Juan Trippe, the first and last aviation tycoon in history, learned to fly in the rickety machines of World War I, when he sky appealed only to daredevils, and his life expectancy could have been counted, probably, in days. He was as star struck as any of the other young aviators of the day, but he was also a Yale educated banker’s son who believed the world was crying out for air travel but didn’t yet know it. In 1927 Pan American had only one route, 90 miles from Key West to Havana. Within eight years at great risk and against fantastic odds Pan Am had crossed the Pacific, and after that Trippe thrust his tentacles into all of Latin America, into Europe, Africa, Australia--even into China. He was a nerveless, sometimes vicious competitor who bought up or drove out of business anyone who got in his way—President Roosevelt once referred to him as a “Yale educated gangster” until he had built Pan Am into the mightiest airline in the world.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
20 Years In Waiting,
By Douglas E. Walker (Bakersfield, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: An American saga: Juan Trippe and his Pan Am empire (Hardcover)
For 20 years I have regretted not purchasing this book. I first saw it in a book store while in college, and ever since the subject intrigued me. The Pan Am story is truly an American Saga. Robert Daley takes an "Detective Friday" approach in only reporting the facts. Nevertheless, the tale is worth reading. Prior to Juan Trippe's Pan Am, the only way to get from one continent to another was via steamer. Trippe, Lindbergh and the orignal Pan Am employees established commerical aviation as we know it today. Daley, as dry as he can be, does a thorough job of factually describing the infancy of commercial air travel. If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, do it. It is a far better way to spend your time than on some of a mindless pap currently available.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pan Am's China Clippers: The Starships Of The 1930's,
By
This review is from: An American saga: Juan Trippe and his Pan Am empire (Hardcover)
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.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An absolute must read!!!,
By
This review is from: An American saga: Juan Trippe and his Pan Am empire (Hardcover)
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!!!
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