 Vol. 1 No. 3 "SKYGODS: The Fall of Pan Am" by Robert Gandt 
Mark your calendar!
On September 25, 2011 "Pan Am", will premier on ABC television. The characters of this series are based on the fine folks who staffed and flew the jetliners of Pan American World Airways in the 1960's. In that decade, Pan Am was simply the BEST airline the world had ever seen! It proudly carried the flag of the United States of America around the globe and did so with great style. For years, Pan Am was America's only international flag carrier. The tradeoff was that Pan Am had NO domestic routes. To take a passenger from New York to San Francisco; Pan Am flew east and circled the globe.
Being the first American airline to fly jets was not Pan AM's earliest or even it's most noteworthy achievement. That honor goes to the gigantic flying boats of the 1930's. The Clippers that tamed the Pacific were piloted by a unique brand of men, each of whom came to be known within the Pan Am fraternity as a Skygod. Thirty years later, these same fellows were the premier left seaters in the 707's and DC-8s that chief Skygod Juan Trippe purchased to usher in the age of the jetliner.
In 1965 Robert Gandt traded his Navy fighter pilot helmet in for the white hat worn by Pan Am pilots. We are fortunate that Mr. Gandt is not only a pilot of great skill but also an accomplished writer. Most of his works are novels; inspiringly told against the backdrop of carrier flying in war and peace. His attention once turned to television as the writer of "Pensacola Wings of Gold" which starred James Brolin, one of my favorite actors. It was a great series!
Bob doesn't write "Pan Am" for ABC; he easily could. Instead we are blessed by his book Skygods: The Fall of Pan Am. It is a semi-autobiographical non-fiction work which takes us from Bob's sign-on day in San Francisco through the bankruptcy of Pan Am in 1991. It is the tale of how a tremendous ego fueled by over-arching self confidence can crash a single airplane or an entire airline. In the end, it is the true story of how one man, Juan Trippe, used insider government connections to get the mail contracts that launched Pan Am and the favoritism that allowed him to operate without competition. Eventually it is the tale of a lesson unlearned. Juan Trippe made as many enemies as friends. The day came when his enemies not his friends controlled our government, on that day Pan Am's debts came due. Competition appeared in the international arena while Pan Am was denied access to the domestic skies of its homeland. Juan Trippe's epitaph could rightly be -
"He who lives by the sword dies by the sword!"
Skygods: The Fall of Pan Am is the story of Pan Am but it is also the story of the development of the contemporary airline industry. I now understand why this business is and will forever be - unprofitable! Billions are spent to make millions. No one could tell this story better than Robert Gandt, an award winning author who had a glimpse of the glory days and a front row seat to the final moments of the greatest airline the world will ever see. It is a wonderful yarn. Reading it will make watching the forth coming ABC series "Pan Am" much more interesting.
Skygods: The Fall of Pan Am is available as a hard cover or eBook on Amazon.com .
If you like what you read then click here http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J173SS
to purchase the Kindle Version for just $5.99.
Kindle books can be downloaded onto any computer, smartphone or iPad device using the FREE Kindle program downloadable from Amazon.
FMI: http://www.gandt.com/
Fly some place today - you've earned it!
John Purner |
Reply to this Review
I look forward to reading your comments.
Please email me at jp@purner.com
|