RStretton

Probably no other airline did as much to pioneer commercial aviation as Pan Am which throughout its six decade history became one of the best known brands in the world, encouraged long distance air travel and drove the technological capability to make it possible.

So much could be written but I'll try and limit my text to the post-war period. One name is synonymous with Pan Am - that of Juan T. Trippe who was the architect of its predominance and ironically also of its eventual collapse.

By WW2 Pan Am had pioneered routes across the Pacific to Manila and Auckland and built up a significant operation in the Caribbean moving onto South America. Transatlantic operations had also begun just before hostilities started. Many of these routes used the classic flying boats but postwar it was obvious that land based aircraft were the future and Pan Am built up a large fleet of DC-3s and DC-4s (over 90 of each) operated by its and its affiliated airlines (China National, Mexicana, Panagra etc). During the war Pan Am had devoted 3/4 of its resources to war operations and was in a strong position to consolidate its international supremacy however despite being the 'chosen instrument' it failed to hold onto its hegemony and very soon both TWA and American Export were competing against it. The former had pushed the development of the classic Lockheed Constellation but it was actually Pan Am that opened transatlantic services with the type on 14th January 1946. Before the end of May Pan Am had taken delivery of 22 of the elegant Connies. On 17th June 1947 a L-749 Connie made the first round the world flight from New York to San Francisco.

Trippe spent a lot of energy trying to beat TWA but his merger attempt in 1947 failed and he found Howard Hughes a dangerous rival. To compete Pan Am bought 20 of the luxurious B-377 Stratocruiser and started operations on 1st April 1949 between SFO and HNL. On 2nd June all first class 'President' service across the Atlantic began and in 1950 further Strats joined the fleet when Pan Am managed to purchase American Overseas (previously American Export) from its parent AA for $17,450,000. This strengthened PA's position across the Atlantic against TWA and BOAC.

In the Caribbean and Central America the replacement of DC-3s began with the purchase of 20 Convair 240s. Before and during WW2 Trippe had used all means necessary to swallow up rivals and get his hands on almost all the latin american routes and the Convairs helped him keep them into the 1950s when many routes in S American and Mexico were gradually taken over by Pan Am sponsored companies like Panair of Brasil and Mexicana.

Livery wise Pan Am's colours had been updated in 1950 when a white crown was added and the PAA tail letters increased in size. Below is my 1940s Pan Am fleet. The DC-3 carries the large US flag used for international operations during WW2 when the US was neutral:







Moving into the 1950s and Pan Am built up a large fleet of Douglas pistonliners beginning with the DC-6 in early 1952. Clipper Liberty Bell crossed the Atlantic on 1st May 1952 in an 82 seat tourist layout but was eclipsed soonafter by BOAC's Comets. In hindsight Pan Am was lucky that the Comet's suffered from such bad luck and design flaws.

Competition between PA and TWA escalated as the 50s continued with Lockheed and Douglas constantly developing upgraded piston designs. For Pan Am the ultimate was the DC-7C 'Seven Seas' introduced on 1st June 1956. These saw PA through to the jet-age and the 26 delivered had relatively short careers many converted to freighters after only short passenger service.

By 1957 Pan Am was a truly global airline with extensive routes throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America and across the pond from Boston and New York to a host of European cities. Beyond these its services went round the world connecting Europe to Beirut, Karachi, Tehran, Delhi, Calcutta, Rangoon, Saigon, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Manila, Tokyo and back to the USA via Honolulu. South from Hawaii Sydney could be reached.

On 13 October 1955 Pan Am ordered 45 new jetliners - DC-8s and 707s and it was the latter which were to drive the airlines growth through the 1960s. As a sidenote the effect of Pan Am's order was to end the hopes of British manufacturers to make big jets. The small lead BOAC had gained with the Britannia would be vanquished and the Comet 4 though first was no competition for the large US jets. As the 1950s drew to a close the US was king and its chosen instrument Pan Am was stronger than ever.

