The 747SP and the 707

Pan Am's 747SP Clipper Freedom N533PA is parked next to a 707. Even though the 747SP is the shortend version of the 747 you can see how the 707 is dwarfed by it's size.

China Clipper 50 Years Later

This Boeing 747 named in honor of the China Clipper of the 1930's was flown across the Pacific to commemorate Pan Am's 50th year of flying the Pacific on November 22, 1985. The route of the flight was San Francisco, Honolulu, Midway, Wake Island, Guam, and Manila. China Clipper II is the backdrop for the group photo taken on Wake Island.

China Clipper at Night

This Martin M-130 flying boat was named China Clipper and is perhaps the most famous Clipper name. It is seen here at Pearl Harbor at nighttime awaiting an early morning departure.

A Brief History of Pan American World Airways

Pan American Airways, as it was then named, began operations on October 28, 1927, with the first scheduled international flight by a United States airline. 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.

Juan Terry Trippe, Pan Am's twenty-eight year old founder began operations with two airplanes, twenty-four employees and the goal "to provide mass air transportation for the average man at rates he can afford to pay."

Within three months the airline transported passengers on a daily schedule between Florida and Cuba. Initial success encouraged the acquisition of new aircraft, employees and routes to the Caribbean islands, Mexico, Central America and South America. In 1928 Trippe engaged the services of Charles A. Lindbergh, and the famed American aviator served as a technical advisor to Pan Am for forty-five years.

Lindbergh was instrumental in determining the transatlantic routes, and letters between Trippe and Lindbergh provide a unique perspective on the development of the aviation industry.

Pan Am proved to be an airline of many "firsts." On November 22, 1935, the "China Clipper," a Martin flying boat built to Pan Am's specifications departed from San Francisco and began a six day journey to Manila, completing the first transpacific flight. In May, 1939, the "Yankee Clipper," a Boeing B-314 also designed and built for Pan Am, completed a New York - Lisbon - Marseille route that inaugurated transatlantic flights. In 1942 Pan Am also completed the first successful around the world flight.

World War II saw Pan Am devote resources and personnel to the war effort. The airline flew more than ninety million miles for the United States Government. Pan Am carried military personnel and cargo; ferried bombers and aircraft; and built fifty airports in fifteen countries. The airline also trained thousands of military pilots, navigators and mechanics.

The post-war period saw many technical improvements in aviation, including the introduction of the Douglas DC-4, the Lockheed Constellation, the Boeing Stratocruiser and the Douglas DC-6 and DC-7. By 1947, after only two decades of operation, Pan Am employed 19,000 people in sixty-two countries. In 1950, shortly after beginning around the world service and developing the concept of "economy class" passenger service, Pan American Airways changed its name to Pan American World Airways, Inc.

United States air passenger service entered the jet age on October 26, 1958, as the "Clipper America," a Boeing 707 flew from New York to Paris with 111 passengers. Overnight, flying times were reduced by one-half, and the world became a much smaller place. Pan Am continued to influence commercial aviation service, and in 1970 the airline carried 11 million passengers almost twenty billion miles. Pan Am was the first airline to order the Boeing 747, a plane that flew more passengers faster, higher and farther than its predecessors.

In 1976, Pan Am introduced the Boeing 747 SP, a special performance aircraft that extended the range of commercial flights and allowed Pan Am to inaugurate non-stop flights to the far corners of the world. On May 1, 1976, Pan Am's Clipper Liberty Bell, one of the new 747 SP's, left New York and travelled east on a record breaking around the world trip. With ninety-six passengers and only two re-fueling stops at Delhi and Tokyo -- the flight arrived back in New York only forty-six hours from departure, besting the previous mark by some fifteen hours. The airline celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1977 with anther first, this time around the flight covered 26,300 miles in a little more than fifty-four hours.

In the late 1970s Pan Am began exploring domestic flights. In January, 1980, Pan Am merged with National Airlines thus airline industry, the proliferation of airlines around the world and the fragile global economy led Pan Am to attempt a number of organizational restructures. Following a series of unsuccessful initiatives designed to improve the economic performance of the company, Pan American World Airways, Inc., ceased operations in December 1991.

Boeing 307 Clipper Flying Cloud

This Pan American Clipper has quite a story. Pan American Airways Clipper Flying Cloud began service in 1940, flying the Brownsville-Mexico City-Los Angeles run. During World War II, it was flown by Pan American in South America under the direction of the US Army Air Forces Air Transport Command. Then, in 1946, it was returned to Pan American, making daily commercial flights between New York and Bermuda. Pan American retired its Stratoliner fleet in 1948. Throughout the next two decades, Clipper Flying Cloud passed through the hands of several owners. Most notably, in March 1954, the Stratoliner was purchased by the Haitian Air Force. In 1956, when the notorious Haitian leader, "Papa Doc" Duvalier gained control of the government, it served as his presidential aircraft. Dan Hagedorn, National Air and Space Museum archivist and historian of Latin American Aviation, mentions in his book, Central American and Caribbean Air Forces, "Distrustful of his pilots and flying - 'Papa Doc' ordered the aircraft sold in 1957 as an 'unwarranted extravagance.'" Clipper Flying Cloud was returned to the United States and registered as N9307R. The plane was later re-registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as N19903 before it was acquired by the National Air and Space Museum in 1972.

Clippers in Honolulu

Four Pan Am Clippers at Honolulu in 1986. Two are in the new style Pan Am livery of the time, and one is with the older traditional wide blue stripe. Pan Am thru the late '60's, 70's, and 80's would often have as many as seven Clippers in HNL at one time with a mix of 707's and 747's. These Clippers would connect Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Guam, Auckland, Pago Pago, Nadi, Tokyo, Osaka, Melbourne, Sydney, and New York.

Clipper New Horizons N533PA

N533PA

747 SP-SP21
Airframe#21025/273

Engines:Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7A

Cabin Configuration:F18 C62 Y164

Total Hours Flown:78941 with 10733 Cycles Broken Up:12/22/1997

Record Holder for around the world flight.

The Famous Pan Am Logo

Still one of the most recognized logo's the world has seen. The classic lines of the routes flown by Pan Am Clippers.

Pan Am 747

Here is another 747 Clipper in Tokyo. This photo was widely published as a postcard to be sold at airports.

Pan Am in Tokyo in the early 70's

Here is a photo of a Pan Am Clipper at Tokyo's Haneda Airport. Pan Am had quite a presence in Japan especially on its Tokyo - Honolulu route and was a stop on its famous round the world service with Clipper 1 and Clipper 2 flights.

Pan Am and the 747 names

Pan Am over the years had named its aircraft with some interesting nautical themed names. Clipper Champion of the Seas and Clipper Water Witch are two that come to mind. These names once graced the hulls of the Clipper ships that sailed between the west coast United States and the Orient.

Some favorite names seen on Pan Am 747's were Clipper Sea Serpent, Clipper Romance of the Seas, Clipper Sovereign of the Seas, and Clipper Queen of the Pacific. These names all have been placed on Pan Am's 747 fleet that flew the world.

Pan Am Clipper takes off