Term Paper on Pan Am
Juan Trippe, the founder of the Pan Am
Airways, was born on June27, 1899 at Sea Bright, New Jersey. His
father was William Trippe, a partner in a Wall Street Investment
house. Juan Trippe’s forefathers were basically English who had
migrated to the US in the 17th century. Juan fell in love with the
airplanes at a very early age when he visited, with his father, a
flying competition between Glen Curtiss and the Wright Brothers. The
visit to this competition fascinated and thrilled him so much that
it changed his life. He also watched Arch Hoxey and Lincoln Beachey
while flying in Mineola. As a child he also met the Wright Brothers.
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In April 1917 the United States of America joined the First World
War. At that time Juan was in his first year at Yale. Swayed by
patriotism, he along with some other fellows joined the military, to
fight the world war on behalf of America. He was admitted in the
Navy flight-training program and after the training he was
commissioned as a Naval Aviation ensign, on 17th June 1918. His
first solo flight during the training was flying a Jenny bi-plane
over Long Island.
After getting commission as a naval aviator, Juan was ready to enter
the war but his dream of flying the warplanes didn’t fulfill, as the
war ended in Nov 1918, in favor of victory for the Allies. Juan then
joined again the Yale to complete his unfinished studies. At the
school he didn’t forget his passion for flying and therefore
organized the Yale Aero Club and took transportation as his major
subject. During this period he also organized flying competitions at
the School. In 1921, Juan graduated from Yale and for the next two
years he joined an investment-banking firm on the Wall Street and
worked as a bonds salesman. However this work was not to his liking
and he very soon got bored with it and left it, to try his luck in
the aviation.
The historic day in the life of the young Juan Trippe was October
19, 1927 when his newly established Pan American Airways started its
journey to Havana Cuba. However before this he had also experimented
with foundations of other airways. His first experiment was the
foundation of the Long Island Airways in 1923.
“He purchased seven Navy surplus Aeromarine 49-B float planes for
$500 each at a Philadelphia auction and Long Island Airways was
officially in business. The single engine floatplanes that Trippe
purchased held one pilot and one passenger. Trippe immediately
replaced the engine, a 90 horsepower Curtiss OV-5, with a 220
horsepower Hispano-Suiza enabling the plane to carry 1 additional
passenger. The airline serviced travelers on excursions to Atlantic
City and other wealthy enclaves, and chartered flights to Honduras
and Canada. Trippe was directly involved with all aspects of the
airline from keeping the books, to carrying bags, to scheduling
flights. Trippe was thoroughly acquainted with the running of an
airline, and when Long Island Airways folded in 1924, Trippe was
ready to move on to bigger and better endeavors.” (aviationposters.com)
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His second experiment with airlines was the foundation of the
Eastern Air Transport in 1925. The establishment of this airline was
prompted by the passage of the Kelly Act of 1925, which opened the
flying of airmail to private contractor at subsidized rates. Juan
Trippe was very instrumental in the passage of this act as he
persuaded his college fellow, the Congressman Clyde Kelly, who was
also chairman of the House Post Office Committee, to introduce the
law. To get maximum benefit from the new law, Juan Trippe merged his
Eastern Air Transport with the Colonial Air Transport, which was
very sound financially. On Oct 7, 1925, Juan Trippe got a contract
for the Colonial for delivery of mail from Boston to New York via
Hartford. He was the vice president of the company and managed all
its operations.
As stated earlier, Juan Trippe had established the Pan Am in 1927,
which was the result of his visit to Cuba, to show off the new
Fokkar trimotor airplane of Colonial Air Transport. He got an
appointment with Gerardo Machado, the fifth president of the
Republic of Cuba, who at that time had initiated major developmental
works. President Machado, impressed by the vision of Juan Trippe,
granted him exclusive rights to land at Havana’s military airport,
Camp Columbia. To start his operations to Havana, Juan Trippe
resigned from the Colonial due to some differences with the
directors of the company and started another airline company on 2nd
June 1927 with the name of Aviation Corporation of America. He very
soon merged this airline with two other airlines and it was given
the new name of Pan American Airways. This new company started its
southward journey on October19, 1927 when a “small wood and fabric
Fokker trimotor airplane loaded with mail sacks took off from a dirt
runway in Key West, Florida, and landed one hour and ten minutes
later in Havana, Cuba, a distance of ninety miles.” (aviationposters.com)
Pan American Airways’ initial air service to Cuba, with its two
airplanes and about two dozen employees was a great success. Very
soon the company extended its services to the Caribbean islands,
Mexico, Central America and South America. In the 1930’s the Pan Am
decided to cross the world’s largest oceans. The first great ocean
to be crossed by the pan am was the Pacific when Pan Am Clippers,
the Martin M-130 and Boeing 314, started from San Francisco harbor
skipping across the Pacific with stops at Hawaii, Midway Island,
Wake Island, Guam, to the Philippines and then to Hong Kong.
Atlantic was the second to be crossed by the Pan Am when it started
its service from New York to Lisbon and Marseilles by way of the
Azores 1939. The post Second World War period brought many
technological improvements in the aviation industry and Pan Am fully
benefited from it.
The law of nature governs the rise and fall of everything, and Pan
Am was no exception to it. There were many causes for the decline of
the giant Pan Am. The major cause of the decline was the purchase of
the Boeing 747 by the Pan Am in the 1970. Juan Trippe wanted to have
bigger and bigger airplanes and with the Boeing engineers, he was
the co-creator of the Boeing 747. But unfortunately this was the
wrong time for the purchase, the oil crisis caused by a sudden raise
in prices by OPEC plunged the airline in deep financial troubles.
The cost of all petroleum products skyrocketed thus resulting into
huge oil bills and lesser traveling. Due to the oil crisis Boeing
also suffered heavy losses because of the launching of the 747. The
oil crisis struck the Pan Am in such a way that it never recovered.
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In other cause was the competition from other airlines and the
stoppage of its monopoly.
“To make matters worse, the governmental favors enjoyed by Pan Am
for years gave way to increased hostility against the airline for
its monopolistic ways. International routes were granted to PanAm's
rival airlines, while Pan Am was barred from starting its own
domestic operations. When deregulation allowed Pan Am to enter the
domestic market, it jumped at the opportunity by acquiring National
Airlines in 1980. But the integration of the two airlines' routes
and equipment was less than seamless. Debt continued to mount. Just
to stay in the air, Pan Am was forced to liquidate assets. Most
shocking was the sale in 1985 of its entire Pacific Ocean network to
United Airlines. Soon thereafter, Pan Am sold its New York - London
route”. (aviationposters.com)
Another cause was the Lockerbie incident. On December 21, 1988, a
bomb exploded aboard Pan American Flight 103, above the village of
Lockerbie, in Scotland. Two hundred seventy men, women and children
from 21 nations lost their lives, including US 200 US citizens. Two
Libyans were involved in this act of international terrorism, whose
main objective was to target US assets and citizens. The Lockerbie
incident terrified the Pan Am customers and they avoided traveling
in it, thus resulting into empty airplanes flying, which further
deteriorated the financial worries of the airline. Following a
series of unsuccessful initiatives designed to improve the economic
performance of the company, Pan Am, the leader of aviation industry
ceased operations in 1991.
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