WELCOME TO PANAM.ORG
Pan Am Historical Foundation - Welcome to panam.orgTHE PAN AM HISTORICAL FOUNDATION
CELEBRATING SIX DECADES OF PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS, JUAN TRIPPE, AND HIS COMPANY'S LEGENDARY CONTRIBUTIONS TO COMMERCIAL AVIATION.
CELEBRATING SIX DECADES OF PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS, JUAN TRIPPE, AND HIS COMPANY'S LEGENDARY CONTRIBUTIONS TO COMMERCIAL AVIATION.
ADVANCING PAN AM HISTORY
SINCE 1992















CURRENT




JOIN/RENEW - SUPPORT THE PAN AM HISTORICAL FOUNDATION!! Receive our 2026 Wall Calendar featuring iconic Pan Am ads from Duke University's J. Walter Thompson & Wells Rich Greene collections. Cover ad PAA Capt. John Mattis (Norman Rockwell Museum). Buy Extras: Great for holiday gifts!


Take a deep dive into Pan Am history at Clipper Hall Exhibits: https://exhibits.panam.digital/.
JTT & THE JET AGE, Part 2: Illustration of Pan Am's Boeing 747 by Roy Andersen. The 1st wide-body aircraft that changed travel forever.


B-314 MODEL: Installation by the Pan Am Historical Foundation now at the MAT Rotunda.


1935 was a turning point for Pan Am as it launched its longest transoceanic flights. Stream "Across the Pacific" on PBS. Produced by Moreno/Lyons Productions in association with the Pan Am Historical Foundation.


Find video, audio and slideshows at PanAm.org. (Photo: Pan Am Boeing 747, first of the wide-body aircraft that changed travel forever.)


Oct.1935 arrival at Guam. S-42 Pan American Clipper NC823M flew the 4th & longest survey to Guam & back. When its four transpacific surveys were done, the plane returned to Miami for years of service in the Caribbean. (R.O.D. Sullivan/PAHF Collection).










TAKE-OFF
At the height of the "Roaring 20's" aviation ignited the imaginations of people around the world. Pan American Airways was awarded a US Foreign Mail contract. On October 19th 1927, Pan Am flew the mail from Key West to Havana, Cuba and began a storied history.
EXPLORATIONS
Pan Am's first small land planes soon gave way in the early 1930s to newer, faster flying boats. Pan Am conducted exploratory survey flights over the Pacific and the Atlantic, opening commercial air routes where none had been before.
WORLD WAR TWO
As war clouds loomed, Pan Am and the U.S. government worked closely together to build, secure, and maintain vital air routes in a world increasingly fraught with danger. When Americans entered WW2, Pan Am joined the Allied effort, contracting with the US government & contributing to Allied victory.
POST WAR PAN AM
After World War Two, Pan Am's flying boats gave way to a new generation of large, sleek land planes, set to carry thousands to foreign destinations where once only a few could travel. Ever greater numbers of people were ready to go, and Pan Am was ready to take them.
INTO THE JET AGE
1950's piston-powered airliners were close to their limit of technical sophistication, but they still seemed a safe bet — except to Pan Am's Juan Trippe. He convinced US aircraft manufacturing rivals Douglas and Boeing to push the envelope to build jet-powered commercial aircraft, ushering in the Jet Age.
THE WORLD'S AIRLINE
Juan Trippe's life-long belief in the promise of aviation reached its culmination in 1969, lowering the cost of long distance air travel even further with the introduction of Pan Am Boeing 747s. The new "wide-body" aircraft served millions of new customers, ushering in a truly globalized, and more egalitarian epoch of air travel.
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