An American Saga: Juan Trippe and His Pan Am Empire

by Robert Daley and Robert Daley

Book Overview

This is the story of the man who virtually single-handedly open up the world to commercial flight. Teeming with adventure, international intrigue, and financial manipulations, the book reveals how a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039450223X
• ISBN13: 9780394502236
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 529 Pages
• Weight: 2.16 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Pan Am's China Clippers: The Starships Of The 1930's

This book details commercial aircraft development during a very critical period. Today we take transoceanic air travel for granted. But in the 1930's it was by no means certain that the tremendous technical challenges could be conquered. The first 20 years after World War I saw failure after failure in various attempts to design and build a transoceanic airplane that could carry practical quantities of passengers and freight. Early designs such as the Pam Am China Clippers had to be "flying boats" that could land on water because suitable airports on land didn't yet exist. And some of the early planes were so heavy that every bit of the interior furnishings, including the passenger seats and even the flooring, had to be ripped out before the aircraft could make it across the Atlantic, let along the Pacific. Aircraft were also bedeviled by gasoline vapor explosions that could disintegrate a plane in midair. Financing aircraft development was doubly difficult because of the very real risks involved, and these risky ventures often involved shady financiers who operated one step ahead of the law. In this book we get a closeup view of one of the slimiest money men of the era, a wheeler dealer called Floyd Odlum. It took every bit of Juan Trippe's legendary financial acumen to outmaneuver this cunning character. Except for this book, it is difficult to discover any detailed information whatsoever about Odlum's financial conniving. However, he had a central role in the destruction of the Northrop Flying Wing, which was a futuristic stealth aircraft invented 50 years previous to the very similar B2 stealth bomber. Odlum was heavily invested in aircraft companies that were competitors of Northrop, and thus he colluded with a high government official called Stuart Symington to destroy the Northrop flying wing purely for his own financial gain. The flying wing events are not covered in this book, but the insights it provides into Odlum's character help to explain how and why the flying wing debacle happened. There are countless other anecdotes in this well-researched book that will fascinate aircraft enthusiasts. One example is the DC 2 1/2. During the turbulent conditions in China just before World War II, a DC3 suffered a damaged wing. There were no DC3 replacement wings available, but a DC2 wing was bolted on instead, and the bizarre hybrid aircraft actually flew. But you can bet that the flaps were kept fully lowered on one side! There is also some unusually detailed history on the development of the Pan Am facility at Wake Island, including what happened immediately after Pearl Harbor. There is also a lot of information about the career of Charles Lindbergh, the controversial aviator who famously flew the Atlantic in the 1920's. This book is a wonderful read for anyone interested in the history of aviation.

Outstanding business epic

Fascinating tale of Juan Trippe and the creation of Panamerican Airways. The book reads like a thriller and should lend itself for Business Schools case history. A valuable document of the beginnings or commercial aviation told in fluid prose.

An absolute must read!!!

This book should be a classic. The author covers with great details and without losing the reader's interest, a true American saga. The book has it all, drama, machines, ego, power, betrayal, politics, wars, impossible dreams come true. Excellent book!!!