Columbiahalle is a concert venue in the Tempelhof district of Berlin . Built in 1951 as a sports hall for US soldiers, it opened as a venue in 1998. It should not be confused with Columbia Theater , a former cinema on the same site, also opened in 1951 for US soldiers, which is also now a music venue.
123-1007: Columbiahalle is located opposite the former Berlin Tempelhof Airport , which from 1945, following the end of the Second World War , had been used by the US Army as part of the American occupation sector of West Berlin . Columbiahalle was built in 1951 as a sports hall for the soldiers stationed in the city. After the US withdrawal in 1994, the building was closed and reopened after renovation in 1998. A comprehensive renovation took place in 2014. The venue hosts mainly rock and pop music events. It has hosted many major artists including 50 Cent , AC/DC , Aespa , Alice Cooper , Coldplay , Eminem , Muse , My Chemical Romance , Placebo , Rammstein , Red Hot Chili Peppers , Rihanna , Robyn , Slayer , and System of
246-456: A British United 200 series operating a trooping flight under contract to the UK Ministry of Defence diverted from Gatow. Pan American World Airways Pan American World Airways , originally founded as Pan American Airways and more commonly known as Pan Am , was an airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of
369-580: A Down . It can also be hired for conferences and sporting events. The hall has a capacity of 3,500 standing and 1,400 seated. It is 8 metres high and has an area of 1150 m. Berlin Tempelhof Airport Berlin Tempelhof Airport ( German : Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof ) ( IATA : THF , ICAO : EDDI ) was one of the first airports in Berlin , Germany. Situated in the south-central Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg ,
492-600: A Pan Am Clipper flight to New York in 1942, passengers were served a drink today known as Irish coffee by Chef Joe Sheridan. The growing importance of air transport in the post-war era meant that Pan Am would no longer enjoy the official patronage it had been afforded in pre-war days to prevent the emergence of any meaningful competition, both at home and abroad. Although Pan Am continued to use its political influence to lobby for protection of its position as America's primary international airline, it encountered increasing competition – first from American Export Airlines across
615-506: A connection to Northwest's DC-7C totaled 24 hours and 13 minutes from San Francisco, but Pan Am was not allowed to fly that route.) The Stratocruisers' double-deck fuselage with sleeping berths and a lower-deck lounge helped it compete with its rival. "Super Stratocruisers" with more fuel appeared on Pan Am's transatlantic routes in November 1954, making nonstop eastward and one-stop westward schedules more reliable. In June 1947, Pan Am started
738-674: A connection to the United States, which the Air Corps viewed as a precursor to a possible German aerial threat to the canal. In the spring of 1927, the United States Post Office requested bids on a contract to deliver mail from Key West, Florida to Havana , Cuba before 19 October 1927. Arnold and Spaatz drew up the prospectus for Pan American after they learned that SCADTA hired a company in Delaware to obtain air mail contracts from
861-501: A flight from Miami to Buenos Aires took 71 hours and 15 minutes in a Pan Am DC-3 , but the following summer, DC-4s flew Idlewild to Buenos Aires in 38 hours and 30 minutes. In January 1958, Pan Am's DC-7Bs flew New York to Buenos Aires in 25 hours and 20 minutes, while the National –Pan Am–Panagra DC-7B via Panama and Lima took 22 hours and 45 minutes. Convair 240s replaced DC-3s and other pre-war types on Pan Am's shorter flights in
984-430: A forerunner of today's modern airports, the building was designed with many unique features, including giant arc-shaped aircraft hangars . Although under construction for more than ten years, it was never finished because of World War II . For passengers and freight, the 1927-built terminal stayed in use until 24 April 1945. The building complex was designed to resemble an eagle in flight with semicircular hangars forming
1107-481: A further iconic status as the centre of the Berlin Airlift of 1948–49. One of the airport's most distinctive features is its huge, canopy -style roof extending over the apron, able to accommodate most contemporary airliners in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, protecting passengers from the elements. Tempelhof Airport's main building was once among the twenty largest buildings on earth, but it also formerly contained
1230-495: A growing presence at Tempelhof. (In addition to continuing AOA's original, multistop Berlin – New York route and dedicated internal German services connecting Berlin with Frankfurt, Hamburg and Düsseldorf , between 1955 and 1959, Pan Am commenced regular, year-round scheduled services to Cologne , Stuttgart , Hanover , Munich and Nuremberg from Tempelhof. ) Pan Am's initial equipment for its new Berlin operation were unpressurised , 60-seat Douglas DC-4s , widely available at
1353-550: A higher-density seating arrangement than competing airlines' aircraft. (Pan Am's DC-6Bs were originally configured in a 76-seat, all- economy layout. The subsequent introduction of subsidies for all scheduled internal German services from/to West Berlin resulted in steady network growth as well as service frequency and passenger load increases. To cope with the sharply higher traffic volumes, aircraft seat densities were increased twice – initially to 84 and subsequently 87 seats. ) This fleet eventually grew to 17 aircraft, which gave Pan Am
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#17328587564711476-481: A large fleet of Boeing 747s, expecting that air travel would continue to increase. It did not, as the introduction of many wide-bodies by Pan Am and its competitors coincided with an economic slowdown. Reduced air travel after the 1973 oil crisis made the overcapacity problem worse. Pan Am was vulnerable, with its high overheads as a result of a large decentralized infrastructure. High fuel prices and its many older, less fuel-efficient narrow-bodied airplanes increased
