Juan Trippe and Pan Am – Part Four – February 26, 2010
Juan Trippe and Pan Am – Part Three – February 19, 2010
February 19, 2010
Howard Hughes and TWA – Part Two – April 9, 2010
April 9, 2010We finish with the series on Pan Am this week by talking about the originality of Juan Trippe and his airline. Pan Am had a list of accomplishments that any airline would envy. However, their mismanagement of capital and ultimate demise is not one of them. I would like all aviators to connect with their roots and one of the ways they can do that is by using the “Third Dimension Blog” as a resource. Come with me now as two-dimensional thinking meets one-dimensional thinking.
Quote of the Week
“Aviation is proof that, given the will, we have the capacity to achieve the Impossible.” —Edward Rickenbacker
Pan Am the Trailblazer
The challenges that were met by Pan Am and its people were unique. To say that they invented the wheel when we talk aviation is an understatement. I have a few interesting facts that I want to notate, and then I am going to list all of the trailblazing accomplishments found at the Pan Am web site I mentioned last week.
So, did you know?
- The term Captain and First Officer was introduced by Juan Trippe and the industry adopted this as a standard.
- Juan Trippe was removed as the CEO of Pan American Airways in 1939 but was back at the helm in less than a year.
- Howard Hughes was responsible for Juan Trippe scuttling the Clipper aircraft. Hughes had introduced faster land planes into the TWA fleet and Pan Am had to match equipment.
- Juan Trippe started the Intercontinental Hotel chain for Pan Am’s travelers, and he did so by having the US Government loan him 90% of the construction price.
- In 1974 when Pan Am’s financial problems were reaching a peak and they were unable to find a strategic partner domestically in the US to provide feed traffic for their international operations, the Shah of Iran offered to buy Pan Am and merge it with Iranian Air.
Pan Am was the world’s airline and they proved it over and over in the beginning. However, I had a retired 747 Pan Am Captain once tell me that Pan Am knew how to spend money but could never make enough to pay for their trailblazing lifestyle—especially after deregulation. Below is a list of Pan Am’s accomplishments, and the link to the Pan Am website I used for this information. In closing I would like everyone to remember that Pan Am is gone, but not forgotten. Keep their memory alive.
http://www.panam.org/default1.asp
Pan Am Firsts
Throughout its life, Pan Am was a pioneer. Most of the services and technology that we take for granted in the aviation industry find their roots in Pan Am. Pan Am built airports, established air navigation systems, trained local nationals, wherever it went. This is a partial list of some of Pan Am’s “firsts” and the dates that Pan Am started service in many cities around the world.
| 1927 | First American airline to operate a permanent international air service |
| 1927 | First American airline to operate land airplanes over water on a regularly scheduled basis |
| 1927 | First American airline to operate multi-engine aircraft permanently in scheduled service |
| 1927 | Service Started: Key West, Havana |
| 1928 | First American airline to use radio communications |
| 1928 | First American airline to carry emergency lifesaving equipment |
| 1928 | First American airline to use multiple flight crews |
| 1928 | First American airline to develop an airport and airways traffic control system |
| 1928 | First American airline to order and purchase aircraft built to its own specifications, the Sikorsky S-38 |
| 1928 | Service Started: Miami |
| 1929 | First American airline to employ cabin attendants and serve meals aloft |
| 1929 | First airline to develop and use instrument flight techniques |
| 1929 | First American airline to develop a complete aviation weather service |
| 1929 | Service Started: Nassau, Port of Spain, Santo Domingo, St. Thomas, Guatemala City, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Santiago |
| 1930 | First American airline to offer international air express service |
| 1930 | Service Started: St. Lucia, Caracas, Maracaibo, Rio de Janeiro |
| 1931 | First American airline to develop and operate four engine flying boats |
| 1932 | First airline to sell all-expense international air tours |
| 1932 | Service Started: Port-Au-Prince |
| 1933 | Service Started: Tampa |
| 1934 | Service Started: Orlando, Los Angeles |
| 1935 | First airline to develop and employ long range weather forecasting |
| 1935 | First American airline to install facilities for heating food aboard an aircraft |
| 1935 | First airline to operate scheduled transpacific passenger and mail service |
| 1935 | Service Started: San Francisco, Honolulu |
| 1937 | Service Started: New York, Bermuda, Sao Paulo |
| 1939 | First airline to operate scheduled transatlantic passenger and mail service |
| 1942 | First airline to operate international service with all-cargo aircraft |
| 1943 | Service Started: Dakar |
| 1944 | First airline to propose a plan for low cost, mass transportation on a worldwide basis |
| 1945 | First airline to use high-speed commercial land planes on a transatlantic route, the Douglas DC-4 |
| 1945 | Service Started: Philadelphia, London, Shannon |
| 1946 | First airline to operate non-stop scheduled service between Miami and New York (National) |
| 1946 | First American airline to install GCA, Ground Controlled Approach, in overseas operations |
