Send us a text In this special episode we are joined by Max Gurney, who will celebrate his 101st birthday on June 10, 2022! The Pan Am Museum and the entire worldwide Pan Am community wish him the happiest of birthdays! Max is a 45-year veteran of Pan Am and a living legend within the airline community. He is also the godfather to His Serine Highness, Prince Albert II of Monaco. Max was kind enough to invite host Tom Betti into his home for a chat. He tells us about his childhood, serving in the...
Jun 06, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Send us a text In this episode we will be exploring Pan Am’s prestigious role in White House Press Charters travelling as part of the entourage of the President of United States and his aircraft, Air Force One. Then we are joined by three special guests. Our first guest is Dwight Chapin who was a top aide to President Richard M. Nixon. He recently released a book called The President’s Man: The Memoirs of Nixon’s Trusted Aide . While at the White House, Mr. Chapin helped organize presidential tr...
May 03, 2022•2 hr 43 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Send us a text In this 20th episode, we are joined by Mary Lou Bigelow, a former TWA air hostess from 1959–1962 and a Pan Am stewardess/purser from 1962-1964. She discusses working for the two airlines and what it was like to live in Afghanistan. In 1964, Mary Lou married a pilot, whom she met in Beirut, Lebanon while working a 14-day NYC-HKG pattern. Pan Am still had a policy that female flight attendants hang up their wings once they married, but she continued working for Pan Am in reservation...
Apr 19, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Send us a text In this episode we explore the fascinating history of Concorde from British Airways. This episode is a direct follow up to “Episode 7: Supersonic Transports, An Angry JFK, and Flying the Line.” In that episode we explored the race for the first passenger supersonic aircraft between a British and French partnership, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Then we are joined by Captain Mike Bannister, the chief pilot of British Airways' Concorde fleet from 1995 to 2003. Along ...
Apr 01, 2022•2 hr 58 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Send us a text In this episode we explore the history of Pan Am in the Movies! Then we will be joined by two guests to talk about Hollywood and Pan Am! Mark Carlson is our first guest. He is the author of the book, Flying on Film: A Century of Aviation in the Movies, 1912 to 2012 . Legally blind, Mark also wrote the award winning book, Confessions of a Guide Dog - The Blonde Leading the Blind , about his first Guide Dog, Musket. And the second interview… From a Pan Am flight attendant to a Holly...
Mar 18, 2022•2 hr 37 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Send us a text We dedicate this episode to all the 583 victims of this tragedy. They are remembered. To the family and friends of the victims...our sincerest condolences. Special Guest: Dorothy Kelly, a Pan Am Flight Attendant who survived the accident, tells her harrowing and heroic story of survival and helping those in need. On March 27, 1977 at 5:06 PM local time on the island of Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands off the Moroccan Coast…a KLM 747 attempted to take off without clearance a...
Mar 08, 2022•2 hr 44 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Send us a text In this episode we explore the founding of Pan Am and the early years of the airline. Juan T. Trippe is widely known as the principle founder of Pan Am and rightly so. However, the early history of Pan Am is very complex and at times quite confusing with multiple people and mergers involved. Then we are joined by George Hambleton, whose father John Hambleton was a co-founder of Pan Am and close friend and business partner of both Juan Trippe and Charles Lindbergh. Like his father,...
Feb 19, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Send us a text In this episode we explore the only division of Pan Am American World Airways that survived bankruptcy liquidation and emerged as an independent company called the Pan Am International Flight Academy headquartered in Miami, Florida. Then we welcome back Pan Am Captains Paul LaCheppelle and John Marshall. Captain Lachapelle is featured in Episode 6: Hijackings and the Dawn of Global Terrorism. Captain Marshall is featured in Episode 2: The First Presidential Flight and the Last Pan...
Feb 05, 2022•56 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Send us a text In this episode we will be exploring another innovation of the early 1960s, Pan Am’s worldwide reservation and communications system called Panamac. Then we are joined by Julia Cooke, the author of the best-selling book Come Fly the World which was recently nominated for the Goodreads Best Books 2021 Choice Awards. To purchase this book and support the museum, click here . -------------------- More about Panamac: Check out this 1962 Pan Am film titled " Across the World in 3 ...
Jan 14, 2022•47 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Send us a text Welcome to a special TWA Edition of The Pan Am Podcast! In this episode we are joined by Pam Blaschum, the director of the TWA Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Then we are joined by Tyler Morse of MCR Hotels who developed the former TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport in New York City into today’s TWA Hotel . It is important to point out that Pan Am history is not complete without TWA and TWA history is not complete without Pan Am. These two airlines were pioneers for most of the 20t...
Jan 01, 2022•1 hr 29 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Send us a text We dedicate this episode to all the 270 victims of this tragedy. They are remembered. To the family and friends of the victims...our sincerest condolences. Special Guests: John Reina, brother of victim Jocelyn Reina , with Pan Am veterans Linda Freire and Myron “Rosie” Rosenstein. Pan Am Flight 103 Memorial (Lockerbie Memorial Carin) Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, USA Garden of Remembrance Dryfesdale Cemetery, Lockerbie, Scotland, UK Syracuse University Remembra...
Dec 20, 2021•2 hr 37 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Send us a text In this episode we commemorate the sad 30th Anniversary of Pan American World Airways ceasing operations on December 4, 1991. To mark this special milestone, we are joined by Ed Trippe, the youngest son of Pan Am’s legendary founder Juan Trippe and his wife Betty Stettinius Trippe. Ed is the founder and chairman of our sister organization, the Pan Am Historical Foundation . In December of 1991, shortly after the company his father founded ceased operations, Ed worked tirelessly to...
