The musings of a politically incorrect dinosaur from a forgotten age where civility was the rule rather than the exception.
Webster
The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." --American Statesman Daniel Webster (1782-1852)
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
PAN AM The Unofficial State Airline of the United States.
Every country has one airline that is the "State" airline that has government support. Except the United States, we didn't have a "State Airline", but if we did it would have been PAN AM, it was the closest thing to a state sponsored airline that the United States had, the airline was legendary. It was commonplace to see the "Blue Meatball" wherever you went on ads and on airplanes...even in movies of the future.
2001 A Space Odyssey
The Rise and Fall of PAN-AM was legendary, how a company that had everything crashed. I heard things from excessive gate cost to high union cost, to inefficient routing. The people that were running PAN-AM at the end seemed to be coasting on the laurels of the company's reputation.
Last month marked 93 years since Pan American World Airways was first founded. The airline would go on to shake up the global aviation industry, leaving a legacy that is still talked about today. However, despite being a cultural icon for much of the 20th century, the carrier’s life was eventually cut short before it could celebrate its 65th birthday.
Pan Am’s story began on March 14th, 1927, when it was founded by US Air Corps majors Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, Carl A. Spaatz and John Jouett. The three men were looking to provide a counterbalance to SCATDA, a German-owned Colombian outfit, which went on to become part of Avianca.
Before taking people to the skies, Pan Am operated mail services. The Chicago Tribune reports that the first of these flights started on October 28th, 1927, with a scheduled operation between Key West and Havana. According to the New York Times, this was the first-ever scheduled flight performed by a United States-based airline. The Fokker F-VII crossed the Straits of Florida to land in the Cuban capital.
These progressive beginnings quickly gave the firm the confidence to venture into passenger services. Therefore, on January 16th, 1928, the operator served its first flight to Cuba with its paying passengers.
By the end of the month, 71 customers handed over around $50 ($2,500 today) each for the privilege to be flown 90 miles away. Advertising partnerships with Bacardi highlighted Cuba’s exotic offerings, attracting tourists from the US.
It does boggle the mind when one tries to come to grips with just how in the hell could outfits like PanAm, TWA, Eastern, etc. manage to go broke so quickly. I fear that corporate raiders and their lawyer henchmen were to blame.
IIRC, Trippe's son oversaw the failure of TWA. I'm told his siblings considered him "less than bright", and after that, they limited his access to the family money. I worked at a high-tech company he put together, and it was badly managed at all levels. It had a unique technology to enable computer screen image quality to be displayed on a big screen. (prior to the company's demise, we were working on doing it for projection on screens as large as movie houses) Really bad management enabled them to lose control of the in-house semiconductor fab process that created the critical part. Idiots all around.
It does boggle the mind when one tries to come to grips with just how in the hell could outfits like PanAm, TWA, Eastern, etc. manage to go broke so quickly. I fear that corporate raiders and their lawyer henchmen were to blame.
ReplyDeleteNote the width of the aisle in coach back then... sigh... Flew Pan Am to Rome in 1969, great trip and nice stews!
ReplyDeleteIIRC, Trippe's son oversaw the failure of TWA. I'm told his siblings considered him "less than bright", and after that, they limited his access to the family money.
ReplyDeleteI worked at a high-tech company he put together, and it was badly managed at all levels. It had a unique technology to enable computer screen image quality to be displayed on a big screen. (prior to the company's demise, we were working on doing it for projection on screens as large as movie houses) Really bad management enabled them to lose control of the in-house semiconductor fab process that created the critical part. Idiots all around.