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Pan Am's legacy: Pan American World Airways began operating in 1927 and in the late 1940s was the quintessential jet set airline.
Learn more about the airline in this gallery.
Credit: Ivan Dmitri / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
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Fokker F-10 - The 12-passenger Fokker F-10 was one of Pan Am's first aircraft in the late 1920s. Courtesy of the Pan Am Museum Foundation, inc.
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Sikorsky S-38: The Sikorsky S-38 was a twin-engine amphibious "flying boat" that was used by Pan Am and also by the United States Army.
Courtesy of the Pan Am Museum Foundation, inc.
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First routes: Pan Am began operating passenger and mail flights between Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba.
Courtesy of the Pan Am Museum Foundation, inc.
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China Clipper: The new 25-ton Pan American China Clipper flies over Miami, Florida, on October 27, 1935. Credit: AP
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Meals on board: Passenger service was added in 1936 for the first transoceanic flights.
Credit: Library of Congress / Corbis / VCG / Getty Images
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All aboard: the Sikorsky S-40, or Caribbean Clipper, loads passengers and mail before departing from the Pan Am terminal at Dinner Key in Miami, Florida, circa 1937. Credit: FPG / Archive / Getty Images
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Dominating the Air: Pan Am continued to operate during World War II, providing the United States government with the logistical support it needed around the world.
Courtesy of the Pan Am Museum Foundation, inc.
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Inflight Entertainment: Passengers aboard a Pan American World Airways Clipper watch the first sound film on board on the flight from New York to London on November 15, 1945. Credit: Bettmann Archive / Getty Images
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Circumnavigation: In June 1947, Pan Am started the first regular passenger service around the world.
It took off from LaGuardia Airport in New York.
Credit: AP
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Galley: This is what a 1948 Pan Am Clipper kitchen looks like. Credit: Bettmann Archive / Getty Images
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Marketing: In this promotional report, Pan Am is advertised as the "most experienced airline in the world".
Courtesy of Pan Am Museum Foundation, inc.
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Pan Am Over Europe: A Pan Am Clipper flies over Rome in the 1950s. Credit: Mondadori Portfolio / Getty Images
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Food Service in the 1950s: "Long-distance international travel was rare and special," says travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt.
Credit: ullstein bild / Getty Images
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Jet Set: Pan Am was the airline of choice for celebrities, stars, and wealthy travelers.
Courtesy of Pan Am Museum Foundation, inc.
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Adventure: in September 1960, some German children prepare at Berlin's Tempelhof airport to travel to host families in the United States.
Credit: ullstein bild / Getty Images
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That logo - Pan American World Airways' blue balloon is instantly recognizable even today.
Courtesy of Pan Am Museum Foundation, inc.
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The British Invasion: The Beatles at London Airport, now Heathrow, on their way to the United States on February 13, 1964. Credit: Stan Meagher / Express / Hulton Archive / Getty Images
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Boeing 747: Pan Am was the launch customer for the Boeing 747, ordering 25 of them.
Courtesy of the Pan Am Museum Foundation, inc.
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NY-LON: Pictured in January 1970, the crew of the first commercial flight of the Boeing 747 from New York to London for Pan American.
Credit: AFP / Getty Images
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Tragedy: In May 1977, a fatal helicopter crash occurred on the roof of the Pan American building in New York.
Credit: Ron Frehm / AP
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Past Decades: Airline historians may point to the deregulation of the US airline industry in the late 1970s as a key turning point in the fate of Pan Am. Courtesy of the Pan Am Museum Foundation
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Goodbye to Tokyo: Workers say goodbye to the last Pan American World Airways flight from Tokyo's Narita International Airport on February 12, 1986. Credit: Tsugufumi Matsumoto / AP
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Outgunned by the competition: A Northwest Airlines flight passes over a Pan-Am plane at Boston's Logan Airport on July 16, 1987. Credit: Tom Landers / The Boston Globe / Getty Images
(CNN) -
Every Friday night, travel analyst Henry Harteveldt mixes a drink in a vintage airline cocktail glass and shares a toast to a now-defunct airline on Twitter.
This week, Harteveldt, founder of the San Francisco-based Atmosphere Research Group, will choose a specific cup from his extensive collection, one featuring an iconic airline logo - a cup featuring Pan American World Airways' instantly recognizable blue balloon.
30 years ago, on December 4, 1991, Pan Am made its last flight, after almost 65 years of operations around the world.
And yet, although it has been three decades since the airline went bankrupt, the Pan Am brand seems to continue to resonate in pop culture today.
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The vibrant 60s
"It's true that we looked back with a very filtered view of what travel was like when airplanes were new at the dawn of the jet age. International long-haul travel was rare and special," says Harteveldt.
Pan Am was the launch customer of the first American airliner, the Boeing 707. In October 1958, the airline's first passenger flight on 707 from New York to Paris ushered in the so-called "jet set."
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Those celebrities, stars and wealthy travelers, dressed in their best clothes, were often photographed walking down the stairs after a trip on a Pan Am plane.