Dec 03, 2021•2 hr 31 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Send us a text In this episode, we explore the history of the Pan Am Building in New York City. This 59-story skyscraper is located at 200 Park Avenue and shares a lot with the beaux-arts icon, and National Landmark, New York’s Grand Central Terminal. Later in the program we are joined by Richard Roth, Jr., the grandson of Emery Roth, a prolific New York City architect who designed many notable buildings in the 1920s and 1930s. Richard provides a firsthand account on the design and construction ...
Nov 22, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Send us a text In this episode, we will be exploring the history of the Pan Am WorldPort, and Unit Terminal Building (UTB), which was located at Terminal 3 within John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Later we are joined by author Wendy Sue Knecht to discuss her book, Life, Love, and a Hijacking: My Pan Am Memoir . Wendy joined Pan Am in 1979, and was with the company until 1991, before joining Delta Air Lines. To purchase this book and support the museum, click here . --------...
Nov 15, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Send us a text In this episode we are joined by a very special guest: Pan Am Captain Dave Bridges, Centenarian. He celebrated his 100th birthday earlier this year and he just might be one of the oldest people to ever be on a podcast! A 37-year Pan Am veteran, Captain Bridges joined the company in 1943 and retired in 1981. He began as a relief co-pilot on the Boeing 314 flying boat during World War II, and after the war he flew a variety of land-based aircraft including the Douglas DC-3, DC-4, DC...
Nov 01, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Send us a text In this episode we will be exploring the 1960s race for the first supersonic passenger aircraft between the United States, the Soviet Union, and a British-French partnership. Then we are joined by Becky Sprecher, a Pan Am flight attendant and co-author with Paula Helfrich of “Flying: A Novel,” a historical fiction book about Pan Am crews flying over the Pacific in the 1970s. To purchase the book, “Flying: A Novel,” please visit the Museum’s online store: https://shop.thepanammuseu...
Oct 21, 2021•2 hr 30 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Send us a text In this episode we explore the coordinated terrorist hijackings of four passenger airliners all bound for New York on the same day on September 6, 1970. The events were a watershed moment and aviation would never be the same again. The four planes involved were: a TWA Boeing 707, a SwissAir DC-8, a El Al Boeing 707, and a Pan Am Boeing 747 named Clipper Fortune. A fifth plane, a BOAC Vickers VC 10, was hijacked three days afterward. Later in the program we are joined by Pan Am Cap...
Sep 24, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Send us a text In this episode we explore two of the subsidiaries of Pan Am: the InterContinental Hotels Corporation and the Pan Am Guided Missiles Range Division. Yep, you read that right, the airline company had its own hotel chain for about 30 years, and Pan Am did aerospace work for the U.S. government including the space program for almost 40 years. Why? Because the American government asked them to do both. Later we are joined by Jennifer Coutts Clay, a leader in the aviation business in t...
Sep 13, 2021•51 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Send us a text In this episode we are joined by Allan Topping, a Pan Am employee who evacuated almost 500 people out of Saigon days before the city fell. On April 24, 1975, at the conclusion of the Vietnam War, with time running out as Saigon was surrounded by North Vietnamese troops, a Pan Am 747 jumbo jet carried 463 American and South Vietnamese civilians to safety and freedom. At the center of this dangerous and desperate mission was Allan Topping. Mr. Topping is the author of a book, “Wings...
Sep 02, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Send us a text In this episode we explore Pan Am’s Boeing 314 Flying Boats. Then we are joined by Margaret O’Shaughnessy of our sister museum, the Foynes Flying Boat and Maritime Museum in Ireland. Check out their website: https://www.flyingboatmuseum.com/ Margaret will tell us all about her museum which has the only full scale replica in the world, of a Pan American Boeing 314 called the Yankee Clipper. She will also tell us about the origins of Irish coffee and its unique connection to Pan Am ...
Aug 26, 2021•49 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Send us a text In this episode we explore the first presidential flight. Then we are joined by Pan Am Captain John Marshall to share memories of the very last flight of Pan Am. The mission of the Pan Am Museum Foundation is “to educate, celebrate,and inspire present and future generations by preserving historical and diverse personal stories of Pan American World Airways.” Pan Am was a pioneer in air travel and still stands as one of the most iconic and innovative airlines in aviation history. T...
Aug 19, 2021•35 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Send us a text Opened to the public in 2016 in Garden City, Long Island, New York (outside of NYC), the Pan Am Museum presents the Pan Am Podcast! The Museum’s mission is “to educate, celebrate, and inspire present and future generations by preserving historical and diverse personal stories of Pan American World Airways.” In this inaugural episode, Museum Director and Board Chair Linda Freire introduces the Pan Am Museum and talks about her career as a flight attendant, recruiter, and manager wi...
Aug 18, 2021•41 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Send us a text Welcome to The Pan Am Podcast, the podcast series from the Pan Am Museum Foundation. Pan Am was a pioneer in air travel and still stands as one of the most iconic and innovative airlines in aviation history. That legacy lives on at the Pan Am Museum in Garden City, New York, where you can explore the rich history of the aircrafts and individuals at the heart of the company known as The World’s Most Experienced Airline. Support the show Visit Us for more Pan Am History! Support the...
Aug 18, 2021•2 min
