Flying the Andes: The Story of Pan American Grace Airways and Commercial Aviation in South America, 1926-1967 [Hardcover]

William A. Krusen (Author), Stephen Morrill (Author), Harold R. Harris (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Univ of Tampa (November 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 187985256X
• ISBN-13: 978-1879852563
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #291,856 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book on one of the world's greatest airlines, January 21, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Ecuador) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flying the Andes: The Story of Pan American Grace Airways and Commercial Aviation in South America, 1926-1967 (Hardcover)

Finally a book addressing the pioneering, perils and success of establishing such a great airline has been written. William A. Krusen's book did justice to all of them from the founding fathers to pilots, pursers and stewardesses -the name of flight attendants had not been invented yet-, mechanics, radio operators, baggage handlers, everybody did his or her work very professionally which in the final analysis helped PANAGRA set the standards that so many new airlines tried to emulate.

The book is 200% correct when praising Panagra for having taught Southamericans what transportation by air was all about starting with the acquisition of airplanes, setting up meteorological and radio stations, navigational aids, and most of all setting up very strict safety standards -which according to some well known world figures in the aviation industry it made them the safest and most safety-minded airline ever anywhere in the world. Their culture in spite of having disappeared more than 30 years ago still is there.

The book falls short though in what is a cardinal rule for identifying airplanes, instead of referring to them as P-1 (the first plane to enter the fleet, and so on) the authors should have done a bit more of research so when describing any particular event they should have identified them as lets say N49550 a Hyper DC-3, or N88937 a DC-4, and so on. As you know airplanes, like people, like to be referred to by their "baptism" names, not by their social security number, airplanes also have their own identities, and pride.

Also I would have just loooooved to see color pictures of the various airplanes specially any showing the bright yellow stripes they painted on the wings, 3 on each side for DC-3s and I guess 4 for bigger airplanes.

I would say that the book should have been more balanced in the amount of pages devoted to the various stages the airline wenth through, like for instance it was too heavy on the early times that is from its first flight in the 20s through the 40s, and too short chapters from the 40s on to the fateful day in April of 1967 when J. Peter Grace and Harding Lawrence held a press conference in N.Y. (was it at the Waldorf?) announcing the demise of Panagra, an airline very close to my heart. I was living in N.Y. at that time and I felt betrayed, as if a proverbial stab in the back had been placed on all of us who enjoyed flying PANAGRA.

Other than this, I enjoyed reading it enormously, sufficient would be for me to say that I finished reading it in a couple of nights, and I am going to start my second reading next week.

P.S. Needless to say my first flight just had to be on a Panagra airplane, it was a DC-3 which flew my dad, a sister and me from Quito to Guayaquil in the summer of 1948. I guess she was N30008 or N30014 (too excited to write down the tail number I was)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great airline history book, August 23, 2010

By 

Marc H in Virginia - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Flying the Andes: The Story of Pan American Grace Airways and Commercial Aviation in South America, 1926-1967 (Hardcover)

I got this book mainly because I had the honor to fly with Bill in the late 70's at Red Carpet Airlines. Bill was a great mentor and is a fine gentleman in addition to his many other talents.

After reading the stories I had a better understanding of a vital part of WW II history as well as what it was like to fly in the early days of commercial aviation. I will always cherish the time and patience Bill showed teaching the kid what it means to be a Captain.

Highly recommended reading for aviation history followers.