Pan American Airways & International Commercial Aviation
Have you ever taken a trip to a far away country? Across the Ocean?
If you have, you probably flew on a jet to get there. That wasn’t always the case.
You cannot tell the story of international air travel in the United States without talking about Pan Am. Pan American Airways was the nation’s sole international airline before World War II. Even after their monopoly on international air travel ended, they continued to define the future of commercial flight—ushering in new technology such as the jet airplane. Pan Am ceased operations in 1991, but by that point the United States had developed a robust international air travel industry.
