The Rise And Fall of Pan Am

From 1927 to 1991, Pan American Airways was not just an airline, but an institution, an aesthetic, and an era in aviation history. This video traces the rise, peak and tragic fall of Juan Trippe’s globe-spanning enterprise, from its modest beginnings hauling mail to Cuba in the 1920s, to the glorious “clipper era” of the flying boats and the great technological and commercial advances of the 707 and 747. Pan Am’s fall, brought on by deregulation, terrorism and a corporate deal gone bad, is a tragic story. You may not have been around when Pan Am existed, but hearing its story may make you wish you had flown with them.

Corrections:
- The Pan Am building was on Park Avenue, not Fifth
- The Pan Am cockpit crew in the Tenerife disaster survived.

Sources for this video included:

Special thanks to: John Marcucci, Austin Pierce

Chapters:
00:00-08:49: The Last Flight
08:49-20:28: The Beginning - Juan Trippe
20:28-31:49: The Early Golden Age
31:49-42:18: The War & Post-War
42:18-53:23: The Late Golden Age
53:23-1:09:16: The Fateful Gamble
1:09:16-1:22:52: The Empire In Decline
1:22:52-1:32:43: Lockerbie
1:32:43-1:46:09: The Fall
1:46:09-1:56:00: The Aftermath
1:56:00-1:59:32: Conclusion

[SeanMunger]

Corrections:
- The Pan Am building was on Park Avenue, not Fifth
- The Pan Am cockpit crew in the Tenerife disaster survived.

[realArisawaHeavyInd]

Yo Sean, I gotta say, in a time where youtube is really really pushing creators into short form content, I love that you're sticking to these long form deep dives. I'm SO sick of these interesting topics only getting enough coverage depth to occupy the attention span of a twitter user

[MrFakefall]

I checked myself into a psychiatry for 2 months in hopes of improving myself/my life and I cant even put it into words how grateful I am for your videos in this strange phase of my existence.
Thank you and wish you the best!

[justcommenting]

The fact pensions aren't fully insured and protected is so obscene.

[rickvelez]

This is what YouTube was made for. Factual, well researched, and interesting/entertaining.

[Noland]

I am 73 years old. I remember flying on Pan American from Guam to Hawaii & later to Europe. No matter what class you flew, the service was great. Such a class airline. I was very sad when they ended.

[keiththorpe]

My grandmother's partner was a woman named Betty Leo. She was an engineer and metallurgist with Pratt & Whitney, who had won the contract to build the massive engines for the 747. The problem they were having was the size of the fan blades required a level of purity in the steel that couldn't be achieved with the methods of the time. Betty came up with the process by which the micro-impurities in the steel could be detected and extracted prior to casting, making the engine viable. If this problem couldn't be solved, they were actually considering going with a dual engine pod design like on the B-52. However, that would've been a terrible solution, as fuel consumption would have risen, efficiency would have fallen off, and the plane's range would have been cut considerably. The 747 would never have operated as advertised. Yeah, there for a time, Betty Leo was the darling of the aerospace engineering world. Sikorsky Aircraft tried to poach her. The brass at P&W just about offered to ritually amputate their own body parts to keep her there.

[rbiscuit]

I asked myself TODAY, "How did PanAm go from being this gigantic company to failing?" after I saw their logo on a video of NYC in the 70s. This video, from one of my favorite YouTubers, could not have come at a more perfect time.

[michaelmoorrees]

I have a cousin who was a flight attendant at Pan Am. She started in the early 1970s, and had near 20 years at the airline, and of course, accumulated her pension contributions there. Delta scavenged much of Pan Am's assets, and hired her on, with no seniority, and no pension fund. Pretty much starting over. She retired from Delta sometime ~2010.

[maddexairlines]

I was never born when Pan Am was around, but I am a part of the Pan Am Museum foundation and this video is so highly detailed. Thank you for taking the time to discuss the history of Pan Am and to help keep the history of this amazing company alive.

[videoguysnation]

As soon as I get home from work it's Elden ring on the main monitor and this video on the side. Like cheese & wine 🍷🧀

[theenglishman]

I'm going to watch this after work on my TV with a big bowl of popcorn and a hot beverage, as God intended.

[catriona_drummond]

I grew up in East Germany, behind the iron curtain. I had never flown Pan AM, I had never seen one of their planes not even from a distance.
But I had a used blue Pan Am bag, that had been sent to me by relatives in the West. And it was the best thing in the whole world.
It was a symbol of the freedom of travel that we didn't have, it was a symbol for a better life a symbol of America as a beacon of freedom in general.
In the 80's it was just below the threshold of getting into trouble over it. And everybody here understood what it meant. The promise of a better world.

I never got a chance to fly Pan Am, but I was weirdly sad when I heard they had ceased to exist.
And I am even sadder today because America is no longer that beacon to large, if not most parts in the world.

If you Americans ever want to know how you actually won the cold war - because it was neither Ronald Reagan nor David Hasselhoff - ask what America meant to the people in the Eastern Block back then. And why we admired it.
I still have that bag.

[psjasker]

This is how documentaries should be made. Dense with information; narrated with an A.M. radio voice! Top notch

[SawdEndymon]

My childhood neighbor was a flight attendant for Pan Am, great to see this iconic airline getting attention.

Amazing as always Sean!🙌

[m.streicher]

I like the bit where you try to reason with a YouTube robot

[linphillips]

When I was 5, my father was transferred to Germany, so my family flew there on PanAm. This was in 1973. I remember the flight attendants being really nice and paying a lot of attention to me, handing out gifts such as a pair of metal pilot wings and a coloring book with coloring pencils, all of which I kept for years afterward. PanAm fostered a lot of goodwill in my eyes.

[luftcorde]

I'm a young airline mechanic and aviation history nerd, and I thoroughly enjoyed this. A good friend recommended this video to me, and I'm glad they did!!

[fhtastc]

It is funny how a video like this can make you nostalgic for a time you never lived in, for an airline you never flew on.

[cavu]

Sean, I was a history major at UGA and own a pub in the mountains of Northern Thailand now.

Even though my career has nothing to do with my degree, I still consider myself a major “history buff” and I’m so pleased that I found your channel.

I’ve watched almost all your vids, some multiple times, and just want to commend you on the work you put into these top notch deep dive vids.

Cheers to you Sir 🙌🏼