1599-600: A maximum altitude of 10,000 ft (3,000 m). The airline's West Berlin operation consistently accounted for more than half of the city's entire commercial air traffic during that period. For years, more passengers boarded Pan Am flights at Berlin Tempelhof than at any other airport. Pan Am operated a Berlin crew base of mainly German flight attendants and American pilots to staff its IGS flights. The German National flight attendants were later taken over by Lufthansa when it acquired Pan Am's Berlin route authorities. Over
1722-399: A more spacious 66-seat single-class seating arrangement, soon replaced the older series 701 aircraft. The greater range and higher cruising speed of the 802 series enabled BEA to inaugurate a non-stop London Heathrow – Berlin Tempelhof service on 1 November 1965. this was the only non-stop international scheduled air service from Tempelhof On 19 November 1959, a Pan Am DC-4 became
1845-563: A number of ailing or defunct airlines in Central and South America and negotiated with postal officials to win most of the government's airmail contracts to the region. In September 1929 Trippe toured Latin America with Charles Lindbergh to negotiate landing rights in a number of countries, including Barranquilla on SCADTA's home turf of Colombia, as well as Maracaibo and Caracas in Venezuela . By
1968-619: A result of an agreement among the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union at the end of World War II which prohibited Germany from having its own airlines and restricted the provision of commercial air services from and to Berlin to air transport providers headquartered in these four countries. Rising Cold War tensions between the Soviet Union and the three Western powers resulted in unilateral Soviet withdrawal from
2091-477: A service from San Francisco to Honolulu and on to Hong Kong and Auckland following steamship routes. After negotiating traffic rights in 1934 to land at Pearl Harbor , Midway Island , Wake Island , Guam , and Manila , Pan Am shipped $ 500,000 worth of aeronautical equipment and construction crews westward in March 1935 using the S.S. North Haven , a 15,000-ton merchant ship chartered to provision each island that
2214-446: A small airline established in 1926 by John K. Montgomery and Richard B. Bevier as a seaplane service from Key West to Havana. A third company, Atlantic, Gulf, and Caribbean Airways, was established on October 11, 1927, by New York City investment banker Richard Hoyt to bid for the contract. The Postal Service awarded Pan American Airways the US mail delivery contract to Cuba, at the end of
2337-438: A special flight from Frankfurt to Berlin to demonstrate to the airline the 727 's ability to operate from Tempelhof's short runways. Pan Am indicated its intention to place an order for six 727s for its Berlin operation, as a result of the aircraft using only half the 5,900 ft (1,800 m) runway during landing. 26 October 1965 marked British Aircraft Corporation 's new One-Eleven jet's first arrival at Tempelhof when
2460-496: A steady increase in the airline's passenger loads. (This included an ex- Transair Vickers Viscount 700 belonging to its newly formed independent rival British United Airways , which was damaged beyond repair on 30 October 1961 at Frankfurt Rhein-Main Airport at the end of a passenger flight that had originated at Tempelhof. ) By 1954, a year that saw 671,555 passengers pass through the airport, Tempelhof had established itself as
2583-634: A subsequently built runway containing perforated steel matting began to crumble under the weight of the USAF's C-54 Skymasters . Hence, American engineers built a new 6,000 ft (1,800 m) runway at Tempelhof between July and September 1948 and another between September and October 1948 to accommodate the expanding requirements of the airlift. The old airport terminal of 1927 was demolished in 1948 in order to create additional space for unloading more planes. The last airlift transport touched down at Tempelhof on 30 September 1949. Tempelhof also became famous as
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#17328587564712706-760: A united city of Berlin to the unified German government. The U.S. Army closed its Berlin Army Aviation Detachment at TCA in August 1994, ending a 49-year American military presence in Berlin. In 1951 the US Army stationed an aviation element of the 6. Infantry Brigade -( 6th Infantry Regiment ?) with three Hiller OH-23A Raven helicopters at Tempelhof. Over the years it became known as the Berlin Brigade Aviation Detachment (BBDE Avn.Det.). The Hiller OH-23A
2829-504: A viable payload in both directions. Pan Am was a Boeing 747 launch customer, placing a $ 525 million (equivalent to $ 3.77 billion in 2023) order for 25 in April 1966. On January 15, 1970 First Lady Pat Nixon christened Pan Am Boeing 747 Clipper Young America at Washington Dulles and during the next few days, Pan Am flew 747s to major airports in the United States where the public could tour them. Pan Am's inaugural 747 service on
2952-652: A year or so in 1975–76, Pan Am finally completed the round-the-world trip, New York to New York. In January 1950, Pan American Airways Corporation officially became Pan American World Airways, Inc. (The airline had begun calling itself Pan American World Airways in 1943.) In September 1950 Pan Am completed the $ 17.45 million (equivalent to $ 175.32 million in 2023) purchase of American Overseas Airlines from American Airlines . That month Pan Am ordered 45 Douglas DC-6Bs . The first, Clipper Liberty Bell (N6518C), inaugurated Pan Am's all- tourist class Rainbow service between New York and London on May 1, 1952, to complement
3075-513: The Yankee Clipper , piloted by Harold E. Gray , made the first-ever trans-Atlantic passenger flight. The first leg of the flight, Baltimore to Horta , took 17 hours and 32 minutes and covered 2,400 miles (3,900 km; 2,100 nmi). The second leg from Horta to Pan Am's newly built airport in Lisbon took 7 hours and 7 minutes and covered 1,200 miles (1,900 km). The Boeing 314 also enabled
3198-636: The Dixie Clipper piloted by R.O.D. Sullivan. The Eastbound trip departed every Wednesday at Noon and arrived at Marseilles on Friday at 3 pm GCT with return service leaving Marseilles on Sunday at 8 am and arriving at Port Washington on Tuesday at 7 am. The Northern transatlantic route to Britain was inaugurated for Air Mail service on June 24, 1939, by the Yankee Clipper piloted by Harold Gray flying via Shediac (New Brunswick), Botwood (Newfoundland), and Foynes (Ireland) to Southampton . Passenger service
