Pan American World Airways Tickets

This donation consists of two Pan American World Airways passenger tickets issued to Margaret Hempenstall for roundtrip service on two of its post-war long-distance land-based airliner routes: one for New York to Shannon, Ireland (1951) and the other for New York to Bermuda (1952).

Pan American World Airways was active in the airline industry from 1927, when it established a regular scheduled international service, to its bankruptcy in late 1991. Pan American was the first American airline to operate a permanent international air service. From its first route between Key West and Havana, Pan Am extended its routes into the rest of the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. In 1936, Pan Am inaugurated passenger service in the Pacific, and began service in the Atlantic in 1939. The post-World War II era saw the introduction of long-distance land-based airliner service on its transatlantic routes, replacing earlier pre-war flying boat service. In 1945, Pan American Airways, which had provided flying boat service into Foynes, Ireland, on the Shannon River estuary, began service into the nearby and recently constructed Shannon Airport as part of its New York to London route. Farther south, Bermuda had long been an important stopping point on transatlantic flying boat routes. In 1946, Pan Am pulled off another "first" when it inaugurated commercial service into Kindley Field, Bermuda; the airfield had been constructed by US Army engineers during the war for use by both the US Army Air Forces and the Royal Air Force and until this point had been strictly a military field. Pan Am started around-the-world commercial air service in 1947. Besides setting many "firsts" with routes, Pan Am also established "firsts" in the aircraft technology they chose, such as being the first to use Boeing 747s in regular scheduled services.