Pan American World Airways (U.S.)

Panam

Last modified: 2024-03-23 by rick wyatt
Keywords: pan american world airways | panam | united states |
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image by Miles Li, 21 February 2015

• Description
• Earlier Versions
• International Flag Service
• Pan Am Railways

See also:

• Commercial Flags (index)
• United States of America

Description

The flag of the Pan American World Airways (otherwise known as Pan Am) from 1927 to 1957 was the logo on a white field,
Miles Li, 30 January 2010

Founded in 1927 as Pan American Airways, later rebranded Pan American World Airways; commonly known as Pan Am. Its IATA code was "PA", and ICAO code was "PAA".

Pan Am existed till 1991; I suppose the later flag — if there were any — would feature the well known light logo with blue disc with brand lettering on the equator, broken meridian, and eight parallel lines, all in white (see  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pan_Am_Logo.svg and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pan_Am_727_tail.jpg).

This logo and the whole brand rights were acquired in 2006 by what become Pan Am Railways, formerly Guilford Rail System, in New England, US. Maybe this railway company uses the later Pan Am flag?

António Martins-Tuválkin, 7 December 2010

Earlier Versions

1930-1944
image by Jens Pattke, 1 February 2015

1944-1955
image by Jens Pattke, 1 February 2015

Here are two historic Pan Am Flags. The logo from 1928 depicts an eagle carrying the world in its claws. The letters are in this case the head with beak. The globe shows the service area of North and Central America. The next logo from 1944/45 shows a globe with wings. The letters PAA here are displayed on the wing. The globe shows the service area of the Atlantic. Both flags were white and had the top and bottom edge of cloth a blue stripe. In the middle was the relevant logo.

In 1955, the bed-sheet was adopted. On a white cloth was a blue globe with white lines and below in black letters PAN AMERICAN. Again in 1957 the logo was modified. On the blue globe as the equator the white inscription PAN AM and the geographic coordinate system in white lines. Also, this flag from 1957 was a bed sheet with logo.
Jens Pattke, 1 February 2015

image located by Esteban Rivera, 7 March 2018

A variant (https://images.ehive.com/accounts/3031/objects/images/mu1k01_bmq4_l.jpg, source: http://www.motat.org.nz/collections/collection-online/flag-pan-am-625324/) displaying the 1973 logo over a white horizontal background.

Description is as follows: "White nylon flag with ‘PAN AM’ logo in light blue globe in centre, yellow tassels. Number 83 on hoist. Makers label "COLONIAL NYL-GLO / 100% NYLON / Exclusive of Ornamentation / FAST COLOURS" logo is a "FLAG MAKERS TO THE WORLD / SINCE 1847 / ANNIN / GAURANTEED QUALITY’". Measurements are as follows: "H 1000 W 1560mm (H 39 3/8 W 61 7/16")". The flag is stored at the The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) (official website: http://www.motat.org.nz).
Esteban Rivera, 7 March 2018

This Panam flag can also be seen at 2:03 in the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3zSwxiQH3c. The flag in question is seen in a 1964 JFK Airport history documentary.
Paul Bassinson, 30 May 2019

International Flag Service

         images located by Esteban Rivera, 6 July 2023

There was a suggestion of flags to symbolize all the countries served by Pan American's "International Flag Service" that was been employed as the theme of a menu cover. The design was awarded the Certificate of Excellence by the American Institute of Graphic Arts, 1970
Sources: https://vintagemenuart.com/products/pan-american-international-flag-service-1971 and https://cdn.shopify.com

This flag was applied to playing cards (see also https://www.ebay.com), menus (https://cdn.shopify.com and https://cdn.shopify.com), matchboxes (https://www.ebay.com) and perhaps many more items.

Esteban Rivera, 6 July 2023

Pan Am Railways

Pan Am Railways bought the Pan Am logo and brand when the second incarnation of the airline collapsed, and used the historic logo on its rolling stock. While most of the boxcars I've seen have the well-known "blue meatball" logo in white on a sky blue background, there are engines with the pre-1957 coloring and logo shown above.

Here is a page with a photo of one of them:
http://eternalflame1891.deviantart.com/art/Pan-Am-Railways-MEC-SD40M-619-locomotive-344333373
Christian M. Paolino

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