| 1946 | Service Started: Houston, Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, Prague |
| 1947 | First airline to operate a scheduled round-the-world service |
| 1947 | Service Started: Boston, Washington, Istanbul, Karachi |
| 1948 | First airline to provide tourist-class service outside the continental US |
| 1948 | Service Started: Munich, Delhi |
| 1949 | Pan Am is the launch customer for Boeing’s B-377 Stratocruiser |
| 1949 | Service Started: St. Croix, Nice |
| 1950 | First airline with low-cost day and night coach service on the East Coast (National) |
| 1950 | First commercial airline to enter the Korean airlift |
| 1950 | Service Started: Amsterdam, Hamburg, Helsinki, Oslo, Paris,Stockholm |
| 1951 | Service Started: Rome |
| 1952 | First airline to use aircraft built specifically for tourist-class service in transatlantic service, the Douglas DC-6B |
| 1954 | Service Started: Chicago, Detroit, Nuremburg |
| 1955 | Pan Am specifies and orders the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 |
| 1957 | Service Started: Barbados |
| 1958 | Taking advantage of jets, Pan Am introduces Economy fares |
| 1958 | Pan Am’s Boeing 707 Clipper America starts the jet age with the first scheduled transatlantic service in American built jets |
| 1958 | First airline to operate jets with the continental US (National) |
| 1959 | First airline to operate a scheduled round-the-world jet service |
| 1960 | Pan Am initiates first Douglas DC-8 jet service |
| 1961 | First airline to offer a worldwide marketing service to shippers and importers around the world |
| 1961 | Service Started: Lagos |
| 1962 | First airline to operate 100,000 transatlantic flights |
| 1962 | First airline to develop a global computer reservation systems (PANAMAC) |
| 1962 | Service Started: St. Maarten |
| 1963 | First airline to operate the Boeing 707-321C jet freighter |
| 1963 | Service Started: Belgrade |
| 1964 | First all-jet airline (National) |
| 1964 | First airline to relay in-flight messages via satellite |
| 1965 | First airline to operate round the world jet freighter service |
| 1965 | Service Started: Nairobi |
| 1966 | Pan Am specifies and orders the Boeing 747 |
| 1967 | First airline to make a fully automatic approach and landing in scheduled service |
| 1968 | First airline to transmit engine data and position information from the aircraft to the ground using a air-ground data link system |
| 1968 | First American airline to operate scheduled service in Russian airspace |
| 1968 | Service Started: Moscow |
| 1969 | First airline to receive FAA approval for regular use of the Carousel IV inertial navigation system |
| 1969 | First airline to install onboard computers for in-flight engine performance analysis and reporting |
| 1970 | First airline to operate the Boeing 747 in regular scheduled service |
| 1970 | First airline with scheduled non-stop Miami-London service (National) |
| 1970 | First airline to operate production-model air-ground satellite communications system |
| 1970 | First airline to test and operate Data-Link automated aircraft identification and position system |
| 1971 | First airline to open a major maintenance facility designed specifically for jumbo jets (JFK JetCenter) |
| 1971 | First airline to operate round-the-world service with the Boeing 747 |
| 1971 | Service Started: Bucharest, Warsaw |
| 1972 | First airline to operate FAA-certified Visual Approach Monitor heads-up pilot display system |
| 1972 | Pan Am builds the world’s largest single air terminal, JFK WorldPort |
| 1972 | First airline to employ electronic passenger security screening equipment |
| 1973 | First airline to offer upper deck dining service on the 747 |
| 1973 | First airline to order the Boeing 747SP |
| 1974 | First airline to install and operate FAA-certified fleetwide Ground Proximity Warning System |
| 1975 | First airline to create major Travel Agent incentive plan |
| 1975 | Service Started: Dallas/Ft.Worth, Budapest |
| 1976 | First airline to operate the Boeing 747SP |
| 1976 | Record setting round-the-world revenue flight with Boeing 747SP |
| 1977 | First revenue round-the-world Polar flight – celebrating Pan Am’s 50th anniversary |
| 1977 | Service Started: Zurich |
| 1978 | First airline to offer scheduled non-stop Miami-Paris service (National) |
| 1978 | World’s first round-the-world under $1000 excursion fare |
| 1978 | First airline to introduce a new, separate class of service for business and full-fare economy passengers, Clipper Class |
| 1978 | Service Started: Bombay |
| 1980 | First airline to operate aircraft with fuel-saving “active controls”, the Lockheed L1011-500 |
| 1980 | Service Started: Dubai |
| 1981 | First American airline to re-establish scheduled service to People’s Republic of China |
| 1981 | Service Started: Beijing, Shanghai |
| 1982 | Service Started: Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Kansas City, Freeport, Milan |
| 1983 | Service Started: Charlotte, Nashville, Raleigh/Durham, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Austin, San Antonio, St. Kitts, Dubrovnik, Geneva, Zagreb |
| 1985 | Service Started: Grand Turk, Providenciales, Athens, Tel Aviv |
| 1986 | Service Started: Krakow, St. Petersburg |
Next week I am going to introduce some idesa based on what Robert Ringer calls “Philosophy of Life”, and is perhaps appropriate for this time in the lives of all aviators and Americans. As always, take some time to look back, connect with your past and remember as an aviator you are a “Gatekeeper of the Third Dimension.”
Robert Novell
February 26, 2010
