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Photo from Pan Am Historical Foundation FacebookOn March 14, 1927 the original Pan American Airways was incorporated. While the icon of the golden age of aviation has not been operational in decades, 97 years on it remains a cultural icon and symbol of the early years of modern aviation and commercial travel.
The first trip to Cuba
Investors John K. Montgomery, Richard Bevier, G. Grant Mason Jr. and S.S.Colt incorporated the original Pan Am in 1927, inspired by the American military officers Hap Arnold, Carl Spaatz and John Jouett and Montgomery over the growing threats to the Panama Canal from German aviation activity around South America. By July of that year, the group was awarded FAM 4, a temporary U.S. mail contract to Cuba, with a deadline to start service by October. The group leased an airfield in Key West and another in Havana. Things changed on Oct. 11, 1927 when Pan American Airways joined a new corporate structure with its new President and General Manager, Juan Terry Trippe, a 27-year-old former bond salesman and recently let go from a role as an airline executive. Eight days later, service began when airmail was carried to Havana by Cy Caldwell in a chartered Fairchild FC-2 owned by West Indian Aerial Express.Photo from the Pan Am Historical Foundation
The U.S. Post Office contract for the Foreign Airmail Contract, carrying mail from Florida to Cuba, with the potential for future routes in Latin America, was reliant on a start date in October 1927. The first concern for the group was the $25,000 cash bond deposited as a guarantee of performance, and the possible withdrawal of the contract without the completion of the first successful airmail flight, which had to be completed by Oct. 19. Multiple groups were vying for the pivotal role, including Pan Am and Trippe's The Aviation Corporation of America, along with the well-funded group organized around WWI ace Eddie Rickenbacker and his bankrupt airline, Florida Airways.
On July 16, 1927 the U.S. Post Office awarded the contract to Pan Am, but at the time they had no right to land in Cuba. Trippe had been able to negotiate permission from the Cuban government in the months prior after he flew to Havana with aircraft builder Tony Fokker on a demonstration flight. With just one week left until the October deadline, the three groups realigned under the new entity of Atlantic, Gulf and Caribbean Airways. Trippe had already ordered two Fokker F-VII tri-motors, which were already en route to Key West, but without a place to land. The crew working to prepare a suitable Key West airport was slowed down by attempts to fill holes in the soft coral at the site. By chance, two aircraft, including the FC-2 La Niña, were being ferried through Miami to a new home in Santo Domingo with West Indian Aerial Express. The owner of WIAX, Basil Rowe, was flying one of the aircraft and agreed to the charter of the Fairchild to carry Pan Am's mail to Havana.
The three groups that fought for the contract had joined to complete the first successful trip to bring airmail to Havana, but that legacy left an imprint on modern aviation still seen today.
Transition to passenger service
The first flights for the fledgling Pan Am were mail-only to Cuba. After achieving a successful first mail route, scheduled flights from Key West to Havana began on Oct. 28, 1927. By January 1928, things were picking up for Pan Am. The Key West facilities were ready to accommodate passengers and planes and the small terminal building and steel hangar were completed by Jan. 16. The first flight with revenue passengers was the second to leave the field that day, the first leaving with a large mail load and a single non-paying passenger, Trippe. The second flight followed with the first paying passengers, each paying $50 for the privilege, which is about $886.55 in 2024. The group made the 90-mile flight to Cuba and Pan Am passenger services had begun.Photos from the Pan Am Historical Foundation
The airline had carried 71 passengers from Florida to Cuba by the end of the month. The U.S. mail loads equaled about 12 tons, with about 1,600 lbs of cargo each. The land was soon secured to build a new airport in Miami, operating with connections in the north. On March 8, 1928 the U.S. Congress passed the Foreign Airmail Act, awarding $1.75 million to fund the budding system. Soon after, Pan Am was awarded additional contracts. By September 1928 flights were operating from the new Pan American Airport. Numerous new aircraft were purchased in 1928, including 10 large F-10 Fokker tri-motors and Sikorsky S-38 amphibians. New personnel were added on to the growing team, including Hugo Leuteritz, a former RCA radio engineer who came on board to develop a radio communications system. As the airline began to grow, so did the marketing effort to snag paying passengers.Photos from the Pan Am Historical Foundation
In early 1929, famed aviator Charles Lindbergh signed on as Technical Advisor. On Jan. 9, 1929 the Pan American International Airport was officially dedicated in Miami and two new mail routes were inaugurated. By 1930, the company published its new periodical, Pan American Air Ways, with a message from Trippe to the 1,200 personnel. Now, Pan Am had routes through the West Indies, Mexico, Central America and the west coast of South America. Additional U.S. airmail contracts were acquired and the single airmail route had grown into a large international air transport system.
Pan Am during WWII and its return after victory
Pan Am played a role while most of the world was at war, delivering personnel and supplies and contributing to the Allied victory. With a wide reach, the company sent pilots and planes out to do their part. Pan Am moved important people, including the president, and important supplies like uranium for the atomic bomb. With vital routes across the Pacific, Pan Am built new facilities and flew newer routes to help the U.S. and allied forces with the fight.
With uranium sources scarce, Pan Am flew through a secretive program to provide tons of the crucial component to the U.S. to create bomb fuel. About 75 percent of the uranium in the Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima was shuttled into the U.S. by Pan Am.Photo from the Pan Am Historical Foundation
After the end of the war years, Pan Am had a surplus of aircraft from the war, but the company was embracing the new and emerging technology like Lockheed and Boeing. As tensions began to ease in many parts of the world, Pan Am began expanding routes, like a transpacific route through the western U.S. to Japan and China. On March 24, 1947 a flight left San Francis, arriving in Tokyo in good time and after a weather delay, flew to Shanghai.
