Merrill Cook
The airline long holding the record for the quickest flight around the world, as well as providing many innovations in the airline industry ceased operations in 1991. Their use of jet aircraft, jumbo jets, and computerized reservation systems were ahead of their time, and their early identification of routes of geopolitical importance allowed them to operate buffered by the government from other domestic carriers, and maintain a near monopoly on international flight for many years. Their Clippers pioneered many routes to south America, and their Boeing 314 flying boats lowered the travel time from San Francisco to Singapore from 25 days to 6 days. The height of Pan Am was in the late 60’s. By 1968 their service extended to 86 countries on every continent save Antarctica, and their routes covered 81,410 un-duplicated miles. During the period they were known for comfort, with on board service and cuisine inspired by Maxim’s de Paris, and multilingual, largely college graduated and nursing-trained cabin staff.
If you’re wondering what went wrong with Pan Am, it was that it flew to close to the sun. As such an illustrious brand it was the target of a number of high profile terrorist attacks as well as non-terrorist related crashes. No matter their record, some PR failures are too big to get over. Flying with empty seats for three years after the flight 103 disaster, the company failed to pivot and parked its wings one last time 1991.