3321-623: The Atlantic to Europe, and subsequently from others including TWA to Europe, Braniff to South America, United to Hawaii and Northwest Orient to East Asia, as well as five potential rivals to Mexico. This changed situation resulted from the new post-war approach the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) took toward the promotion of competition between major US carriers on key domestic and international scheduled routes compared with pre-war US aviation policy. American Overseas Airlines (AOA)
3444-562: The Berlin Senate and the city's Technical University as well as Berliner Flugring, a local package tour operator that began as a consortium of 70 West Berlin travel agents arranging IT flights to holiday resorts in Europe. By 1964, BEA operated up to 20,000 flights each year from and to Berlin. These represented approximately half of the airline's total yearly flights to/from Germany and generated profits of £ 1 million per year. 1964
3567-540: The Caribbean and South America. Pan Am also acquired a few Curtiss C-46s for a freight network that eventually extended to Buenos Aires. In January 1946, Pan Am had no transpacific flights beyond Hawaii, but they soon resumed with DC-4s. In January 1958, the California to Tokyo flight was a daily Stratocruiser that took 31 hours 45 minutes from San Francisco or 32 hours 15 minutes from Los Angeles. (A flight to Seattle and
3690-776: The InterContinental Hotel chain and had a financial interest in the Falcon Jet Corporation, which held marketing rights to the Dassault Falcon 20 business jet in North America. The airline was involved in creating a missile-tracking range in the South Atlantic and operating a nuclear-engine testing laboratory in Nevada . In addition, Pan Am participated in several notable humanitarian flights. At its height Pan Am
3813-526: The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global airline industry association. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Pan Am began facing a series of challenges both internal and external, along with rising competition from the deregulation of the airline industry in 1978. After several attempts at financial restructuring and rebranding throughout the 1980s, Pan Am gradually sold off its assets before declaring bankruptcy in 1991. By
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3936-483: The Nazi government began an enormous reconstruction in the mid-1930s. While it was occasionally cited as the world's oldest operating commercial airport, the title was disputed by several other airports , and is no longer an issue since its closure. Tempelhof was one of Europe's three iconic pre- World War II airports, the others being London 's now defunct Croydon Airport and the old Paris–Le Bourget Airport . It acquired
4059-575: The US government . Also competing for the contract, Juan Trippe formed the Aviation Corporation of the Americas (ACA) on June 2, 1927, with $ 250,000 (equivalent to $ 3.53 million in 2023) in startup capital and the backing of powerful and politically connected financiers including Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney and W. Averell Harriman . Their operation had the all-important landing rights for Havana , having acquired American International Airways,
4182-500: The United States for much of the 20th century. It was the first airline to fly worldwide and pioneered numerous innovations of the modern airline industry, such as jumbo jets and computerized reservation systems . Until its dissolution on December 4, 1991, Pan Am "epitomized the luxury and glamour of intercontinental travel", and it remains a cultural icon of the 20th century, identified by its blue globe logo ("The Blue Meatball"),
4305-592: The Vietnam War . These flights carried American service personnel for R&R leaves in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and other Asian cities. In August 1953 PAA scheduled passenger flights to 106 airports; in May 1968 to 122 airports; in November 1978 to 65 airports (plus a few freight-only airports); in November 1985 to 98 airports; in November 1991 to 46 airports (plus 14 more with only "Pan Am Express" prop flights). Pan Am had invested in
4428-572: The Yucatan Peninsula to connect with Pan Am's Caribbean route network. Pan Am's holding company , the Aviation Corporation of the Americas, was one of the most sought after stocks on the New York Curb Exchange in 1929, and flurries of speculation surrounded each of its new route awards. In April 1929 Trippe and his associates reached an agreement with United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UATC) to segregate Pan Am operations to
4551-719: The quadripartite Allied Control Commission in 1948, culminating in the division of Germany the following year. These events, together with Soviet insistence on a very narrow interpretation of the post-war agreement on the Western powers' access rights to Berlin, meant that until the end of the Cold War air transport in West Berlin continued to be confined to the carriers of the remaining Allied Control Commission powers, with aircraft required to fly across hostile East German territory through three 20 mi (32 km) wide air corridors at
4674-491: The 1927-built terminal remained closed to all civil aviation, and all civilian aircraft movements to and from Berlin were transferred to an airfield in Rangsdorf until 7 March 1940, when the 1927 terminal was reopened and civil aviation continued until 24 April 1945. From January 1940 until early 1944, Weser Flugzeugbau assembled Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bombers; thereafter, it assembled Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter planes in
4797-468: The Berlin city centre and quickly became one of the world's busiest airports. Tempelhof saw its greatest pre-war days during 1938–1939, when up to 52 foreign and 40 domestic flights arrived and departed daily from the old terminal while the new one was still under construction. The new air terminal was designed as headquarters for Deutsche Luft Hansa (moved in 1938), the German national airline at that time. As