Pan Am's golden age
Passenger service was expanding as Pan Am entered the 1950s. At the start of the new decade, Pan American Airways Corporation became Pan American World Airways. Pan Am was racing to be among the first to launch flights to Europe, coming in third by only several minutes to TWA and El Al. Pan Am's DC-6B took off from Idlewild Airport in New York and carried 82 passengers. Fares were lower and passengers had more commercial plane options to fly around the world in. In 1958, Pan Am introduced Economy fares and became the first airline to operate jets within the continental U.S. According to the Delta Flight Museum, Pan Am's Boeing 707 Clipper America flew the first scheduled transatlantic service of a U.S.-built jet. Then in 1959 it became the first airline to operate a scheduled global jet service.
In this era, the world of aviation began to look to the glowing promise of jets. Pan Am welcomed the jet age while it entered the 1960s with numerous firsts. Starting in 1960, Pan Am initiated the first Douglas DC-8 jet service. As commercial air travel boomed in the 50s and 60s, Pan Am continued expanding and making its name known around the globe. As emerging aircraft and technology improved flight and capabilities, international travel and overseas flights also became more common. In 1962 Pan Am became the first airline to operate 100,000 transatlantic flights and the first to develop a global computer reservation system. In 1963 Pan Am became the first to operate the Boing 707-321C jet freighter and in 1964 it became the first national all-jet airline and the first to relay inflight messages via satellite.
By the mid-1960s, Pan Am was thriving in the golden age of its company and aviation, leading in the booming world of jets and international travel. In 1965 Pan Am became the first airline to operate a round-the-world jet freighter service and in 1966, it ordered the Boeing 747. In 1966, the Pan American Business Jets Division began reaching out to potential customers with a marketing pitch. The company commissioned a set of drawings of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's military carriage, which it hoped would increase interest in the Dassault Falcon Jet the division was selling. The promotion quoted the emperor, with "I may lose battles, but no one will ever see me lose minutes."
By the end of the decade, Pan Am had become the first airline to transmit engine data and position information from the plane to the ground using an air-ground data link system and the first American airline to operate scheduled service in Russian airspace. In 1969 Pan Am became the first airline to achieve FAA approval for regular use of the Carousel IV inertial navigation system and the first airline to install onboard computers for in-flight engine performance analysis and reporting.
The end of an era
In 1970 Pan Am became the first airline to operate the Boeing 747 in regular schedule service. The new Boeing plane was the biggest commercial jet plane, the biggest commercial jet order, had the biggest jet engines, and a predicted passenger seating capacity to more than double the existing jet transport. Trippe was preparing for the expected 70 percent growth in commercial passenger travel in the next five years. The 747 was designed to replace the 707 with lower seat-mile costs. That same year, Pan Am became the first airline to operate a production model air-ground satellite communications system and the first to test and operate a data-link automated aircraft identification and position system.Photo from the Pan Am Historical Foundation
As commercial travel interest grew, so did the jets flying the passengers. In 1971 Pan Am became the first airline to open a major maintenance facility designed specifically for jump jets and the first to operate round-the-world service with the 747. One year later, Pan Am built the world's largest single air terminal at JFK Worldport. The 1970s continued to be a prosperous time for Pan Am throughout the early part of the decade, becoming the first to offer technological and safety enhancements like electronic passenger security screening equipment, the first to operate an FAA-certified Visual Approach Moniyot heads-up pilot display system. and the first airline to install and operate the FAA-certified fleetwide Ground Proximity Warning System.
In 1977 Pan Am celebrated its 50th anniversary, still a global brand and operating in its prime. That all changed in the latter half of the decade. According to the Air and Space Museum, the federal government deregulated the airlines in 1978, allowing for more competition, but also more room to fail. Pan Am's service saw a slight decline in the 70s and it began losing passengers.
According to the Air and Space Museum, to try and gain back its domestic network Pan Am bought National Airlines in 1980, which proved costly. Pan Am began selling off assets, like some of its lucrative Pacific routes and some buildings. The end of the decade marked the nearing end for Pan Am after a devastating tragedy changed the company forever.
On Dec. 21, 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 was en route from Frankfurt, Germany to New York. Just 27 minutes after it left London, a bomb went off on board, ripping the plane apart over Lockerbie, Scotland and killing 270 people, 259 on the plane and 11 on the ground. Pan Am was faced with a $300 million lawsuit by the victim's families. Pan Am subpoenaed records from numerous government agencies that revealed there were prior warnings about a bombing and the information was not passed along to the airline, but the public opinion was not swayed. The same month as the tragic crash, the FAA hit Pan Am with fines for 19 security failures.
Pan Am was unable to recover from the financial struggles that followed the crash and lawsuits, filing for bankruptcy protection in January 1991. The rest of Pan Am's profitable assets were purchased by Delta Airlines, including all but one of its remaining European routes. By Dec. 4, 1991 Pan Am ceased operations after Delta decided not to continue with a final payment of $25 million. After 64 years as a company and 63 as a commercial air service, Pan Am was no more.
While the airline is no longer operating, the iconic blue logo is still recognized around the world. Six decades of growth and history as the modern era of aviation blossomed into what we see today has set Pan Am up to be remembered for decades to come. 97 years after a group of savvy and ambitious men tried for months to send a plane with mail from Florida to Cuba, Pan Am is remembered as one of the great icons of the golden age of aviation.