Below is my entire Pan Am prop fleet including a DC-4 and DC-7 in the 1958 Globe colours. Next we'll look at how Pan Am moved into the jet-age.

__________________
Richard

My 1:400 Collection: http://www.diecastaircraftforum.com/modeldatabase/mycollection/collection-11962.html
My 1:600 Scale Model Airport: http://www.imogenia.com/

airbro

Very nice! I think I should buy some more panam models.

SgtMoody

I love your illustrated history lessons, keep em coming! Cheers!

fazeman

Trippe did receive unexpected help to go domestic after the war. The city of Baltimore stepped in when they learned that the CAB's decision during the North Atlantic case did not include their soon to open Friendship Airport as a coterminal with New York. Maryland Senators got the petition they needed from the Senate Commerce Committee to be signed by the President. It basically denounced the CAB decision and argued that if domestic airlines could compete internationally with Pan American then it would only be fair for Pan American to enter the domestic field. The petition eventually lost steam as other interests occupied Maryland politics.

Had Hughes known that TWA was going to enter the international field back in 1941, he would have not allowed Pan American to purchase the Constellation.

As a note to Pan American's purchase of American, TWA was permitted to fly to England while Pan American could overlap TWA's southern route.

__________________
Steve

Myu380

Looking forward the jet-age of Pam Am in your presentation. Pam Am was the launch customer of the B707.

Pam Am is truly an aviation icon and became popular in US and overseas. In fact, they renamed itself from Pan American Airways Corporation to Pan American World Airways, Inc. in 1950.

Also it will be interesting to see how you interpret the demise of Pam Am. If Pam Am still existed, it would be as famous as BA and Qantas.

__________________

Bangkok Lady La

great read - love the Pan Am models

fazeman

My showcase dedicated to Pan Am.

__________________
Steve

RStretton

Beautiful as always. Is that a Dragonwings 747? What do the flowers represent?

__________________
Richard

My 1:400 Collection: http://www.diecastaircraftforum.com/modeldatabase/mycollection/collection-11962.html
My 1:600 Scale Model Airport: http://www.imogenia.com/

doug seeley

Richard and Fazeman's contributions first class (as usual). I knew a Pan Am maintenance supervisor who worked for Pan Am at JFK. He mentioned that the graveyard shift in the seat repair section used to report in, grab a blanket, plunk down in one of the seats and make a night of it. Also, one summer night I was a JFK when a Pan Am flight arrived late, around 2 am, and a gate supervisor was dealing with a couple of elderly German women quite rudely, and I said something to him, and he asked me to step outside and we'd settle it right now. It seemed to me as if Pan Am had lost it's way even then. I used to fly to Europe every summer on Pan Am 707s, 747s, and finally an A-310, and I miss Pan American World Airways. Keep 'em flying, Doug

RStretton

Thanks guys for all the comments. Moving onwards into the 1960s.

As is well known Pan Am initially hedged its bets and actually ordered 25 DC-8s and only 20 707s however the 8 was delayed and only entered service 16 months after the 707 severely denting its sales fortunes. Pan Am only took 19 of their DC-8s from Feb 1960 and most left the fleet in 1968 with the last sold in June 1969. The only other Douglas products ever to wear the Pan Am livery was a Braniff DC-8-62 operating on an interchange and National's DC-10 fleet.

It was the 707 that defined Pan Am in the 1960s the airline eventually operating over 130 of the series (mainly -300s but with a small number of -100s and 720s). The first 707-121 service flew on 26th October 1958 between New York and Paris. Though it was beaten by 22 days by BOAC's Comet 4s the 707 was a much superior aircraft. Pan Am only took delivery of 8 707-100s which were not ideally suited to transatlantic operations and instead switched to the 707-320 Intercontinental the first of which entered service in July 1959.