4920-761: The Caribbean. In 1964, Pan Am began a helicopter shuttle between New York's John F. Kennedy , LaGuardia, and Newark airports and Lower Manhattan , operated by New York Airways . Aside from the DC-8, the Boeing 707 and 747, the Pan Am jet fleet included Boeing 720Bs and 727s (the first aircraft to sport Pan Am rather than Pan American – titles ). The airline later had Boeing 737s and 747SPs (which could fly nonstop from New York to Tokyo), Lockheed L-1011 Tristars , McDonnell-Douglas DC-10s , and Airbus A300s and A310s . Pan Am owned
5043-477: The DC-8. The combined order value was $ 269 million. Pan Am's first scheduled jet flight was from New York Idlewild to Paris Le Bourget , stopping at Gander to refuel, on October 26, 1958. The Boeing 707-121 Clipper America N711PA carried 111 passengers. 320 "Intercontinental" series Boeing 707s delivered in 1959–60, and the Douglas DC-8 in March 1960, enabled non-stop transatlantic crossings with
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5166-653: The Manila route, while PA 1 shifted to Tokyo and Shanghai. All Pan Am round-the-world flights included at least one change of plane until Boeing 707s took over in 1960. PA 1 became daily in 1962–63, making different en-route stops on different days of the week; in January 1963, it left San Francisco at 09:00 daily and was scheduled into New York 56 hours and 10 minutes later. Los Angeles replaced San Francisco in 1968; when Boeing 747s finished replacing 707s in 1971, all stops except Tehran and Karachi were served daily in each direction. For
5289-737: The North Atlantic began. Pan Am Clipper III , a Sikorsky S-42 , landed at Botwood in the Bay of Exploits in Newfoundland from Port Washington, via Shediac, New Brunswick . The next day Pan Am Clipper III left Botwood for Foynes in County Limerick , Ireland. The same day, a Short Empire C-Class flying boat, the Caledonia , left Foynes for Botwood, and landed July 6, 1937, reaching Montreal on July 8 and New York on July 9. Trippe decided to start
5412-702: The Pacific route: in China, passengers could connect to domestic flights on the Pan Am-operated China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) network, co-owned with the Chinese government . Pan Am flew to Singapore for the first time in 1941, starting a semi-monthly service that reduced San Francisco–Singapore travel times from 25 days to six days. Six large, long-range Boeing 314 flying boats were delivered to Pan Am in early 1939. On March 30, 1939,
5535-589: The Pan Am China Clipper route, from San Francisco, leading to Manila, Hong Kong, Shanghai. On August 6, 1937, Juan Trippe accepted United States aviation's highest annual prize, the Collier Trophy , on behalf of PAA from President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the company's "establishment of the transpacific airline and the successful execution of extended overwater navigation and the regular operations thereof." Pan Am also used Boeing 314 flying boats for
5658-632: The US, the UK and other countries as well as local outbound tourists to the emerging holiday resorts in the Mediterranean . London Gatwick -based UK independent Overseas Aviation (CI) was among the first airlines the Allied Air Attachés in Bonn licensed to operate a series of regular charter flights from West Berlin. It used Vikings and Argonauts on these services, which operated from Tempelhof under contract to
5781-543: The United States and Europe. Pan Am reached an agreement with both countries to offer service from Norfolk, Virginia , to Europe via Bermuda and the Azores using the S-42s. A joint service from Port Washington, New York , to Bermuda began in June 1937, with Pan Am using Sikorskys and Imperial Airways using the C class flying boat RMA Cavalier . On July 5, 1937, survey flights across
5904-439: The United States. The government further helped Pan Am by insulating it from its US competitors, seeing the airline as the "chosen instrument" for US-based international air routes. The airline expanded internationally, benefiting from a virtual monopoly on foreign routes. Trippe and his associates planned to extend Pan Am's network through all of Central and South America. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Pan Am purchased
6027-581: The West Coast of the United States to London and Paris, with a fuel stop in Canada or Greenland. The introduction of the faster Bristol Britannia turboprop by British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) between New York and London on December 19, 1957, ended Pan Am's competitive leadership there. In January 1958 Pan Am scheduled 47 flights a week east from Idlewild to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and beyond;
6150-490: The aircraft undetected and distributed rag mags in the passenger accommodation as a publicity stunt. Pan Am carried 11 million passengers over 20 billion miles (3.2 × 10 km; 1.7 × 10 nmi) in 1970, the year it introduced widebodied airline travel. Pan Am was one of the first three airlines to sign options for the Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde , but like other airlines that took out options – with
6273-499: The airline offered first-class seats on such flights, and the style of flight crews became more formal. Instead of being leather-jacketed, silk-scarved airmail pilots, the crews of the "Clippers" wore naval-style uniforms and adopted a set procession when boarding the aircraft. In 1940 Pan Am and TWA both received and began using the Boeing 307 Stratoliner , the first pressurized airliner to enter service. The Boeing 307's airline service
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#17328587564716396-709: The airline's Berlin routes the most profitable in its worldwide scheduled network. Following the completion of the Berlin Wall on 13 August 1961, the West German government introduced a route-specific subsidy of up to 20% for all internal German scheduled air services from and to West Berlin to help the airlines cope with the resulting falloff in traffic and maintain an economically viable operation on these lifeline routes. These came into effect on 1 March 1962 for all tickets sold in Germany, including Berlin. (To qualify for
