ERA | INTO THE JET AGE
“I may lose battles, but no one will ever see me lose minutes.” Pan Am's Promotion of the Dassault Falcon business jet.
Air Rights: The Pan Am Building, NYC: Now over 60 years old, it has gained fans and maintains a strong presence over Grand Central in Manhattan.
Thanksgiving 1965: After 30 years, Pan Am's famous Pacific propeller flights ended with the flight of Pan Am DC-7C "Ocean Rover" from Pago Pago.
Stewardess Hope Ryden & Pan Am's first jet Inaugural flight, NY-Paris October 1958 on a Boeing 707 (Photo: 1983 anniversary reenactment). PDF
The Pan American World Airways Building, NYC: Images from a variety of perspectives showing its dramatic edifice on Park Avenue.
A Man for All Seasons, Captain John Mattis, a person with an uncommon variety of interests, experience, and talents who worked for Pan Am.
A Day of "Firsts": First hijacking of a wide-body jet to Cuba, August 2, 1970 (Image by John T. McCoy, Courtesy SFO Museum, Gift of PAHF).
The Beatles arrive at JFK on a Pan Am 707. Stewardess Jill Kellogg's account of the Beatles' first trip to the US in February 1964. Read the PDF
Pan Am's B-707 “Clipper Star of Hope” later flew for Korean Airlines as KAL 902. In 1978 it was brought down over the USSR & Pan Am rescued survivors.
Basic Choices by Jack Meade on his engineering work at Pan Am: "My experience with the world's best airline was a hallmark in my aviation career."
PANAMAC: Pan Am’s Game Changing Computer System, by Taegan Obermeyer-Loder. It revolutionized the way the airline handled data.
The Worldport and the Jet Age. A look at Pan Am's iconic jetport at New York's JFK airport from its inception to its demolition.
From Routine to Daunting: A Glance into Pan Am’s Charter Business by Eric Hobson. From its earliest days, Pan Am made its aircraft available for charter.
An Interview by Michael Manning with Al Topping & the Pan Am story, "Wings of Freedom." Link to a chapter from the book & purchase options.
Movies Aloft: History of Pan Am's inflight movie entertainment over the years, and the popular introduction of Pan Am's Theatre in the Air, 1965.
Pan Am service to Vietnam began May 1953. By 1970, 5 scheduled flights a week flew to Vietnam from the US (also serving stops across the Pacific).
"I don't remember being as excited as this about a flight." Stewardess Jane Luna Euler recalls her Pan Am flight that returned the Beatles home .
In 1964 Pan American installed a brand new technology in its jet fleet -- the inertial navigation system, with benefitted from NASA's technology.