Below are my Aeroclassics 707s in the 1960s Pan American scheme and the 1969-73 Pan Am colours. Aside from my UA Caravelle these are perhaps the most expensive models in my collection:





This period was perhaps the airline's zenith. In mid 1962 the airline completed its 100,000th Atlantic crossing dwarfing all competitors and in March 1963 moved into its new headquarters building in New York. The airline had ambitions to takeover a domestic rival and at the end of 1959 had merged its Atlantic and Pacific ops into the Overseas Division whilst in its original Latin American area its Mexican concerns and Panair do Brasil were sold. In fact the Latin American network was closed in 1964 completely.

That year Trippe stepped down as President and was replaced by Harold Gray. He fully retired on 7th May 1968 just as the airline's fortunes were taking a turn for the worse.

By then the company was operating an 81,430 mile route network (including an intra-german network using 727s and 737s) and was seriously overextending itself. Competition from government backed carriers was a serious threat and the airline, over-stretched and inefficient, was not in its best state to handle that. The 1960s had seen unprecedented growth and Trippe decided Pan Am needed something new. The airline worked with Boeing to develop the 747 and in April 1966 placed an order for 25 of the behemoth. The 747 entered service on Jan 22nd 1970.

In hindsight the 747 was a gargantuan mistake for Pan Am. The oil crisis that hit in the 1970s was crippling in the face of a major economic downturn which was already seeing airlines struggling to fill their unnecessary 747s. Pan Am had the routes for some 747s but could not fill so many especially in that climate. Between 1969 and 1976 the airline lost $364,000,000 and accumulated over $1,000,000,000 in debt. It was never able to recover from these issues.

Pan Am had 31 747s by the end of 1972 but as the 70s wore on the airline found itself stuck with these series 100s unable to finance better performing -200/300/400s even into the 1980s.

In other ways too Pan Am was beginning to founder. It had always been a trendsetter yet with an aging workforce and conservative attitude it refused to change itself to match the times. This is perhaps most obviously illustrated by the first 747s wearing the ill-fitting livery of the 707s with very small titles albeit reduced to just Pan Am (see the model above in Fazeman's collection). When other carriers had jellybeans and yellowbirds Pan Am clung to its past. Attempts to change were made and a new look attempted with an updated Helvetica logo (see http://www.everythingpanam.com/Helvetica_Project.html) but this was abandoned in 1973 and a small livery update instead saw merely enlarged titling, script-like clipper names and an angled flag.

It is perhaps just as well that Pan Am never got to fly supersonic aircraft considering its financial position in the late 60s. However it is perhaps not widely known how far PA got with the Concorde. In 1963 they had optioned 6 aircraft (and 13 Boeing 2707s) and worked closely with the manufacturers on design and certification (even using its own pilots). Pan Am clung onto the Concorde despite its own internal issues, mounting environmental concerns, rabid american xenophobia and its own reservations about the type's viability. The options were finally cancelled only in January 1973 by which time the third aircraft on the production line was being built for Pan Am. This aircraft eventually became F-BTSC with Air France but only narrowly missed flying in PA colours.

In the last part of our story we'll look at how Pan Am fared during the rest of the 1970s and into the ill-fated 1980s.

Below is my Pan Am globe fleet including my only fantasy model. The 747 doesn't wear the delivery scheme but is in the 1973 updated colours:

__________________
Richard

My 1:400 Collection: http://www.diecastaircraftforum.com/modeldatabase/mycollection/collection-11962.html
My 1:600 Scale Model Airport: http://www.imogenia.com/

Big Al

What a shame there was such a US backlash against Concorde or your fantasy model would have been a reality model. Great collection, I have only a few myself. Funnily enough I was driving past Lockerbie the other day just yards away from where one of the engines from Clipper Maid of the Seas buried itself in houses just off the motorway in 1988. Such a tragedy still...