6519-460: The airline's last-ever flight to depart Tempelhof left for Madrid , but was later shot down over Southern Germany . Tempelhof's German commander, Oberst Rudolf Böttger, refused to carry out orders to blow up the base, choosing instead to kill himself. Soviet forces took Tempelhof in the Battle of Berlin on 28 and 29 April 1945 in the closing days of the war in Europe. Soviet forces combed through
6642-671: The airline's operating costs. Federal route awards to other airlines, such as the Transpacific Route Case , further reduced the number of passengers Pan Am carried and its profit margins. On September 23, 1974, a group of Pan Am employees published an advertisement in The New York Times to register their disagreement over federal policies that they felt were harming the financial viability of their employer. The ad cited discrepancies in airport landing fees, such as Pan Am paying $ 4,200 (equivalent to $ 20,194 in 2023) to land
6765-408: The airport buildings preserved. In September 2015, in the midst of the 2015 European migrant crisis , it was announced by the Berlin state government that Tempelhof would become an 'emergency refugee shelter', holding at least 1,200 people in two former hangars. The site of the airport was originally Knights Templar land in medieval Berlin, and from this beginning came the name Tempelhof . Later,
6888-532: The airport ceased operating in 2008 amid controversy, leaving Tegel and Schönefeld as the two main airports serving the city for another twelve years until both were replaced by Berlin Brandenburg Airport in 2020. Tempelhof was designated as an airport by the Reich Ministry of Transport on 8 October 1923. The old terminal was originally constructed in 1927. In anticipation of increasing air traffic,
7011-455: The all- first President Stratocruiser service. From June 1954, DC-6Bs began replacing DC-4s on Pan Am's internal German routes. Pan Am introduced the Douglas DC-7C "Seven Seas" on transatlantic routes in summer 1956. In January 1958 the DC-7C nonstop took 10 hours and 45 minutes from Idlewild to London, enabling Pan Am to hold its own against TWA's Super Constellations and Starliners . In 1957, Pan Am started DC-7C flights direct from
7134-470: The bidding process, but Pan American lacked any aircraft to perform the job and did not have landing rights in Cuba. Just days before the 19 October deadline, the three companies decided to form a partnership. ACA chartered a Fairchild FC-2 floatplane from a small Dominican Republic carrier, West Indian Aerial Express, allowing Pan Am to operate the first flight to Havana on 19 October 1927. The three companies formally merged on June 23, 1928. Richard Hoyt
7257-500: The biggest aircraft fleet among the three main scheduled operators flying from West Berlin. It furthermore enabled it to compensate for the DC-6 's lack of sophistication with higher frequencies than its competitors, thereby attaining a higher market share (60%) and capturing a greater share of the lucrative business travel market than its rivals. During that period, Pan Am moreover achieved an ultra short-haul load factor of 70% on its eight scheduled internal routes from Berlin, making
7380-405: The bird's spread wings. A 1.6-kilometre-long (1 mi) hangar roof was to have been laid in tiers to form a stadium for spectators at air and ground demonstrations. Norman Foster called Tempelhof "one of the really great buildings of the modern age". Fearing Allied bombing of airports, all German civil aviation was halted on 2 September 1939, but gradually restarted from 1 November. However,
7503-497: The black market. In accordance with the Yalta agreements , Zentralflughafen Berlin-Tempelhof was turned over to the United States Army 2nd Armored Division on 2 July 1945 by the Soviet Union as part of the American occupation sector of Berlin. This agreement was later formalised by the August 1945 Potsdam Agreement , which formally divided Berlin into four occupation sectors. The 852nd Engineer Aviation Battalion arrived at Tempelhof (Code Number R-95) on 10 July 1945 and conducted
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#17328587564717626-417: The city of Berlin. As the Cold War intensified in the late 1950s and 1960s, access problems to West Berlin , both by land and air, continued to cause tension. Throughout the Cold War years, Tempelhof was the main terminal for American military transport aircraft accessing West Berlin. In 1969 one of the pilots during the Berlin Airlift, and the original Candy Bomber , Gail Halvorsen , returned to Berlin as
7749-532: The city prior to the construction of the infamous Berlin Wall . This operation was also known as the Little Berlin Airlift . One of these airlines, UK independent Dan-Air Services would subsequently play an important role in developing commercial air services from Tegel for a quarter century. During the early-to-mid-1950s, BEA leased in aircraft that were bigger than its Tempelhof-based fleet of DC-3/ Pionair , Viking and Elizabethan piston -engined airliners from other operators to boost capacity, following
7872-441: The city were three 20 mi (32 km)-wide air corridors across the Soviet Zone of Occupation . Faced with the choice of abandoning the city or attempting to supply its inhabitants with the necessities of life by air, the Western Powers chose the latter course. Operation Vittles , as the airlift was unofficially named, began on 26 June when USAF Douglas C-47 Skytrains carried 80 tons of food into Tempelhof, far less than
7995-455: The clippers would stop at on their 4- to 5-day flight. Pan Am ran its first survey flight to Honolulu in April 1935 with a Sikorsky S-42 flying boat. Construction crews, including Bill Mullahey who would later oversee Pan Am's Pacific operations, cleared coral from lagoons, constructed hotels, and installed the radio navigation equipment necessary for the clippers to island hop from Pearl City Seaplane Base , Hawaii , to Asia. The airline won
8118-458: The commander of Tempelhof airbase. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany , the presence of American forces in Berlin ended. The USAF 7350th Air Base Group at Tempelhof was inactivated in June 1993. In July 1994, with President Clinton in attendance, the British, French, and American air and land forces in Berlin were deactivated in a ceremony on the Four Ring Parade field at McNair Barracks. The Western Allies returned
