operated by Pan American Airways, Oct 19, 1927 A sign hangs on the original office in Key West, Florida The US government approved the original Pan Am's mail delivery contract with little objection, out of fears that SCADTA would have no competition in bidding for routes between Latin America and the United States. The government further helped Pan Am by insulating it from its US competitors, seeing the airline as the "chosen instrument" for US foreign air routes! .[7] The airline expanded internationally, benefiting from a v! irtual m onopoly on foreign routes.[8] Trippe and his associates planned to extend Pan Am's network through all of Central and South America. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Pan Am purchased a number of ailing or defunct airlines in Central and South America and negotiated with postal officials to win most of the government's airmail contracts to the region. In September 1929, Trippe toured Latin America with Charles Lindbergh to negotiate landing rights in a number of countries, including SCADTA's home turf of Colombia. By the end of the year, Pan Am offered flights along the west coast of South America to Peru. The following year, Pan Am purchased the New York, Rio, and Buenos Aires Line (NYRBA), giving it a seaplane route along the east coast of South America to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and westbound to Santiago, Chile. Its Brazilian subsidiary NYRBA do Brasil was later renamed as Panair do Brasil.[9] Pan Am also partnered with Grace Shipping Company in 1929 to form Pan Ame! rican-Grace Airways, better known as Panagra, to gain a foothold to destinations in South America.[5] Pan Am's holding company, the Aviation Corporation of the Americas, was one of the most sought after stocks on the New York Curb Exchange in 1929, and flurries of speculation surrounded each of its new route awards. On a single day in March, its stock rose 50% in value.[citation needed] In April 1929, Trippe and his associates reached an agreement with United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UATC) to segregate Pan Am operations to south of the US–Mexico border, in exchange for UATC taking a large shareholder stake (UATC was the parent company of what are now Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, and United Airlines).[10][11] [edit] Pan Am and its flight crews The Sikorsky S-42 was one of Pan Am's earlier flying boats and was used to survey the San Francisco-China route. Critical to Pan Am's success as an airline was the proficiency of its flight crews, who were rigorously train! ed in long-distance flight, seaplane anchorage and berthing op! erations , over-water navigation, radio procedure, aircraft repair, and marine tides.[citation needed] During the day, use of the compass while judging drift from sea currents was normal procedure; at night, all flight crews were trained to use celestial navigation. In bad weather, pilots used dead reckoning and timed turns, making successful landings at fogged-in harbors by landing out to sea, then taxiing the plane into port. By the time a man became a pilot at Pan Am, he had first gained years of practical experience, not only in flying seaplanes, but in anchoring, sea tides, engine repair, celestial, radio, and dead-reckoning navigation. Many had merchant marine certifications and radio licenses as well as pilot certificates.[citation needed] A Pan Am flight captain would normally begin his career years earlier as a radio operator or even mechanic, steadily gaining his licenses and working his way up the flight crew roster to navigator, second officer, and first officer. Before t! he war, it was not unusual to see a Pan Am first officer or captain changing a cylinder head or other engine part while the plane rocked at a floating berth in a remote anchorage.[12] Pan Am's mechanics and support staff were similarly trained. Newly hired applicants were frequently paired with experienced flight mechanics in several areas of the company until they had achieved proficiency in all aircraft types.[citation needed] Emphasis was placed on learning to maintain and overhaul aircraft in harsh seaborne environments when faced with logistical difficulties, as might be expected in a small foreign port without an aviation infrastructure or even an adequate road network. Many crews supported repair operations by flying in spare parts to planes stranded overseas, in some cases performing repairs themselves.[12] [edit] The Clipper Era PAA's "Clipper" routes in "The Americas" (1936) 1941 advertising mailer for Pan Am's "Flying Clipper Cruises" to South America Pan Am inau! gurated its South American routes using Sikorsky S-38 and S-40! flying boats. The latter were three large passenger craft put in service by Trippe in 1931 to provide greater carrying capacity than the eight-passenger S-38. Carrying the nicknames American Clipper, Southern Clipper, and Caribbean Clipper, they were the first of the series of 28 Clippers that came to symbolize Pan Am between 1931 and 1946. While Pan Am was developing its South American network, it also negotiated with Bernt Balchen, of the Norwegian airline DNL, in 1937 for a cooperative transatlantic flight to Europe. The agreement was for Pan Am to use its Clippers on flights from New York to Reykjavík, Iceland; DNL would then take over with their Sikorsky S-43 aircraft onwards to Bergen, Norway.[citation needed] This plan was dropped when Pan Am pulled out and instead turned to Britain and France to begin seaplane service between the United States and Europe. Britain's Imperial Airways was eager to cooperate with Pan Am, but France was less willing to help because its state ca! rrier Aéropostale was a major player in Latin America and a Pan Am competitor on some routes.[citation needed] Eventually, Pan Am reached an agreement with both countries to offer service from Norfolk, Virginia, to Europe via Bermuda and the Azores using the S-40s. Starting in June 1937, a joint service from the US mainland to Bermuda was inaugurated, with Pan Am using Sikorsky flying boats and Imperial Airways using the C class flying boat RMA Cavalier.[13] On July 5, 1937, the first commercial survey flights across the North Atlantic were conducted.[14] The Pan Am Clipper III, a Sikorsky S-42, landed at Botwood in the Bay of Exploits in Newfoundland from Port Washington, New York, via Shediac, New Brunswick. The next day Pan Am Clipper III left Botwood for Foynes in Ireland. The same day, a Short Empi
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Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the Pan Am's holding company, the Aviation Corporation of the Americas, was one of the Read the rest
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The Pan Am Historical Foundation connects you to the sights, sounds and stories of Pan American Airways history. ABC is poised to introduce Pan Am in their Fall 2011 lineup. Read the rest
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Welcome to the Jet Age. It's 1963 and the whole world is on the brink of a cultural revolution. What wonderful memories and thanks to you, we can relive Pan Am days. Read the rest
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Pan Am is a television series centered around the iconic airline Pan American World Airways during the 1960s. rights to the Pan Am name and logo from Pan Am Systems, a New Read the rest
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1963 is a very different! world, and we're about to see quite a bit of it with the help of four stewardesses aboard Pan Am's Clipper Majestic. Read the rest