Pictured here is PAA’s “Clipper Water Witch” at Frankfurt shortly before the end came

     In 1991 when Pan American World Airways went out of business as some last ATR commuter type aircraft made their final flights into John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, many aviation people the world over lamented what went wrong.
     “Too many long haul routes.”
     “No real domestic feed into hubs.”
     “Wrong airplanes, bad acquisitions, management, timing,” and even just plain “bad luck,” people said was the reason for the downfall of Pan Am.
     It seems the one point almost everyone missed was what had happened to the world’s greatest airline might some day also visit almost every other USA flag carrier.
     Today, with the exception of American Airlines and Southwest, every major USA flag airline has either been into or just emerged from bankruptcy, some more than once.
     Right now while domestic routes are shrinking in terms of players and even airplane size amongst the majors, routes to overseas destinations that PAA pioneered with China Clipper, Yankee, Anzac, Southern and other Clippers are all the rage as the eventual savior to airlines’ bottom lines.
     One city in USA—Miami, Florida owes much of its aviation legacy and lore to Pan Am.
     Fittingly most of the airline photo and written archives are kept there at the Otto. G. Richter Library at the University of Miami.
     You can figure wherever records are kept in some kind of orderly manner, that people will study them and draw some conclusions.
     William E. Brown, Director of Archives at Richter has done just that after having studied PAA during the past 18 years since PAA folded.
     His words come out of the mountain of written documents and pictures in the Richter Collection.
     “Pan Am helped take the world to Miami.
     “People were to set their watches by Pam Am planes.
     “Indeed Pan American World Airways Inc., “Pan Am” to generations of employees and travelers worldwide helped change the nature of international air travel and commerce.
     “Pan Am and Miami are bound in a historic, economic and emotional relationship.
     “From its Miami, Florida base Pan Am introduced commercial aviation to virtually every corner of the globe, and in so doing, changed the way people viewed themselves and the world.
     “Pan Am inaugurated mail and small package cargo service between Key West and Havana Cuba on October 28,1927.
     “PAA delivered mail, shipped agricultural products and manufactured goods, and transported business commuters, tourists and other travelers.
     “Pan Am did everything with enormous style, whether it was designing airport terminals or its own advertising where none had been created before the airline.
     “Pan Am's architectural commissions include the Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia Airport in New York City; the entire original 36th Street Airport on the site of what is now MIA, and the seaplane complex at Dinner Key, part of which serves as Miami City Hall, that today is a treasured building and address by people around the world.”
     Mentioned at the top the ATR aircraft that to our knowledge were the last revenue flights of Pan Am.
     The aircraft that pioneered super jumbo was a Pan Am invention, when the carrier “fronted” the development of B747 much in the same manner Emirates of Dubai with orders for 45 A380s is doing the same for the next generation of super commercial aircraft.
     But before PAA kissed off into history one more original idea joined a 64-year legacy of firsts.
     Before PAA, nobody billboarded a logo or airline name top to bottom on an aircraft tube, a practice that is commonplace today.
     Innovation from start to finish, and then Pan Am fell on its sword and was no more.
     Certainly in the future even more will emerge from those Richter Library papers as the past allows those who can see it, an opportunity to better understand what lies ahead.
     We wonder for example in 2007, what made any of us think that what happened to “The World’s Greatest Airline” eventually would not happen to the entire American airline industry and elsewhere to air carriers around the globe as well?
     But for now we share the memories of this homage, some taken from a book we wrote in 1986 titled “Great Airports Miami International,” while awaiting other answers.

A Postscript:
     There still is one place that allows the visitor to be surrounded even if just for a few moments in an atmosphere that is all Pan Am.
     Mary Goshgarian at 82 years of age operates The Pan Am Aware Store located in the Pan Am International Flight Academy Building at 5000 NW 36th St., Miami, Florida ,
     The place is part of Miami International Airport’s boundaries just close to the place where Pan Am built the entire airport in 1927 in the first place.
     Goshgarian, who worked for Pan Am in The Clipper Club for 35 years actually also operated this place while the airline was still in business on a volunteer basis.
     "We have pilots stopping in here all the time looking for a piece of Pan Am memorabilia," Goshgarian said.
     Here you can find both original stuff and reproductions.
     The store has a selection of original items, including Pan Am dishes, cabin silver and even onboard water pitchers.
     There also are dozens of new items.
     Jeff Kriendler of Miami Beach, a board member of the Pan Am Historical Foundation, said discussions have been held with the Historical Foundation of Southern Florida about creating an aviation and maritime museum, perhaps
on Watson Island.
     Kriendler, who once was the chief public relations man at Pan Am, when the carrier occupied the now Met Life office tower at 200 Park Avenue in New York City, said something quite touching to a reporter from a local newspaper, The Florida Sun Sentinel.
     "That little store represents Pan Am as it exists today—in the memories of thousands and thousands of people."
The Pan Am Aware store is open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Phone number is 305-871-1028.
Geoffrey