Gene Banning

Born in MO. Five years of college studying journalism and later aviation safety. Ground school and flight instruction thru a flying club in the D. C. area with his cousin Kenneth Finn instructor. Joined Pan Am in 1941 first on flying boats and then DC-3s. In 1942 flew mostly wartime military flights to Brazil. Sent to Rio de Janeiro in 1943. Went to New York with DC-4s in 1949. Later flew internal German service and then the round the world service to Hong Kong. From DC-4s, he flew DC-6Bs and DC-7Cs, moving on to 707s, again around the world. And finally to 747s on both trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific duty. He opened a new pilot base in Sidney, Australia in 1975 and retired in 1978 with 30,000 hours in his logbook.
Throughout his career, he specialized in airline safety as part of Pan Am safety team, as chairman, and a member of the FAA fuel system advisory committee. Authored the book "Airlines of Pan American since 1927" with a foreword by Najeeb Halaby, published 2001. It is an encyclopedic work covering the airlines, people, and aircraft of Pan Am.