__________________
Let's be having, the British Airways/British, Negus & Negus BAC 1-11-500 in 1:400 please !

fazeman

It is Dragon Wings. In '02, they released two 747-100s for their historical series, "First Commerical Flight." "Clipper Victor" is pictured and I have "Clipper Young America" as well. I consider both holy grails and alluding to the thread, "Cost," they each listed at $39.99. I purchased them through Flyairways' for their retail price of $31.95. So, if anyone wants to argue about prices then and now, I have nothing to say to them. The flower/bud vase was produced for Pan Am by Bausher Weiden of Germany. It was used with Pan Am's last dinnerware set from 1986-1991. I took a picture of the bottom and attached the following reference: Pan Am Catering 1986 - 1991. Again, awesome presentation you are making Richard.

You cracked me up about the seat repair section. Sounds like a good union job. And thanks for these stories and your experience with Pan Am.

__________________
Steve

SgtMoody

Excellent looking forward to the billboards

gospodin

It's interesting how closely the Concorde dressed-up in PA livery resembles the Pan Am Clipper from 2001.

__________________
Steve







I've discovered what's wrong with my brain. On the left side there's nothing right, and on the right side there's nothing left.

doug seeley

About that A-310 ride I mentioned. The port side 'Dependable Pratt and Whitney Engine' blew exactly as the plane rotated off from HAM. The pilot held 500 AGL and had us back on the runway in ten minutes. As we landed, we flew over the burning engine that we had left behind on the runway. Great plane, great pilot, not-so-great engine. We hung out in Hamburg for a day before they could find a replacement plane. Later, Doug

RStretton

The mid 1970s and 1980s were a tale of woe for Pan Am. In 1974 the fleet consisted of no less than 85 707-300s, which were horribly fuel inefficient given the price of fuel at the time and 32 747-100s, which the airline couldn't really afford and struggled to fill. Additionally there were still 3 720s and 24 727-100s used on intra-german and caribbean services. This fleet of 144 aircraft was a significant contraction from the 178 of 1970 but was still larger than the 125 aircraft it had had in 1964 which shows the degree of overcapacity the airline faced especially considering in 1964 no less than 53 of the fleet had been pistonliners and not 747s!

Trippe's successor Najeeb Halaby left the company in 1972 replaced by William Seawell but he was unable to get rates relief from the CAB or convince the Shah of Iran to invest. In 1976 he instituted massive austerity measures reducing the network by 25% and employees by 30%. By 1978 the fleet was down to 101 aircraft with 46 707s remaining. A small profit was even made in 1977 the first in almost a decade.

It was during this period that Pan Am introduced its last groundbreaking new type in the form of the 747SP which it had asked Boeing to design specifically for the New York-Tokyo route. The plane was a great success except that the number of suitable routes was limited and so its didn't sell well. It did introduce Pan Am's new livery (earlier I'd said that was done in 1973 it was actually 1976) when it was delivered in April 1976.

Below is my Gemini 747SP Clipper Constitution with the swept back flag, larger titles and scripted clipper name:





Pan Am also dallied with the cargo market in the 70s in an attempt to fill its 747s. It converted one in 1970 and actually bought three second-hand freighters in 1977. These aircraft operated with PA for about 6 years until being swapped with Flying Tigers for some much needed 747-200s. Below is my 747-123SF originally delivered to American:



And all three of my PA 747s together:



At this time around 1977/78 Pan Am could perhaps begin to breath again however it was to make a major miscalculation soon afterwards when it got caught in a bidding war for National Airlines - emerging the winner but in the end the loser. It paid far too much for National at a time when deregulation was opening up National's domestic routes to unheard of competition. Worse National's mainly North-South route system did little to provide the domestic feed Pan Am needed into its LA and NY hubs. Pan Am had always dreamed of having a domestic network but when the merger was completed in 1980 for $437,000,000 it instead gained a millstone.

