NEWSLETTER - The Association of Retired Police Officers is an ...

8 ARPO May 2011
This replica of the Spirit of St.
Louis is the actual plane that
was used by the actor Jimmy
Stewart in the movie where
he played the part of Charles
Lindbergh and his flight across
the Atlantic Ocean.
A display of an airplane
maintenance hanger during WW I
In the history of American commercial
aviation, there is no airline more influential,
important, and better known than Pan
American Airways, established in 1927. It
was not the first American passenger airline,
nor did it ever meet with much success in
the domestic market, but Pan Am (as it was
more commonly known), represented a new
adventurous image of the United States
to the world. Pan Am's heyday was in the
1930s when it operated its famous Clipper
Ships service—an ocean-wide network with
a fleet of 25 flying boats that crisscrossed
both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans.
The service flourished in the late 1930s,
delivering both mail and passengers, and
gained a reputation as one of the most
dependable and elegant air services in the
world.