Transforming commercial passenger aviation with ‘The Queen of the Sky.’
Pan Am’s debut of the Boeing 747 had made air travel more affordable for the general public than ever, as allowed for Pan Am to fly 11 million passengers to 86 different countries.
An Era Featuring, The Boeing 747: International Travel for the Masses.
The combination of reduced airfares, a surge in passenger traffic, and increasingly crowded skies led Boeing to develop the 747 as the 1960s came to a close. Pan Am continued its pioneering tradition by kickstarting the development with an order for 25 planes in April of 1966. Pan Am flew the first commercial flight of a 747 on January 22, 1970, when it carried 335 passengers and 20 crew members from New York’s JFK Airport to London Heathrow.
Did you know?
Pan Am paid $20 million each for the initial order of 25 747s.
