Early Days of Pan Am ’28 to ‘29

Pan Am began life in Key West with headquarters in a building that now houses a restaurant named Kelly’s Caribbean Restaurant. 

The first route operated by Pan Am was the Key West – Havana service. They were awarded the contract in 1927 before Juan Trippe had actually set up the airline.

The first flight between Key West and Havana was flown on 19th October 1927 using a borrowed Fairchild 71 floatplane, as the Key West airfield was waterlogged and failure to make the flight would have lost Pan Am the contract. The Fokker FVIIb/3m aircraft started a regular service from 28th October 1927.

The times for these flights are taken from the 1928 timetable available at the excellent www.timetableimages.com , and also from the February 1929 timetable in the Official Airline Guide.

Key West – Havana 1928

 

Heading

Distance


City Name

ICAO


Heading

Distance

203

0

0800

Key West

KEYW

1715


101.3nm


101.3nm

0915

Havana

MUHA

1545

022

0

 

Palm Beach – Miami – Key West – Havana (Proposed)

 

Heading

Distance


City Name

ICAO


Heading

Distance

195

0


Palm Beach

KPBI



54.5nm

230

54.5nm


Miami

KMIA


015

108.9nm

203

108.9nm


Key West

KEYW


048

101.3nm


101.3nm


Havana

MUHA


022

0

 

 

Miami – Nassau (Proposed)

 

Heading

Distance


City Name

ICAO


Heading

Distance

109

0


Miami

KMIA



159.7nm


159.7nm


Nassau

MYNN


292

0

 

Miami – San Juan (Feb ‘29) {*Overnight stop Santiago}

 

Heading

Distance


City Name

ICAO


Heading

Distance

218

0

0915

Miami

KMIA

1715


204.3nm

110

204.3nm

1215

Havana

MUHA

1500

035

270.3nm

131

270.3nm

1545

Camaguey

MUCM

1015

295

142.5nm


142.5nm

1725

Santiago

MUCU

0800*

312

0

117

0

0700*

Santiago

MUCU

1700


217.1nm

100

217.1nm

1030

Port au Prince

MTPP

1400

300

149.7nm

097

149.7nm

1300

Santo Domingo

MDSD

1130

282

202.8nm


202.8nm

1600

San Juan

TJIG

0800

281

0

 

Flight Simulator Files

The Pan Am Fokker FVIIb/3m is available for both FS9 and FSX by Jens Kristensen in file f7_pa_ v2.zip from flightsim.com.

Fairchild 71 landplane and floatplane models are available from flightsim.com in fc71.zip, fc71float.zip and gauges from FC-2W2.zip

 

 

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