Pan Am was heavily unionised and ending up having to give National employees pay raises to fit them into its own pay structure and National's fleet didn't fit into Pan Am's well (except for a few 727s). In fact there seems no logical reason for the deal at all when Pan Am could have simply waited a short while and started its own domestic operation. Pan Am overnight made most of National's profitable routes unprofitable then competition, labour problems and economic depression made things worse. Between 1980 and 1987 the domestic network lost over $1 Billion and added $914,000,000 of long term debt.

In 1981 Pan Am only avoided bankruptcy by selling assets including the headquarters building. This asset stripping was to become the familiar pattern of the 1980s as the airline gradually dismembered itself in a vain effort to stay in the air.

Bizarrely (given the ongoing plans to acquire National and its DC-10s) in 1978 Pan Am had also bought 12 new Tristar 500s for long thin routes. God knows why they did this when they could have standardised on more 747SPs or even gotten DC-10-30s. The L1011s joined from 1980 but were all gone by 1986.

Edward Acker tookover in 1981 but could do little to stop the rot. The airline was so desperate that it was forced to sell its profitable Pacific routes to United in 1985 for only $715 million (included were the 747SPs and Tristar 500s). That represented 23% of the network.

More sensibly on the fleet front the airline somehow found funding to purchase new A300/310s enabling the retirement of 727s on intra-german routes and the gradual replacement of some 747s across the Atlantic from 1984 onwards. Frankly I don't know how they afforded them (I assume Airbus offered a great deal) but they looked smart in Pan Am's new Billboard colours.

I don't have many later PA models- below is a former National 727-100 and PA's first A300:





By the late 1980s Pan Am couldn't catch a break. In 1988 the Lockerbie tragedy destroyed the airline's image and further pushed it into the red. The chairman at the time Thomas Plaskett was forced to sell more assets and layoff 2,500 more staff. Plaskett optimistically tried to put in place an 8 point plan to enable a recovery whilst looking for a merger partner. The hubs at Washington and Heathrow were sold leaving the airline but a shadow of itself. Bankruptcy finally came on January 8th 1991. Most of the international network and the A-310s were bought by Delta for $621 million in cash and $668 million of debt relief however Delta itself in the end caused the final halt of operations in December 1991 when it refused to pay money it owed. At that point the airline reduced to a small Miami and New York based carrier was losing $3,000,000 a day. The airline that Trippe built was gone - a victim of itself and its inability to keep up with the pace of change within the industry.

__________________
Richard

My 1:400 Collection: http://www.diecastaircraftforum.com/modeldatabase/mycollection/collection-11962.html
My 1:600 Scale Model Airport: http://www.imogenia.com/

fazeman

My favorite Pan Am scheme was their experimental work featured on Clipper Fairwind and Clipper Crest of the Wave. The titling, cheatline and globe were the most balanced of all their schemes. Also featured is their DC-10 and L1011-500.

__________________
Steve

SgtMoody

Very nice Richard! The detail on the A300 looks fantastic! Wish PA was still around

doug seeley

Please find Pan Am's fleet as it entered the '70s, healthy, prosperous and paramount. Mostly a Boeing Fleet with the exception of the DC-8-32s. Pictured are Dragon Wings models with the exception of the AeroClassics DC-8-62 and B737-200 (PMAC). Missing in this 'R Stetton' like image is a DC-8-32 (note to model producers). Sad that Pan Am couldn't adapt to the times, I miss 'em. Later, Doug

Attached Thumbnails

 

RStretton

Great shot, I hadn't realised AC had done the Braniff Interchange -62. Of course as I'm sure you are aware the 727-200 and 737-200 are actually in the 1976 colours. Still a great fleet.

Almost all Pan Am's could do with a rerelease as the originals are so hard to find.

