Pan American World Airways (Images of Modern America)

This collection by the daughter of a 38-year Pan Am pilot is an interesting, though imperfect, look at the "World's Most Experienced Airline". The images, presented roughly chronologically, show the aircraft, facilities and destinations of Pan Am, but not much about the people. The images, as common on many older color postcards, are often rather dark and contrasty, and no effort was apparently made to improve on that, which can be viewed as either a plus or a minus. The captions are simplistic and sometimes incorrect, such as the purported photo of a DC-4 over Miami in 1946 which actually shows a DC-6 flying over water some ten years later or so. But some of the images are pleasantly offbeat, such as the couple showing DC-3s in Pan Am's '60s vintage "blue globe" color scheme. There are also some paintings by John T. McCoy that are quite remarkable. So while this is certainly not a definitive history of Pan Am by any means, it should be considered as an addition to any book collection about this memorable airline.

The book is full of great photos and posters from the Pan Am era. If you are a Pan Am fan, buy it.

Fantastic author and history

This book tells about the history of Pan Am. It has some lovely color pictures in it. Some of the interesting information that this book mentions is as follows: It was in 1978 and Laura Hoffman's father was 58 years old. The co-pilot made an an announcement that this would be her father's last landing while working for Pan Am. There was a standing ovation for her father . Pan Am founder Juan Trippe was a true pioneer in commercial aviation. He was born in 1899 in New Jersey. Pan Am became the first commercial airliner to cross the Atlantic and the Pacific, the first to fly jets and then jumbo jets internationally, and the first to use commercialized reservation systems. Juan Trippe retired in 1968 and died in 1981. Pan Am's unfortunate demise in 1991 was caused by a number of factors.