Pan Am; An Aviation Legend

Emeryville, CA: Woodford Press, 1999. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Format is approximately 10.25 inches by 11.75 inches. 208 pages. Illustrated endpapers. Illustrations (some in color). Bibliography. Index. "This book celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit that launched the world's most famous commercial airline, Pan American World Airways." Contents include: Introduction Bold Dreams and Acts of Genius; Getting off the Ground Linking the Americas; Crossing The Pacific Nothing was Impossible; Across the Atlantic in War and Peace; The Jet Age Inventing the Future, Turbulence Great Airlines Don't Die, Epilogue. Barnaby Conrad III (born 1952) is an American author, artist, and editor. After graduating Yale with a B.A. in Fine Arts in 1975, Conrad worked as a journalist and magazine editor. His first published story was about his experiences running with the bulls in Pamplona, which he sold to the San Francisco Examiner for $100. Much of his work was for art magazines: he was one of the founding editors of Art World in the 1970s, and a senior editor of Horizon from 1979-80. In 1982, Conrad moved to Paris and became an adventure travel writer. He wrote articles about riding trains across India, skiing in the Alps, and hot air ballooning over Germany, for magazines such as Condé Nast Traveler, and Forbes Life, for which he served as editor-at-large. Absinthe: History In a Bottle, in 1988, was his first book as a solo author. As of 2011, Conrad has authored over 11 non-fiction books, and hundreds of magazine articles for over 30 publications. In some circles he is particularly known for his book Pan Am: An Aviation Legend. In Pan Am: An Aviation Legend, author Barnaby Conrad III celebrates the spirit that launched the world's most famous commercial airline, Pan American World Airways. Filled with stunning photographs, this book evokes the golden age of air travel, when boarding a Pan Am Clipper bound for Pago Pago or Macao meant an adventurous journey in unprecedented style. Historical narrative in Pan Am blends seamlessly with images of everything from cabin interiors and in-flight shots of Pan Am's famous "Clipper" aircraft to colorful ads, art deco brochures and cutaway drawings of luxurious airplanes. Barnaby Conrad also brings to life the saga of company founder Juan Trippe and those who helped create Pan Am's image as "the world's most experienced airline". After Pan American's first commercial flight, from Key West to Havana in 1927, airline visionary Trippe teamed up with aviation legend Charles Lindbergh to pioneer routes into the Caribbean and South America. Enlisting early aircraft builders Sikorsky, Martin, and Boeing, Pan Am developed planes that would finally conquer the vast Pacific and Atlantic oceans, breaking down the boundaries that had separated peoples and cultures. "Some day", wrote Clare Boothe Luce in 1941, "a Clipper flight will be remembered as the most romantic voyage in history". This book gets to the heart of Clare Boothe Luce's observation, offering a pictorial history of American enterprise that will delight general readers, aviation fans, and even art deco aficionados. In Pan Am, we see cheering crowds greet Trippe and Lindbergh as they visit Caribbean islands and South American outposts. Actors, authors, musicians and other celebrities wave to the camera as they step out of Pan Am airplanes and onto the tarmac. Pan Am crews performed heroically - and their planes reliably - during World War II. Although Pan American World Airways ceased flying in 1991, its photographic history stirs the imagination of the air traveler just as images of the Orient Express and the Titanic intrigue railroad and ocean-liner buffs. With more than 240 illustrations and a vivid text, Pan Am honors Pan American's golden era in an unforgettable manner.