Enter Juan Trippe

Pan Am president Juan Trippe was a visionary with an uncanny ability to anticipate the future in order to ensure the success of his airline.  Despite Pan Am’s global reach and international dominance, in the post-war world, pressure on Washington from domestic carriers to fly international routes had become increasingly intense. At the same time, Pan Am’s efforts to be allowed to fly domestic routes had not met with success.  Facing this increasingly competitive landscape, in the early 1950s, Trippe took a bold step. While other airlines were lining up to buy Lockheed Electras and British Viscount turboprops, Trippe decided to skip that step and jump from piston engines directly to jets.  Starting in the late 1940s, Pan Am’s engineers began to work directly with Douglas, Boeing and Pratt & Whitney to design and build jet aircraft and engines which could meet Pan Am’s specifications for long-range jet travel.

After the tragic Comet disasters, with the exception of Pan Am, other U.S. commercial airlines were terrified of jets. Even U.S. aircraft manufacturers were initially reluctant to assume the risk of developing the new transport. Trippe astutely played Douglas and Boeing off of each other to get the planes and the designs he wanted.

The result was that, after years of collaboration between Pan Am’s Engineering Department and the manufacturers to bring the designs to fruition, Trippe was able to sign contracts with both Douglas and Boeing for jets in October 1955.

Trippe made the announcement about his order at a party he held for IATA executives in his New York apartment on October 13, 1955. As described by Robert Daley in his book, “An American Saga–Juan Trippe and his Pan Am Empire,” Trippe moved through the room, flashing his most cordial smile, shaking hands, mentioning in the most casual way that he had just bought forty-five jet airliners–20 Boeing 707s and 25 Douglas DC-8s.  As his guests realized the import of what they had just heard, “[W]hole corners of the room fell abruptly silent….Bewildering technical complexities lay ahead.  Billions of dollars in new capital would have to be raised.”  All the new turboprops the other airlines had on order were going to become obsolete the moment the jets started flying.  Many of the guests left early, says Daley.  A rush to reserve places on the production lines ensued.  

Pan Am’s Clipper America sparks headlines across the globe

The first Boeing 707 (a smaller plane than Trippe wanted but what Boeing could deliver at the time) was delivered in mid-1958. The maiden flight of Pan Am’s Boeing 707 Clipper America from New York to Paris took place on October 26, 1958, sparking headlines around the world. The new jet clippers flew at nearly 600 miles an hour and cruised at 30,000 feet or higher — “above the weather.” The huge planes were quieter and free of vibration as no other planes had ever been before.

Below: Pan Am promotional materials depict the kind of service passengers could expect on its new Boeing 707 jet fleet. Images courtesy UM Libraries Digital Exhibits, “Cleared to Land: the records of Pan American World Airways Inc.”

“Nice try”

On October 4, a few weeks before Pan Am’s maiden Boeing 707 flight, BOAC got the jump on Pan Am, flying two reengineered de Havilland Comet 4 jets in opposite directions between New York and London. However, once Pan Am began its competing service with Boeing 707s, on October 26th, the writing was on the wall for the Comets. The Boeing’s swept-back wings were a more modern design than the Comet 4’s straight wings, and its greater length and wider fuselage provided far greater–and more profitable–passenger capacity over the Comet 4. The Boeing 707s could seat 189 passengers vs. the Comet 4’s 48. The B-707 also provided greater fuel economies and could be produced in far larger quantities than DeHavilland was capable of producing. B.O.A.C. had even gone as far as to hedge its bets, ordering 15 Boeing 707’s as early as 1956. By 1960, it was flying Boeing 707s on its transatlantic routes, using Rolls Royce (British made) engines instead of the Pratt and Whitney engines found on American models. The American jets were clearly the model for future long distance air transport. A corner had been turned and there was no going back.