__________________
Richard

My 1:400 Collection: http://www.diecastaircraftforum.com/modeldatabase/mycollection/collection-11962.html
My 1:600 Scale Model Airport: http://www.imogenia.com/

doug seeley

Richard is correct about the 727-200 and 737-200 not being present in PanAm's fleet in 1970 - the 727-200 first appeared with PanAm in 1979 (12 years after it entered airline service with Northeast Airlines), and the 737-200 in 1982 (14 years after in entered service with United Airlines). I am attaching another image of the fleet - a tad sharper, providing more information. Later, Doug

Attached Thumbnails

 

doug seeley

Richard has detailed Pan Am's decline, and pictured are the planes involved in the period of the decline during the 1980's (with the exception of the billboard liveried 727s and 737s and the 747SP billboard, updated somewhere along the way), as the airline deteriorated and filed for bankruptcy on 4 December 1991. In the background is N747PA, Clipper Juan Trippe, neutered, and ready for it's flight to the desert on 12 May 1992. As they say, 'Death is a Part of Life' - what does that mean? Later, Doug

Attached Thumbnails

 

doug seeley

Pictured is a Pan Am meatball juxtaposition that never was. The new 'jet age' livery was introduced in October 1957, (a year before the first jet was introduced) and propliners remaining in the fleet were gradually updated. The DC-3 looks comical in the meatball scheme, and I prefer Richard's delivery bare metal DC-3 scheme. The Concord never made it to the fleet, so this is a 'virtual model' without registration - had it been delivered, the meatball would have been it's livery. Keeping the thread alive... Doug

Attached Thumbnails

 

blackboxes

Woowww Owesome collection Sir....

Connie Lover

It is with the utmost humility that I say as great as some of the 1/200 scale models are, whenever I look at one of Richard's threads, I am glad as hell I had the presence of mind to buy all the 1/400 models I could when they were around. I do not have all of the models in this thread but what I have makes me very happy!

alexzar14

Love this Company, I wish there were more models covering pre-war.
And I would pay anything for a 707-100(A) and a DC-4 in bare-metal livery, Pan Am collection is never complete without those two.
This Boeing 314 in 1/350, although out of scale collected, yet a pleasure to look at...

Attached Thumbnails

 

doug seeley

The 'White Crown' is my favorite Pan Am livery, but then again, I'm stuck in the 50s. I try to collect 1/400 Pan Am and Lufthansa examples in their original delivery schemes, but obviously, not always. As I replace particular models with improved releases, the expenses increase, but 1/400 diecast airliners are still cheaper than collecting guns or cameras, both being rather attractive. Keep 'em flying, Doug

Attached Thumbnails

   

fazeman

And an attractive collection at that Doug. Hey, can I board one of those planes wearing sweat shirt and pants? Not back in the day.

__________________
Steve

doug seeley

Thanks, Steve - I flew on the DC-6B and the Connie, altho not with Pan Am. I would have loved a ride on the Stratocruiser, but that ain't going to happen... Yeah, and no more guys in real hats or women wearing gloves. I think the last guy to wear a hat was Jack Ruby. Later, Doug

Speedbird 001

Nice collection....

An airline greatly missed, in Germany as we had very close ties with them and throughout the world. *tears*

__________________
The world´s favourite airline !

The picture was taken by Thomas Millard in Houston.
(I am very thankful to him for this wonderful picture) and was downloaded from airliners.net ! It is not owned by me nor do I have copyright, but what makes a good shot even more popular than letting everyone see it ?!

B2707300SST

What a great Pan Am fleet guys. The models and back story make for some interesting reading. The really sad thing is that Pan Am was more than an airline. It was a lifestyle. If you flew on Pan Am, it was a big thing. My dad worked for Olivetti in the seventies. He and my mom were treated to a trip to Italy to visit the home office. Olivetti filled an entire 747. Special bags and other items were given out by the company as well as those by Pan Am as the 747 was less than a year old and still THE BUZZ of the world.
There are thousands of stories like this from the passengers point of view. What is just as interesting is that back then, the employees of Pan Am were proud to "one of the family".
Life at Pan Am began to speed up with the 707 and DC-8 entered service. The relationships between the airline and it's family started to change.
The industry as well as the world went into overdrive leaving many "family" members behind.

