Pan Am clipper, Vol. 9, No. 10, October 1983

              miVAM
Published monthly by the Corporate
Communications Department, Pan American World Airways,
200 Park Ave, New York, N.Y. 10166
OCTOBER 1983/VOL. 9, NO. 10
CLIPPER
Pan Am To Restage First Boeing 707 Flight
Hangar Happening. Painters at JFK strip down a veteran Boeing 707, prior to repainting it in Pan Am’s livery. The jet will soar skyward on Oct. 26, between New York-to-Paris, reenacting Pan Ann’s first 707 flight—and the inauguration of the Jet Age—in 1958. On the roof of the fuselage is Don Heider, JFK maintenance. Below him (in a striped shirt) is Bill Andrulewicz. Supervising the job is Mike Ambrosina, assisted by Pete Ibarguen (partially hidden).
Happy 25th Birthday, Jet Age!
Phn Am, which brought jet service to the world a quarter of a century ago, will restage the inaugural of the first Boeing 707 flight between New York and Paris on Oct. 26. In style. And with panache.
The Boeing Company, as well as Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, are also sharing in the celebration. They are underwriting a substantial part of the cost in repeating the Jet Age inaugural next month.
The 25th anniversary flight on a 707 sis-tership of the original “Jet Clipper America” will airlift 84 passengers and a crew of 10 across the Atlantic. It will accurately reenact the Oct. 26,1958, flight, including pre-departure ceremonies, identical routing and the same deluxe in-flight services offered 25 years ago.
The manifest is by invitation only. It will comprise several of the original crew members and many of the passengers who were on the 1958 inaugural. Also on board will be aviation industry leaders, government officials, media representatives and celebrities from the world of entertainment, sports and the arts.
Festivities will likewise mark the 25th anniversary in Paris. Chairman Acker will participate in the evening at the Hotel Inter-Continental in the French capital. U.S. government and business leaders based in Paris, as well as French government officials, will join anniversary flight guests at the social event.
Pan Am’s Vice President Flight Operations Donald E. Pritchett—whose jet transport career began with the 707—will be in command on the anniversary hop. He will trace the exact route of the first 707. Departing Idlewild International Airport—now JFK—he will fly to LeBourget Field in Paris, following a refueling stop in Gander, Newfoundland.
(Cont’d onP 2.)
World Services Operations Skyrocketing
True. The moon still hasn’t joined Pan Am’s far-flung route system. And according to a straight-faced scheduling department, it probably won’t for some time to come.
Nevertheless, Pan Am is very much a presence in Outer Space and is venturing further afield all the time. Reason? World Services’ burgeoning association with a variety of landmark space projects, including the Shuttle Program.
Fact is that between mid-August and mid-September of this year, World Services blasted into orbit with close to $140 million in contracts—its greatest total ever for any one-month period. And there’s more—much more—to come.
Just a few weeks ago World Services garnered a particularly prestigious contract. It involves providing maintenance planning and analysis services to the U.S. Space Shuttle, as its part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Shuttle Processing Contract, awarded to the Lockheed Space Operations Company.
Target of the new program is to minimize Shuttle turnaround time and reduce costs by applying airline technology and procedures for processing the Shuttle from landing to launch. No one, of course, executes a faster and more efficient turnaround than Pan Am.
Other members of the Lockheed team include Grumman Technical Services and Morton Thiokol, Incorporated. (Cont’d on P 6.)
Space Spectacular. A Pan Am World Services team assists the arrival of the Space Shuttle “Columbia," piggybacking on a Boeing 747 from the West Coast to the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, prior to the Columbia’s first history-making launch. World Services is deeply involved in the U.S. space effort, plus a variety of other government projects.
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Clipper: T Was A Res Agent For A (Long) Morning’
Hey, don’t ask me to book your reservation. What do you think I am, a genius?
Despite the fact that I ‘worked’ as a res agent at the Pan Am Building one recent morning, I wouldn’t know where to begin and you’d probably end up in New Delhi, rather than London.
Not that it’s Res Agent Pat Dugan’s fault. Her nimble mind straddles thousands of miles with the speed of a bullet and her fingers just glide effortlessly across the keyboard of her CRT (Cathode Ray Tube, in case you didn’t know) as she deftly probes for flight and fare information and ends up putting passengers in seats.
In all honesty, Pat tried—she really tried! —to teach me a bit of what she and her colleagues all over the Pan Am system do. And do so darned well. But it didn’t take. After all, I’m the kind of guy who has to turn to the back of the Pan Am Telephone Directory to find out that AUH stands for Abu Dhabi or MCI for Kansas City.
Pat doesn’t. They’re all neatly catalogued in her brain. And a host of offline cities as well.
If I had to, I guess I probably could memorize various city designators. (After all, I did learn the names of 101 rocks in Geology One in college.) But as for the rest of what goes on in reservations, forget it. (Cont’d on P 6.)