History of Pan Am (BBC2 8pm)

DOCARCH

Heads up on a documentary on the history of Pan Am at 8pm this evening on BBC2.

Looking forward to it as Pan Am is an airline that has always interested me.

DOCARCH

A bit more fluffy than I expected (rather than technical) but interesting nonetheless.

Zonda999

DOCARCH wrote: »

A bit more fluffy than I expected (rather than technical) but interesting nonetheless.

My thoughts exactly, although if i'm honest, I stopped watching after the bit where they introduced the 707

David086

Anyone have a link to it, missed it

donvito99

Twas pretty good, me thinks. Watched the drama Pan Am afterwards - not so good!

Delancey

DOCARCH wrote: »

A bit more fluffy than I expected (rather than technical) but interesting nonetheless.

Yeah , there was a lot of nonsense in it but I guessed it wasn't going to be great when I saw it was being narrated by Honor Blackman.

Glossed over a lot of stuff , it could have gone into a lot more detail about exactly how and why what was the closest the US had to a ' flag carrier ' and was an instrument of US foreign policy could collapse so spectacularly.

It is interesting to reflect how high status the role of Hostesses / Cabin Crew once was , every girls dream job and all that , that status and glamour has all but dissappeared and the status once enjoyed by pilots will go exactly the same way.

DOCARCH

Interesting that Pan Am, according ot the programme, basically coerced Boeing into producing the 707 to get them into the 'jet age'. Pan Am were initially interested in the Comet but after a couple of Comet crashes/disasters, lost interest in that aircraft.

And, then again, Pan Am pressured Boeing to produce the 747 to bring air travel to the masses. The widespread use of the 747 by Pan Am in the '70s was the beginning of the end of Pan Am with too few passengers flying on too big aircraft (in conjunction with the oil crisis and recession of the '70s).

One thing that was not mentioned was that the final nail in the coffin of Pan Am was the first Gulf War that put a halt to Americans travelling. It was suggested in the programme that a series of terorist attacks (including Lockerbie) led to Pan Am's demise but these were really only a contributing factor.

Delancey

The first commercial flight of the 747 was a flight from New York to LHR , Pan Am had announced to the world press the flight would be undertaken by the ' Clipper Young America ' , however that aircraft went ' tech ' before the flight and Pan Am hurriedly rolled out another 747 ' Clipper Victory ' and painted over its name and presented that to the press as the original Young America.
7 years later Clipper Victory was destroyed in the worlds worst air disaster at Tenerife when it collided with a KLM 747.

I was surprised that programme made no mention of the fact that the Pan Am pension fund went tits up and its pensioners receive a fraction of what was due them , I had a girlfriend whose Aunt or Grand Aunt ( cant remember which ) spent most of her working life with Pan Am , this lady while in her 70's was forced to work in a care home 3 days a week to supplement the shyte pension she got.

afatbollix

All the interviews that were in side a plane is the one at the top gear track. You can see the old james bond stickers during the interview that took place on the steps.

amdublin

David086 wrote: »

Anyone have a link to it, missed it

Repeated tonight on BBC!

Delancey

donvito99 wrote: »

Twas pretty good, me thinks. Watched the drama Pan Am afterwards - not so good!

Just watched 2 episodes , never knew Pan Am had such young cockpit crews :rolleyes: - pure unadulterated shyte.

Tenger

Delancey wrote: »

Just watched 2 episodes , never knew Pan Am had such young cockpit crews :rolleyes: - pure unadulterated shyte.

Yes but a 50 year old hitting on the girls in their 20's would not have looked as good. (They do address the fact that the captain 'jumped seniority' in episode 4 or 5)

Pan Am is enjoyable fluff, don't look for indepth research or accuracy there.

RadioRetro

London Indy yesterday had this article about the real working conditions on 60s airlines. Interesting read.

Tenger

RadioRetro wrote: »

London Indy yesterday had this article about the real working conditions on 60s airlines. Interesting read.

Actually this article points out that the glam life portrayed by the programme is a far cry from the conditions of MODERN cabin crew.

In the 60's cabin crew were the supermodels of their day, and the pilots were movie stars.

Blue Punto

Just watched history of Pan Am on sky+

Who else spotted the DC-8(unsure if it was in PA scheme though)

stopthepanic

This is back on BBC4 tonight at 2000 and repeated over the next few days.

Preset No.3

Starting at 11.25 on BBC4.