PanAm Nostalgia?

[MTI]

Pan Am Experience | Pan Am Flies Again

A movie and a meal for $300, 4 hours . . . but no flying.

[elchivito]

Prolly can't smoke either. Recycled smoke was a big part of airliner "ambience" in those days.

[Jorn]

Ha, was there just the other day for a commercial shoot. Took this snap shot of the worlds most famous cockpit.

[compress ignite]

Jorn,

Re: " Took this snap shot of the worlds most famous cockpit"

Howard would never have approved that color scheme.

[INSIDIOUS]

And not only that, there are some women in airplane skirts that might challenge you on 'most'.

[Jorn]

Originally Posted by compress ignite

Jorn,

Re: " Took this snap shot of the worlds most famous cockpit"

Howard would never have approved that color scheme.

Would love to see the Spruce Goose, I believe it's still in a hangar in Long Beach, all boxed up. This one is more pop cultural famous:

Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it?

Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious.

Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.

[Hatterasguy]

Nice, and the miss behaved kids on the way to FL with the unwashed masses were on the lower deck and not allowed up!

[TheDon]

Originally Posted by Jorn

Would love to see the Spruce Goose, I believe it's still in a hangar in Long Beach, all boxed up. This one is more pop cultural famous:

Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it?

Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious.

Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.

It's actually preserved in a hanger in Washington state or Oregon...

[Jorn]

Originally Posted by TheDon

It's actually preserved in a hanger in Washington state or Oregon...

I didn't know, thought it was still in Long Beach. I believe the original hangar is sold to Google. But I have to look that up to be sure.

[Idle]

I think the glory days of PanAm and a lot of the others was in the days of regulation. The FAA gave you permits to fly but you had to accept their regulations which included setting fares.

So everyone tried to outdo the other airline in creature comforts. Flying was not cheap, but it was nice.

Then with deregulation there were a lot of airline executives that did not understand how to run a real business from a profit and loss standpoint. PanAm was one of them.

Another example of this sort of business model would be Mobil buying Montgomery Ward. Oil executives that know nothing about the retail business are now making all the decisions? What could go wrong?

[spdrun]

I thought it was killed by lawsuits from the PanAm 103 bombing combined with an oil price hike due to the Gulf War in the early 90s ... not by deregulation.

[hill]

Originally Posted by spdrun

I thought it was killed by lawsuits from the PanAm 103 bombing combined with an oil price hike due to the Gulf War in the early 90s ... not by deregulation.

Dereg was in 78. They just had a bad business plan. I sure miss those days even on PSA, men wore jackets, slacks and real shoes. Women wore dresses or pant suits and everybody bathed regularly. There was the occasional hippie, but they were mostly poseurs.

[Idle]

Originally Posted by spdrun

I thought it was killed by lawsuits from the PanAm 103 bombing combined with an oil price hike due to the Gulf War in the early 90s ... not by deregulation.

And they were. If you look at large businesses that fail there is hardly ever one smoking gun. It is always a lot of things that they can't control, or things they can control but don't know how to. Blockbuster tried to mimic RedBox but RedBox had already sewed up all the best locations. Blockbuster tried cutting staff and customers didn't like the longer wait to check out. And then came NetFlix and Blockbuster just went under.

The fuel price thing hit everyone. Some companies did a great job of managing it, some did not. Southwest made a ton of money during that time because they buy their fuel in advance, sometimes years in advance and lock in the price. Sometimes they guess right, sometimes they guess wrong. That time they guessed right in a big way.

When you have leadership that is slow to face new conditions while everyone else is trying come up with the next big thing it is just a slow march to the scrapyard.

[HuskyMan]

Regulated airlines meant keeping trailer trash out of the sky and on Greyhound buses where they belonged. Fortunately, with today's higher seat pricing structures, the trash is priced out of the flying game again.

Of course, anyone who has followed my take on all of it knows I refuse to be subjected to strip searches to make sure I'm not carrying contraband mouth wash, felt up for hours, watching some $3.00 an hour TSA gate agent rip open luggage in full view of everyone holding up various under garments for all to see (Yes I have seen them do this with my own eyes.....thank you but no thank you), 300 criminal background checks to make sure there are no outstanding parking tickets, no sky caps to assist with checking luggage curbside, worrying about my car getting broke into while parked at the airport, TSA "friendly" luggage locks which allow theft of personal items from luggage, watching a group of turban heads waltz past security unabated while elderly white women in wheel chairs get their bras checked for contraband.

I'd rather WALK 2000 miles wearing out shoe leather than go through that.........

Due to various changes, commercial air travel isn't worth the hassle.

[Idle]

I drive everywhere I go. I don't care if it is 1800 miles I would rather drive.

But then I also never get in a hurry about anything and I like to drive. I understand some people have to fly due to time constraints. I am just glad I am not one of them.