I just finished reading "The Pan Am" journey by Robert Kewin. It was a look into Pan Am history covering the flying boats up to the demise of the airline. It's a great story of why certain aircraft were purchased and the political/financial reasons of how they came into the Pan Am fleet. In my opinion, as mentioned as well as above; the L-1011's purchased by Pan Am were almost given away as Lockheed was in serious straights with the widebody from the outset. It's a beautiful aircraft and really too bad that it was managed so poorly unlike Lockheed's military projects.

Anyway, it's nice to see a post featuring a forum members fleet displayed. After seeing this, it makes me want to go pull my Pan Am fleet out of storage to do a quick inventory!

Thanks Richard, Doug, and Steve for your photos. Nice work on your fleets and "tableaus"! lol

Best,
Herb

PS: Pan Am also was interested in two other SST's. The series 200 swing wing with canards, and the completely redesigned series 300. Both aircraft never made production. Below is my print of the Pan Am -300. It's been posted before, but since this is kind of like the Pan Am "gum stop" post, I'll pitch it in as well. Will find the 1/400 model and post that soon.

__________________


Herb-
Check out my airliner and bizjet art portfolio! Custom vector art.
www.airlinerimages.blogspot.com

Art-ist, not a borrow-ist!

doug seeley

Herb - Olivetti you say? I still have my Underwood-Olivetti Lettera 22 with which I typed my way through college. Talk about a great machine - that typewriter was (is) a masterpiece, as I'm sure you are aware. I hope the company was good to your father, and with your account of the company sponsored Pan Am flight to Italy, it sounds as if they treated their employees pretty well. Keep 'em flying, Doug

Speedbird 001

This is MY daily memory of one of the greatest airlines ever to fly the globe ! Despite it is a different scale, hope you like it !

Keep Pan Am in hearts and memories !

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
The world´s favourite airline !

The picture was taken by Thomas Millard in Houston.
(I am very thankful to him for this wonderful picture) and was downloaded from airliners.net ! It is not owned by me nor do I have copyright, but what makes a good shot even more popular than letting everyone see it ?!

Yustas

Well , fine collection , thanks for sharing .

707 PAN AM lover .

doug seeley

That looks like the A300-B4, and that sucker is a collection unto itself - lights up the room. Later, Doug

Speedbird 001

Thanks. Actually it`s an A310, "Clipper America". N304PA.
Though, nothing fits together....Clipper A was an A300, I think the belly states A310 and N304PA didnt exist....still a nice model though.

You can see a better pic here :

http://www.diecastaircraftforum.com/...an-747-sp.html

__________________
The world´s favourite airline !

The picture was taken by Thomas Millard in Houston.
(I am very thankful to him for this wonderful picture) and was downloaded from airliners.net ! It is not owned by me nor do I have copyright, but what makes a good shot even more popular than letting everyone see it ?!

B2707300SST

OT:

Yes sir! My Dad was an Olivetti man from the mid-sixties up until the late seventies. During the mid seventies, the computes was making strong inroads. The very first were programmed with huge batches of magnetic cards. He became a Olivetti licensed dealer and software developer up until his passing a few years ago. Olivetti took great care of their employees. The would send the yearly press package of advertising posters, calendars, etc. These were gallery quality prints and worth a fortune now to graphic folks (like me). Unfortunately like most ephemera, most of it goes into the garbage making what's left extremely valuable.

Btw Doug, glad to hear you're a fan of the Lettera 22. Your taste in typewriters is excellent!, but I may be a bit biased~ It's in the Moma permanent design collection and also in several other important design collections. We often had collectors calling up looking for that model in hopes one was left behind in the repair shop.

All the best,
Herb

__________________


Herb-
Check out my airliner and bizjet art portfolio! Custom vector art.
www.airlinerimages.blogspot.com

Art-ist, not a borrow-ist!