8241-407: The contract for a San Francisco– Canton mail route later that year and operated its first commercial flight carrying mail and express (no passengers) in a Martin M-130 from Alameda to Manila amid media fanfare on November 22, 1935. The five-leg, 8,000-mile (13,000 km) flight arrived in Manila on November 29 and returned to San Francisco on December 6, cutting the time between the two cities by
8364-409: The debut at Tempelhof of the largest aircraft in commercial airline service at the time and the then-largest aircraft overall. Tempelhof, compared to Brandenburg Airport and Tegel Airport , wasn't a particularly large airport. The layout of the airport was relatively simple - two parallel runways oriented east–west (09/27 L/R), with a single oval taxiway around the airport, with the main terminal on
8487-474: The eight-passenger S-38, began flying for Pan Am in 1931. Carrying the nicknames American Clipper , Southern Clipper , and Caribbean Clipper , they were the first of the series of 28 Clipper s that symbolized Pan Am between 1931 and 1946. During this time, Pan Am operated Clipper services to Latin America from the International Pan American Airport at Dinner Key in Miami, Florida . In 1937 Pan Am turned to Britain and France to begin seaplane service between
8610-419: The end of the year, Pan Am offered flights along the west coast of South America to Peru. Following government favors for the denial of mail contracts to their competition, a forced merger was created with New York, Rio, and Buenos Aires Line , giving a seaplane route along the east coast of South America to Buenos Aires , Argentina, and westbound to Santiago , Chile. Its Brazilian subsidiary NYRBA do Brasil
8733-553: The engines had been installed, the finished aircraft were flown out. The Luftwaffe did not use Tempelhof as a military airfield during World War II, except for occasional emergency landings by fighter aircraft. On 21 April 1945, Deutsche Luft Hansa operated its last scheduled flights, and over the coming days laid on additional non-scheduled flights from Johannisthal Air Field which stopped over at Tempelhof to take on freight en route to Travemünde and Munich , where Luft Hansa had relocated its headquarters. Two days later, on 23 April,
8856-516: The entire duration of the Berlin Blockade (26 June 1948 – 12 May 1949). Following the end of the Berlin Blockade, AOA launched additional dedicated scheduled services linking Tempelhof with Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel and Düsseldorf Lohausen from 6 March and 1 June 1950 respectively. On 25 September 1950, Pan Am acquired AOA from American Airlines. This merger resulted in Pan Am establishing
8979-501: The estimated 4,500 tons of food, coal and other essential supplies needed daily to maintain a minimum level of existence. But this force was soon augmented by United States Navy and Royal Air Force cargo aircraft, as well as British European Airways (BEA) and many of Britain 's fledgling wholly privately owned, independent airlines. The last included Freddie Laker 's Air Charter , Eagle Aviation and Skyways . On 15 October 1948, to promote increased safety and cooperation between
9102-476: The evening of January 21, 1970, was delayed for several hours by engine failure affecting the scheduled Clipper Young America . Clipper Victor was substituted for the flight from New York John F. Kennedy to London Heathrow ( Clipper Victor was destroyed seven years later in the Tenerife air disaster , in a collision with a KLM 747-200). While on the tarmac at Heathrow, two students from Aston University boarded
9225-440: The exception of BOAC and Air France – it did not purchase the supersonic jet . Pan Am was the first US airline to sign for the Boeing 2707 , the American supersonic transport (SST) project, with 15 delivery positions reserved; these aircraft never saw service after Congress voted against additional funding in 1971. Pan Am commissioned IBM to build PANAMAC, a large computer that booked airline and hotel reservations, which
9348-474: The fastest scheduled steamship by over two weeks. (Both the United States and the Philippine Islands issued special stamps for the two flights.) The first passenger flight left Alameda on October 21, 1936. The fare from San Francisco to Manila or Hong Kong in 1937 was US$ 950 one way (equivalent to $ 20,135 in 2023) and US$ 1,710 (equivalent to $ 36,242 in 2023) round trip. This later became known as
9471-535: The first aircraft to operate a scheduled all-cargo service from West Berlin. This service linked Tempelhof with Rhein-Main Airport once-nightly, all year round. On 2 January 1960, Air France , which had served Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Nuremberg and its main base at Paris Le Bourget / Orly during the previous decade with DC-4, Sud-Est Languedoc and Lockheed Constellation / Super Constellation piston-engined equipment, shifted its entire Berlin operation to Tegel because Tempelhof's runways were too short to permit
9594-513: The first circumnavigation of the globe by a commercial airliner. Another first occurred in January 1943, when Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first US president to fly abroad, in the Dixie Clipper . During this period Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was a Clipper pilot; he was aboard the Clipper Eclipse when it crashed in Syria on June 19, 1947. While waiting at Foynes, Ireland, for
9717-683: The first scheduled round-the-world airline flight. In September, the weekly DC-4 was scheduled to leave San Francisco at 22:00 Thursday as Flight 1, stopping at Honolulu, Midway , Wake , Guam, Manila, Bangkok , and arriving in Calcutta on Monday at 12:45, where it met Flight 2, a Constellation that had left New York at 23:30 Friday. The DC-4 returned to San Francisco as Flight 2; the Constellation left Calcutta at 13:30 Tuesday, stopped at Karachi , Istanbul , London, Shannon , Gander , and arrived LaGuardia Thursday at 14:55. A few months later, PA 3 took over
9840-477: The following August there were 65. Pan Am considered purchasing the world's first jetliner , the British De Havilland Comet , but instead waited to become Boeing 707 launch customer in 1955 with an order for 20. It also purchased 25 Douglas DC-8 , which could seat six across. The 707 was originally to be 144 inches (3.66 m) wide with five-abreast seating but Boeing widened their design to match
