Episode 16: Aviation Pioneers, Birth of an Airline, and Dodging the KGB

The Pan Am Podcast

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In this episode we explore the founding of Pan Am and the early years of the airline.
Juan T. Trippe is widely known as the principle founder of Pan Am and rightly so. However, the early history of Pan Am is very complex and at times quite confusing with multiple people and mergers involved.

Then we are joined by George Hambleton, whose father John Hambleton was a co-founder of Pan Am and close friend and business partner of both Juan Trippe and Charles Lindbergh.

Like his father, George also worked for Pan Am, having been sent on special assignment by Juan Trippe to Moscow at the height of the Cold War in the 1960s.

George talks about his celebrated father and share stories about his time working behind the iron curtain.
Recently, the Pan Am Museum opened a new exhibit called the Pioneer’s Wall dedicated to those passionate visionaries who were instrumental in building the strong foundations of the airline that would become Pan American World Airways.
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A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!