The Airline of Firsts

During this month in 1927, the United States Post Office requested bids on a contract to deliver mail from Key West, Florida to Havana, Cuba by mid-October. Pan American Airways, Incorporated was founded as a shell company by United States Army Air Corps officers Henry "Hap" Arnold, and Carl Spaatz. They drew up the prospectus for Pan American after they learned that German-owned Colombian air carrier SCADTA, hired a company in Delaware to obtain air mail contracts from the US government. A contract was awarded to a former World War I naval aviator, Juan Trippe, to fly mail between Key West to Havana. The airline’s first passenger service between these cities began the next year.

Pan American World Airways established seventeen firsts in airline travel, including the first transpacific flights (from San Francisco to Manila) in 1936, using the famous China Clipper; the first transatlantic flights from New York City to Lisbon in 1939, aboard the Yankee Clipper; the first round-the-world flights (New York to New York, eastbound) in 1947; the first transatlantic jet service in 1958 with the Boeing 707, and by 1970 the first airline to use the Boeing 747.

In the Jet Age, Pan American, now referred to simply as Pan Am, faced growing challenges as international travel grew and U.S. airlines deregulated in the late 1970s. It competed with airlines expanding into foreign markets from extensive domestic routes by acquiring National Airlines in 1980. It did little to invigorate the airline with Pan Am ending in bankruptcy by the end of 1991.

Read much more about Pan American at these sites: Pan Am or Simple Flying

The Honolulu to Honolulu Flight

 

On this day in 1989, a United Airlines Boeing 747-100, flight 811, took off from Honolulu International Airport en route to Auckland International Airport then onward to Sydney, Australia. 16 minutes after takeoff, about 60 miles south of Honolulu, the 747's cargo door exploded outward with decompression blowing a huge hole in the fuselage and carrying away ten seats and nine passengers. Every flight attendant suffered some injury. Further plane damage resulted in the loss of some controls yet the plane landed safely back in Honolulu. The cause of the cargo door failure was determined to be a faulty design, combined with a short in the 747’s electrical system.

The Jumbo Era Begins

On this day in 1970, Captain Robert Weeks, Captain John Noland and Flight Engineer August McKinney flew the Pan American World Airways Boeing 747-121, N736PA, Clipper Young America, arrived in London from New York for its six-hour, fourteen-minute maiden transatlantic flight of the new jumbo jet. Aboard was a cabin crew of 17 and 332 passengers. London Airport services were geared to deal as quickly as possible with the passengers and 30,000 pounds of baggage and cargo aboard. Loading delays dealing with the large aircraft, coming and going, did not concern most passengers but a few selected other options for their return to New York.

Earlier this year, Boeing announced that the final 747s, four 747-8F freighters, had been ordered by Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. When they have been built, the production of the “jumbo jet” will come to a close.