9963-485: The introduction of the Sud-Aviation Caravelle , their new short-haul jet , with a viable payload . (Air France's Caravelle IIIs lacked thrust reversers that would have permitted them to land safely on Tempelhof's short runways with a full commercial payload. ) On 1 March 1960, Pan Am launched its second dedicated scheduled all-cargo flight from Berlin, linking Tempelhof with Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel. 1960
10086-408: The late 1950s and early 1970s, Pan Am was known for its advanced fleet, highly trained staff, and amenities. In 1970, it flew 11 million passengers to 86 countries, with destinations in every continent except Antarctica. In an era dominated by flag carriers that were wholly or majority-owned by governments, Pan Am became the unofficial national carrier of the United States. It was a founding member of
10209-534: The late 1960s and early 1970s, Pan Am advertised under the slogan, the "World's Most Experienced Airline". It carried 6.7 million passengers in 1966, and by 1968, its 150 jets flew to 86 countries on every continent except for Antarctica over a scheduled route network of 81,410 unduplicated miles (131,000 km). During that period, the airline was profitable, and its cash reserves totaled $ 1 billion (equivalent to $ 6.69 billion in 2023) . Most routes were between New York, Europe, and South America, and between Miami and
10332-406: The location of Operation Little Vittles: the dropping of candy to children living near the airport. The original Candy Bomber , Gail Halvorsen noticed children lingering near the fence line of the airport and wanted to share something with them. He eventually started dropping candy by parachute just before landing. His efforts were expanded by other pilots and eventually became a part of legend in
10455-623: The mid-20th century, Pan Am enjoyed a near monopoly on international routes. It led the aircraft industry into the Jet Age by acquiring new jetliners such as the Boeing 707 and Boeing 747 . Pan Am's modern fleet allowed it to fly larger numbers of passengers, at a longer range, and with fewer stops than rivals. Its primary hub and flagship terminal was the Worldport at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City . During its peak between
10578-456: The new terminal into a furnace and making it impossible to enter for several weeks. The raging inferno led the Soviet commander to order the lower levels to be flooded with water. With no functioning water supply in war-torn Berlin, this was only possible because the new terminal, which had suffered only slight war damage, had its own electricity and groundwater utility with underground reservoirs under
10701-454: The new, wholly privately owned UK independent airlines and US supplemental carriers started regular air services to Tempelhof from the UK, the US and West Germany . These airlines initially carried members of the UK and US armed forces stationed in Berlin and their dependants as well as essential raw materials, finished goods manufactured in West Berlin and refugees from East Germany and Eastern Europe , who were still able to freely enter
10824-440: The north-western segment of the airport. The runways are not comparatively long, either - versus Brandenburg's 3600m and 4000m runways which can easily handle intercontinental airliners like the Boeing 747 , Tempelhof has two runways at 2094m (09R/27L) and 1840m (09L/27R), which can, at most, handle Boeing 757 and Airbus A320 -size aircraft. Other possible uses for Tempelhof have been discussed, and many people are trying to keep
10947-511: The northerly forecourt of the new terminal close to the film shelter. On 8 May 1945, Western Allied and German signatories of the German Surrender in Berlin and their entourage landed at Tempelhof airport. At the beginning of May, Weser Flugzeugbau opened a workshop in hangar 7 to repair streetcars . In the following weeks, Berliners raided all unguarded parts of the opened buildings searching for food or anything else useful in bartering in
11070-468: The old and the new terminal searching for treasures, hidden places and documents, opening all rooms. During their search, they blew up the fortified entrance to a three-level bomb shelter for celluloid films of the Hansa Luftbild GmbH, a Luft Hansa subsidiary specialising in aerial photography. The explosion immediately ignited the celluloid, turning the film shelter under the northern office wing of
11193-534: The operation and maintenance of associated passenger, cargo and mail handling facilities. These changes gave a major boost to West Berlin's fledgeling post-war scheduled air services. On 8 July 1951, BEA transferred its operations from Gatow to Tempelhof, thus concentrating all West Berlin air services at Berlin's iconic city centre airport. BEA's move to Tempelhof resulted in a significant increase in passenger numbers, as well as an increase in its Berlin-based fleet to six Douglas DC-3s. From then on, several of
11316-694: The original repairs in the new terminal. After the Allied Control Council had agreed upon West Berlin Air Corridors under control of the Berlin Air Safety Center , these opened in February 1946, enabling civil aviation at Tempelhof to restart. On 20 June 1948, Soviet authorities, claiming technical difficulties, halted all traffic by land and by water into or out of the western-controlled sectors of Berlin. The only remaining access routes into
11439-491: The outside columns of the terminal below by 32 sets of steel posts and cables. The terminal was designed to allow passengers to board and disembark via stairs without getting wet by parking the nose of the aircraft under the overhang. The introduction of the jetbridge made this feature obsolete. Pan Am built a gilded training building in the style of Edward Durell Stone designed by Steward-Skinner Architects in Miami. At its peak in
11562-536: The separate US and British airlift efforts, the Allies created a unified command – the Combined Airlift Task Force under Maj. Gen. William H. Tunner , USAF – at Tempelhof. To facilitate the command and control, as well as the unloading of aircraft, the USAF 53d Troop Carrier Squadron was temporarily assigned to Tempelhof. The grass runways usual in Germany until then could not cope with the great demand, and