When the Beatles landed in New York in 1964 for their first American television appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," they got off a Pan Am 707 called the Clipper Defiance.
As part of the musical "British Invasion" of the time, the group could, and perhaps should have been, on a BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation, now British Airways) plane, but they chose Pan Am.
"I think it was a deliberate decision, because when the Beatles came to the US, they wanted to be seen getting off a plane from an American airline," Harteveldt said.
The Beatles at London Airport, now Heathrow, on their way to the United States on February 13, 1964.
Credit: Stan Meagher / Express / Hulton Archive / Getty Images
A powerful brand
The airline was featured frequently in films of the time, including the first in the James Bond franchise, "Dr. No" (1962).
The iconic 1968 science fiction film "2001: A Space Odyssey" featured a futuristic Pan Am Space Clipper heading for a rotating space station in Earth's orbit.
"Pan Am had 90,000 names on a waiting list to fly to the Moon, because the airline symbolized the future of air travel," says Terry O'Reilly, an award-winning publicist who hosts "Under the Influence," a radio show. and Canadian podcast on marketing.
"When I've written about Pan Am on my show, for me what's left of Pan Am is the glamor. Unlike most airlines, there was something about Pan Am that was glamorous, and that's what has resonated. over the years. "
In a somewhat peculiar turn of events, an American rail company bought the rights to the Pan Am brand in the late 1990s. Pan Am Railways began operating in the northeastern states of the country in 2006, with rolling stock of Royal blue colorway adorned with the Pan Am name and logo.
The rights to the brand have been spun off and are now held by Pan American World Airways, Inc., which works with partners to create new Pan Am products.
"There are few brands that can resurrect as licensing property years after their demise. Very few brands would have that kind of lasting impact. It had to be Pan Am for its glamorous look, and the company knew it could make money from licensing the logo. "O'Reilly said.
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Pan Am began operating in 1927 with passenger and mail flights between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba.
Under the leadership of commercial aviation pioneer Juan Trippe, the airline grew rapidly with a fleet of "flying boat" type aircraft, including the elegant Boeing 314, the famous Pan Am Clippers.
Pan Am continued to operate during World War II, providing the United States government with the necessary logistical support around the world.
Postwar, the airline industry was strictly regulated by the US Civil Aviation Board (CAB), which divided routes and controlled airfares.
According to Harteveldt, Trippe was focused on Pan Am's international growth so he "made a deal with the devil. He accepted a deal with the CAB so that Pan Am would be 'the instrument of choice' by the United States government, internationally. In return, Trippe agreed that Pan Am would not follow US domestic routes. "
That deal would be expensive for the airline, years later.
But throughout the 1950s, Pan Am became an expert in creating aviation infrastructure in other countries, both for the airline itself and providing technical expertise to local airlines.
"Pan Am was a mixture of vision and capabilities, but they also worked closely with the United States government in ways that never became public knowledge," says Doug Miller of the Pan Am Historical Foundation.
"They were better than most American companies working internationally at figuring out how to do things in foreign countries."
"It was often said that if you were doing business in another country, the person you really had to see after checking into the American embassy was the Pan Am stationmaster, because he really knew what was going on."
Pan Am's first world-wide passenger air service departed from LaGuardia, New York, in 1947.
Credit: AP
Throughout the 1960s, Pan Am was at the forefront of the airline industry with technical innovations such as the computerized PANAMAC hotel and air reservation system.
Like other airlines, Pan Am was caught up in that decade's push toward supersonic passenger travel and showed interest in both the Anglo-French Concorde and Boeing's 2707 SSTs.
But with the cancellation of 2707, and flight restrictions and negative public perception of the Concorde, the airline never reached supersonic speeds.
The beginning of the end
However, Juan Trippe saw the potential of Boeing's 747, and the airline was the launch customer and first operator of the world's first wide-body jumbo jet in 1970.
"Pan Am asked for 25 747s, but it became clear that it was too many planes. It was not Pan Am's fault, but the oil embargo, the recession and everything else in the early 1970s, but Pan Am did not take the necessary steps to slow down deliveries of those planes, "says Harteveldt.
Airline historians may point to the deregulation of the US airline industry in the late 1970s as a key turning point in the fate of Pan Am. With that change, the airline's competitors could fly to the same international destinations but Without a domestic route structure to feed those flights, Pan Am could not compete.
Even after a merger with National Airlines, Pan Am never developed a meaningful national network, and the merger simply delayed the inevitable outcome of a once proud airline.
To add insult to injury, the 1988 terrorist attack on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, shaken confidence in the company.
"Pan Am simply did not evolve as it should to keep up with the changing industry. The truth is, starting in the mid-1980s, Pan Am was not its glamor. Pan Am was an airline that did not want or could not escape from the prison of his past and didn't know how to make himself relevant in a rapidly changing environment, "says Harteveldt.
So this week, to honor the airline's last flight 30 years ago, Harteveldt will raise a Pan Am globe glass, filled with an Old Fashioned, a Manhattan or a Martini.
"The legacy of Pan Am is timeless, and you have to go with a classic cocktail for an airline as classic as Pan Am."
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