B747-100 PAN AM

Scale-looking Boeing 747-100 (classic) widebody airliner with interior and transparent cabin windows in PAN AM (Pan American World Airways) livery.

Boeing 747 Queen of the Skies Tribute

As the world saw the very last production Boeing 747 jet leave the Everett Factory few days ago, let us marvel this iconic jumbo jet with the equally iconic Airline company which made the 747 be built by Boeing in the first place - the legendary PAN AM!
In 1960s, Juan T. Trippe, president of Pan Am - then the largest Airline in the world with flights on nearly every continent - asked Boeing to build an airliner about two and a half the size of their then popular transcontinental jetliner - the Boeing 707, which Pan Am will use as it's flagship aircraft to carry up to 500 people across continents in a single flight. Pan Am even went as far as being directly involved with the design of the 747 - a feat that no world airline was able to do before, or ever since. Boeing eventually added a "hump" upper deck (which became the 747's defining feature) mainly to function as a lounge for Pan Am first class and also as a compromise so the jumbo jet can successfully function as a giant cargo plane which could carry voluminous cargo with the full lower diameter of the airframe, just in case the demand for the passenger variant decline due to emergence of the supersonic, faster than sound airliners such as Concorde (which was then projected as the "future of air travel").

Thus in January 1970, Pan Am became the first airline in the world to fly the Boeing 747, from New York to London - ushering the golden era of mass travel by millions of people across the six continents by air. With the 747, Pan Am became the first airline in the world to fly all major cities in every continent except Antarctica - becoming the world's first truly global airline. Pan Am was on top of everything air travel - best trained pilots, best flight crews hired from around the world who could speak different languages, best cabin amenities and interior design, and the best in flight food that is said to have been not equalled before or ever since. Pan Am would enjoy its dominance in the airline business until the Airline deregulation in the US took effect by late 1970's, which severely affected Pan Am's business model. Following a myriad unfortunate circumstances - rise of fuel costs, drop in passenger numbers (the 747s are flying half empty), mis-management and corporate issues, the mighty Pan Am gradually declined throughout the 80's, and in 1991, went bankrupt and has not been revived ever since.

But the 747 lived on for many decades more, until the ever rising fuel costs and the emergence of cheap air travel by small to medium sized twinjets also sealed it's fate, though still several more decades away

Pan Am became a cultural icon, revered by aviation enthusiasts, and other world airlines as well - Emirates, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines are few of the modern airlines who follow the legacy of Pan Am when it comes to top notch in-flight service and luxury.

This most difficult real world airliner livery I did yet. I did not change the cockpit if this 747 although it's supposed to be a classic with a flight engineer seat even - there is none. 😂

*Part Credits: USA flag MFD from Gozinya