Pan American Airlines: Pioneer of International Aviation

Introduction

The United States is the nation commonly credited as the birthplace of powered aviation. There were many attempts around the world to achieve actual flight, but until Wilbur and Orville Wright flew their powered glider in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, NC, it had never been successfully accomplished. As with many important milestones, it was not long before others had also flown successfully — many with the help of the Wright brothers — and the age of aviation began. The United States has been the site of many firsts in aviation, and the nation also fostered some pioneering aviation companies whose fame spanned the globe. It can safely be said that Pan American Airlines was the foremost of these, particularly in the early history of passenger and freight flight. This paper examines how Pan Am started, the important innovations the airline pioneered, and why it was considered instrumental to the successful beginnings of the international airline industry.

History and Founding

Pan American Airlines was founded in 1927 by a trio of Air Corps majors — one of whom, Major Henry "Hap" Arnold, would go on to become the first five-star general of the Air Force — who wanted to ensure that a German-owned airline operating in Colombia would not be able to gain the rights to fly in the United States (Pan Am Historical Foundation, 2012). SCADTA, the German-owned airline, and Pan Am competed for the rights to fly international airmail from Florida into Havana, Cuba. SCADTA had the inside track for the contracts, even though it was a German-based company, because it had been operating since 1920. However, the founding majors found backers for their airline and quickly turned it over to Juan Trippe and a group of investors. This group was able to sell enough stock — $250,000 worth — to lease and buy airplanes and the rights that another American company had already secured to land in Cuba (Pan Am Historical Foundation, 2012). With this infrastructure in place, it was not long before Pan Am was awarded the contract as the first U.S.-based international airmail carrier.

The original contracts that Pan American's board secured gave the company an advantage in acquiring additional contracts as they became available (PBS, 2012). This ability to win airmail contracts allowed the company to expand very rapidly. The president of the company worked with Charles Lindbergh to secure contracts from various countries in Central and South America, and traveled throughout these regions acquiring landing rights as well. During this period, the company also worked within the United States to secure more domestic mail contracts. Although the chief cargo these planes carried was mail, they also offered the first international passenger flights aboard their airmail aircraft (Pan Am Historical Foundation, 2012).

Innovation and Expansion

Pan American was an early entrant into the air transport world, which forced the company to devise many new approaches to ensure continued growth and operations. One of the first things it pioneered was a corps of pilots capable of multitasking (Pan American Airlines, 2012). Most Pan Am pilots were themselves among the pioneers of aviation and had been forced to become mechanics as well as pilots during the early years of flight. Aircraft were about as reliable as automobiles of the era, and it took a resourceful mechanic to keep them airborne. Some accounts describe Pan Am first officers changing engines and other aircraft components while docked at a stop, waiting for the next wave of passengers or mail. Pilots also had to be expert navigators, since their instruments were very primitive, and they were expected to act as negotiators with passengers and local mail personnel as well (PBS, 2012).

Nearly all of Pan American's early planes were seaplanes, because it was difficult to construct reliable runways in many of the regions it served, and the established sea lanes offered dependable approach and departure corridors. One of the more innovative methods by which Pan Am gained new routes was to be the first carrier to enter a region and establish landing and loading permits. Juan Trippe secured the first transatlantic routes by forging agreements with England and France, then devised a method of using marked sea lanes and an extensive network of landing sites to fly passengers to China and other eastern ports. By 1937, just ten years after the airline's founding, it was flying to every continent except Africa and Antarctica (PBS, 2012).

Nearly all commercial air traffic ceased with the outbreak of the Second World War, but it resumed shortly afterward, with a large pool of qualified pilots returning from military service. Pan Am was one of many airlines now competing for an expanded number of routes and for those experienced pilots. Aircraft design had improved dramatically during the war years, and Pan Am was among the first to completely upgrade its fleet with new postwar planes. The company was able to expand rapidly after the war, drawing on the extensive route network it had established beforehand.

Conclusion

Pan American Airlines ceased all operations in 1991 due to an inability to compete. The airline, which had held over one billion dollars in reserve cash in the early 1970s, was severely affected beginning in 1973 by the fuel crisis of that year, and it never fully recovered. Even though Pan Am no longer flies, it remains highly regarded. A television series about the airline and its distinctive culture served as the inspiration for this report. Pan Am stands as a lasting tribute to one of the true pioneers of the airline industry, both in the United States and internationally.

References

Pan Am Historical Foundation. (2012). About the foundation. Retrieved from

Pan American Airlines. (2012). About us. Retrieved from

PBS. (2012). Chasing the sun: Pan Am. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/kcet/chasingthesun/companies/panam.html