Class News

Ed Trippe ’64 quoted in NYT about his experiences with Pan Am

Here is an excerpt from a New York Times article on the history of Pan Am. The excerpt features observations by Ed Trippe '64. The complete article follows the excerpt.

Edward S. Trippe, Juan Trippe’s son, recalled his first 14-hour flight to Europe on a DC-6, an airplane made by the Douglas Aircraft Company. “It was all first-class,” said Mr. Trippe, who is the chairman of the Pan Am Historical Foundation. “We slept in bunks we pulled down above our seats. It was a luxury event.”

It was in 1958, though, that his father and airline executives embarked on what would become the golden era of jet travel fueled, in large part, by new technology that made it possible to fly long stretches without having to refuel. In 1955, Pan Am purchased a number of Boeing 707s, the first commercially successful airliners to be manufactured. Mr. Trippe said his father wanted to open up international markets and lower airfares. “He wanted a new generation who were able to see where their ancestors were born,” Mr. Trippe said. “Pan Am had an international character. Its whole image was London, Hawaii, Africa, Japan, Rome. The advertising conjured up these images. You could go there.”

Mr. Trippe was on the 25th-anniversary flight. He said he remembered seeing the actress Maureen O’Hara, who later owned her own seaplane company, aboard the plane. “The jet age propelled us into a new era,” he said. “It shrunk the world.”

Now here is the full article.

Pan Am Remains Grounded. In Culture, That Is.

On Oct. 26, 1958, the airline made a historic flight from New York to Paris that helped usher in the jet age.

The New York Times

October 26, 2019

A Pan Am aircraft departed New York City for Paris on the evening of Oct. 26, 1958 — a trans-Atlantic flight heralded by many as the dawn of the jet age.

On Oct. 26, 1958, Pan American World Airways made the first commercial nonstop flight from New York to Paris. A marching band played John Philip Sousa as guests boarded the plane, where 111 passengers supped on cuisine from Maxim’s in Paris. Twenty-five years later, the airline commemorated the voyage by inviting celebrities like Eartha Kitt and the boxing champ Floyd Patterson to Paris in one of the original Boeing 707 jets. Once there, the crew was feted at a party.

Pan Am went out of business in 1991. But for many, it is still synonymous with luxury air travel. And while the 1958 journey was not the first trans-Atlantic flight by an airline, it was perhaps the most significant, according to news reports at the time. Pan Am helped usher in the era of commercial jet travel with daily flights to London and Paris that ultimately made it easy for tourists — not just wealthy patrons — to see the world.

In 1958, Pan Am created this
pamphlet to chronicle the history
of its aircraft, and to introduce
the new Boeing 707 Jet Clipper.

A 1960s pamphlet announced that,
“with the magic of Jet speed, you can be
in Europe in less than 7 hours."

“It was a game changer,” said Gabriella Williams, a librarian at the University of Miami who oversees the digitization of one of the largest collections of Pan Am brochures, magazines, advertising, and financial reports. “More people could afford to get on planes. The dawn of the jet age implemented economy class.”

Pan Am’s status as a cultural icon persists nearly three decades after the airline collapsed under crushing debt. There are Pan Am items for sale on eBay, including travel bags, cutlery, and captain’s wings. It continues to be memorialized in television, movies, and documentaries. The Pan Am Historical Foundation offers travel tours to Morocco, Iran, and Egypt.

Ms. Williams said half the visits to the university’s special collections libraries, where the Pan Am catalog is housed, were from people interested in the airline.

“The brand, at one point, was the biggest in the world,” she said.

Pan Am flew its first international flight in October 1927, and went on to become the most recognizable American airline, known for elegant service, dashing pilots, and adventurous travel. Earlier that year, Pan Am’s founder, Juan T. Trippe, had merged three airlines to form the company after receiving a contract from the United States Postal Service to deliver mail between Key West, Fla., and Havana. Pan Am delivered 250 pounds of mail to Cuba on its first trip. Within a year, it would establish regular service to the island nation.

Juan T. Trippe, center, Pan Am’s founder, with Waldo Lynch, left, and Sam Miller,
who flew the airline’s heralded New York-to-Paris commercial flight on Oct. 26, 1958.

Trippe had a flair for marketing and public relations. In 1928, he hired the pilot Charles Lindbergh, who had become world-famous a year earlier when he made the first solo nonstop flight between New York and Paris, as a consultant. Lindbergh was to explore new routes in South America, Europe, and Africa for the airline. By the early 1930s, Pan Am had expanded service throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.

Pan Am acquired China Airways Federal in 1933, which allowed the airline to expand into China. That year, Trippe, who was born in 1899 in Sea Bright, N.J., the son of an investment banker, was featured on the cover of Time. But air travel was expensive then, mostly for business executives and the well-to-do. Airlines sought to differentiate themselves with first-class service, not with low fares as airlines do nowadays. Consider this: The 1958 flight to Paris cost economy-class passengers $489.60, or about $4,350 today.

“They competed by who offered the most frills,” Ms. Williams said.

That meant a large part of the population was forced to stay home. Edward S. Trippe, Juan Trippe’s son, recalled his first 14-hour flight to Europe on a DC-6, an airplane made by the Douglas Aircraft Company. “It was all first-class,” said Mr. Trippe, who is the chairman of the Pan Am Historical Foundation. “We slept in bunks we pulled down above our seats. It was a luxury event.”

Pan Am promoted the services
that passengers received
on its trans-Atlantic flights.

Hope Ryden, a Pan Am flight attendant,
distributed newspapers to passengers
aboard the first commercial nonstop flight
from New York to Paris.

It was in 1958, though, that his father and airline executives embarked on what would become the golden era of jet travel, fueled in large part by new technology that made it possible to fly long stretches without having to refuel. In 1955, Pan Am purchased a number of Boeing 707s, the first commercially successful airliners to be manufactured. Mr. Trippe said his father wanted to open up international markets and lower airfares.

“He wanted a new generation who were able to see where their ancestors were born,” Mr. Trippe said. “Pan Am had an international character. Its whole image was London, Hawaii, Africa, Japan, Rome. The advertising conjured up these images. You could go there.”

Pan Am was later beset by troubles. High fuel prices in the 1970s hobbled the industry. In 1988, a bomb exploded on a trans-Atlantic flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 people onboard. The company declared bankruptcy in 1991.

The flight on Oct. 26, 1958, took more than seven hours. It had been scheduled to continue on to Rome after Paris, but was canceled after the Italian government imposed a new surcharge on jet airfares, according to an article in The New York Times. Of the success of the New York-to-Paris flight, The Times said, “A long procession of commercial jet flights is lining up behind it.”