1947: Pan American World Airways begins the first regularly scheduled around-the-world passenger service.

Pan Am, already an innovator in passenger aviation, was the undisputed doyenne of American carriers when it began this unique worldwide service. Flight 001, originating in San Francisco, winged westward over the Pacific Ocean. A passenger boarding 001 at San Francisco Municipal Airport (it didn't become San Francisco International until 1955) and making the entire journey would touch down in Honolulu, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Delhi, Beirut, Istanbul, Frankfurt, London and finally New York.

Eastbound Flight 002, originating in New York, hit the same cities in the opposite direction, ending up in San Francisco.

An economy-class ticket for the entire journey in either direction cost $2,300, or $4,000 for a couple. (That's about $22,000 and $38,000, respectively in today's moolah.)

The beauty of the service was that it really could be a journey: You could disembark anywhere along the route and remain there for as long as you desired (provided that the entire trip was completed within a 180-day window), then resume your passage when the flight came through again. If you chose to remain on board without disembarking, the entire westbound flight took about 48 hours.

Pan Am, already renowned for opulent passenger accommodations dating from its China Clipper days, configured its globe-trotting Lockheed Constellations for maximum passenger comfort. Today's utilitarian 747s and A300s are way bigger and way faster, but they're flying cattle cars compared to the luxuries enjoyed by mid-century sojourners. Of course, those people were journeying, and not merely traveling.

Although Pan Am continued to blaze trails in the airline industry — it was the first airline to add the Boeing 747 to its fleet— by the 1970s it found its unassailable position being chipped at by various competitors, including TWA, Braniff and United. The 1973 Arab oil embargo was another heavy blow to the industry, and Pan Am — already tottering a bit — was hit especially hard.

Pan Am, the most storied airline in U.S. history, continued struggling and finally filed for bankruptcy protection in January 1991. It was only delaying the inevitable. Flights 001 and 002 were already a memory, and by the following December, Pan Am as the world knew it was history, too.

Source: Various

*Image: Pan Am flew Lockheed Constellations on its 'round the-world flights.

Courtesy Jetsite.com

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