Pan American World Airways

Pan Am did not just buy the 747. It caused it.

The order that started everything

Juan Trippe wanted an aircraft roughly twice the size of the 707, and in April 1966 Pan Am ordered 25 of them. That order launched the programme and committed Boeing to an aircraft, and a factory to build it in, that nearly destroyed the company.

Pan Am took delivery of the first 747 on 13 December 1969 and flew the first commercial service on 22 January 1970, New York to London, with N736PA.

The fleet

65 aircraft in total between 1969 and 1991:

Variant	Number
747-100	44
747-200B	10
747SP	11

At its peak Pan Am operated 34 simultaneously — more than any other airline at the time — 28 passenger aircraft and six freighters.

The SP was its idea too

Pan Am, together with Iran Air, asked for an aircraft that could fly New York to the Middle East and Tehran to New York nonstop. Nothing then flying could. Boeing’s answer was the 747SP, with nearly 48 ft cut out of the fuselage so it could carry the fuel instead of the passengers.

Pan Am took 11 of the 45 ever built, and in May 1976 flew one, Liberty Bell Express, around the world in 46 hours 26 minutes.

The end

Pan Am ceased operations in 1991. Two of its 747s had already been destroyed in events that shaped the industry: Tenerife in 1977 and Lockerbie in 1988, with a hijacking at Karachi in 1986 between them.

The airline that ordered the 747 into existence outlived its own creation by 21 years; the aircraft outlived the airline by 32.

Related

• Airlines that flew the 747
• The 747-100
• Background — the story of the 747