Posted on 02/28/2019 7:31:29 AM PST by C19fan
In 1964, Austrian journalist Gerhard Pistor walked into a Vienna travel agency with a simple proposition. He’d like to fly to the moon, and if possible, he’d like to fly there on Pan Am.
The travel agency, presumably dumbfounded by this request, decided to simply to its job and make the ask: It forwarded the impossible request to the airline, the legend goes, where it attracted the attention of Juan Trippe, the notoriously brash and publicity-thirsty CEO of Pan American World Airways, the world’s most popular airline. Trippe saw a golden opportunity, and the bizarre request gave birth to a brilliant sales ploy that cashed in on the growing international obsession with human spaceflight: Pan Am was going to launch commercially operated passenger flights to the moon. Or at least, that’s what it was going to tell everyone.
In hindsight, it’s beyond ludicrous. NASA wouldn’t land men on the moon for five more years; the promise of lunar getaways on a jetliner sounds like a marketing scam at worst, and the most preposterous extension of 1960s techno-optimism at best. And yet, in a striking parallel to today’s commercial space race, would-be customers put down their names on a waiting list for their chance to go to space, joining Pan-Am’s “First Moon Flights” Club.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
I still have the remains of a Pan Am flight bag my dad picked up at the SFCA airport in the early 60s.
I always loved the realism that conveyed.
Had the Pan Am ‘Space Clipper’ model on my desk at one time. The aft fuselage section behind the wings came away to reveal a nuclear propulsion system, connecting to the twin exhaust nozzles.
Yeah, I had the same one. Our space program would have us colonizing Mars if we had continued with the nuclear project.
But I thought that the viewing tablets in the below image would never be possible:
Guess which one came true?
We decided collectively (“If we can put a man on the moon...insert every libtard pipe dream...”) it was far more important to breed millions of feral savages.
No one misses PanAm more than I do. I was a travel writer back then, PanAM gave me assignment after assignment, as they liked my work. Traveled all over the world first class, stayed at the best hotels, ate at the best restaurants...all free, of course. I cried when they went out of business...after Lockerbie crash. I might have been on that flight, but by the grace of God, was not.
Their original corporate offices are now a restaurant and micro-brewery in Key West.
For those aviation buffs out there, visit Kelly’s Bar & Restaurant (started by the actress Kelly McGillis), the original home to Pan Am airlines.
Pan Am, originally named Pan American, was the largest airline in the United States from 1927 to 1991. And it all started in little Key West when the small airline began regular passenger and mail service to Havana, Cuba.
Today the building houses a bar in the shape of an airplane wing. Continuing with the aviation theme, the ceiling fans look like the rotary engines of an aiplane.
No museum or tour. Small case diplays Pan Am artifacts.
Enjoy the inflight beverages.
Location: 303 Whitehead Street
I’m a member of the “First Moon Flights Club”. I still have my i.d. card somewhere. Membership came with a Fisher “Space Pen”, the same one designed to write upside down in zero gravity, engraved with my membership number which was also my place in line for my ride. Still waiting for the 2,300 or so folks before me to go so I can. Also have to figure out where I’m going to get a few million dollars for the ticket.
Indeed. I’ve seen that place in Key West. There’s another little bar/restaurant in Havana that claims to be the place where PanAm was founded. All very colorful and derring-do.
Hmm, I wonder which is the bigger tourist draw? That or the lesbian football tournament that McGillis hosts in Key West?
Thanks for pointing that out. Haven’t watched it lately and forgot that scene!
PanAm’s radio call sign was Clipper.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.