11685-489: The site was used as a parade field by the Prussian army from 1720 to the start of World War I . In 1909, French aviator Armand Zipfel made the first flight demonstration in Tempelhof, followed by Orville Wright later that same year. Tempelhof was first officially designated as an airport on 8 October 1923. Deutsche Luft Hansa was founded in Tempelhof on 6 January 1926. The old terminal, originally constructed in 1927, became
11808-495: The south of the Mexico – United States border , in exchange for UATC taking a large shareholder stake (UATC was the parent company of what are now Boeing , Pratt & Whitney , and United Airlines ). The Aviation Corporation of the Americas changed its name to Pan American Airways Corporation in 1931. Pan Am started its South American routes with Consolidated Commodore and Sikorsky S-38 flying boats . The S-40 , larger than
11931-423: The start of scheduled weekly contract Foreign Air Mail (F.A.M. 18) service and later passenger flights from New York (Port Washington, L.I.) to both France and Britain. The Southern route to France was inaugurated for airmail on May 20, 1939, by the Yankee Clipper piloted by Arthur E. LaPorte flying via Horta, Azores, and Lisbon, Portugal to Marseilles. Passenger service over the route was added on June 28, 1939, by
12054-536: The static exhibition of contemporary military, non-combat and civil aircraft at the annual "Day of Open House" of the United States Air Force (USAF) at the airport. The Galaxy had its first appearance at Tempelhof on 17 September 1971, when an aircraft of the USAF's 436th Military Airlift Wing flew in from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware , United States, to participate in that year's "Day of Open House" static exhibition. These events respectively marked
12177-403: The still unfurnished main hall and hangars 3 to 7 of the new terminal, which were supplied by a railway and trucks via a connecting tunnel. Hangars 1 and 2 were not used to assemble aircraft as these were already used by Luft Hansa for its own planes. Aircraft parts were brought in from all over the city while complete aircraft engines were trucked to Tempelhof. Once the airframes were complete and
12300-529: The subsidised rate under this system, the passenger was required to purchase a round-trip ticket for a scheduled internal German flight from/to West Berlin in Germany. Once he/she had checked-in at the airport, the airline collected a coupon attached to his/her ticket, which was subsequently handed in to the relevant German authorities for reimbursement. ) By the early 1960s, a number of UK independents and US supplementals began operating regular charter flights from Tempelhof. These carried both inbound tourists from
12423-451: The terminal building, built between 1936 and 1941, forms a 1.2-kilometre-long (0.75 mi) quadrant . Arriving passengers walked through customs controls to the reception hall. Tempelhof was served by the U6 U-Bahn line along Mehringdamm and up Friedrichstraße ( Platz der Luftbrücke station ). Zentralflughafen Tempelhof-Berlin had the advantage of a central location just minutes from
12546-518: The third-busiest airport in Europe. From 6 June of that year, Pan Am. began re-equipping its Tempelhof-based fleet with larger, pressurised Douglas DC-6B propliners . Compared with the DC-4, the new type had 16 additional seats. In 1958, BEA began replacing its piston airliners with Vickers Viscount 701 turboprop aircraft, in a high-density 63-seat single class seating arrangement. Up to ten new, state-of-the-art Vickers Viscount 802s , which featured
12669-503: The time due to the large number of war-surplus C-54 Skymasters. 1950 was also the year Air France joined Pan Am at Tempelhof. Air France resumed operations to Tempelhof following their cessation during the war years. This was furthermore the time Allied restrictions on the carriage of local civilians on commercial airline services from/to West Berlin were lifted. It entailed transferring responsibility for processing all commercial flights to West Berlin's city government, including
12792-539: The time it ceased operations, the airline's trademark was the second most recognized worldwide, and its loss was felt among travelers and many Americans as signifying the end of the golden age of air travel. Its brand, iconography, and contributions to the industry remain well known in the 21st century. The airline's name and imagery were purchased in 1998 by railroad holding company Guilford Transportation Industries, which changed its name to Pan Am Systems and adopted Pan Am's logo. Pan American Airways, Incorporated (PAA)
12915-477: The time the overseas division of American Airlines , inaugurated the first commercial air link serving Tempelhof after the war with a flight from New York via Shannon , Amsterdam and Frankfurt on 18 May 1946. This was followed by AOA's inauguration of West Berlin's first dedicated domestic air link between Tempelhof and Frankfurt's Rhein-Main Airport on 1 March 1948. AOA was the only commercial operator at Tempelhof to maintain its full flying programme for
13038-535: The use of the word " Clipper " in its aircraft names and call signs , and the white uniform caps of its pilots. Founded in 1927 by two U.S. Army Air Corps majors, Pan Am began as a scheduled airmail and passenger service flying between Key West , Florida, and Havana , Cuba. In the 1930s, under the leadership of American entrepreneur Juan Trippe , the airline purchased a fleet of flying boats and focused its route network on Central and South America, gradually adding transatlantic and transpacific destinations. By
13161-492: The winter on October 5 while transatlantic service to Lisbon via the Azores continued into 1941. During World War II, Pan Am flew over 90 million mi (140 million km) worldwide in support of military operations. The "Clippers" – the name hearkened back to the 19th-century fast-sailing clippers – were the only American passenger aircraft of the time capable of intercontinental travel. To compete with ocean liners,
13284-451: The world's first with an underground railway . The station has since been renamed Paradestraße , because the rebuilding of the airport in the 1930s required the airport access to be moved to a major intersection with a station now called Platz der Luftbrücke after the Berlin Airlift . As part of Albert Speer 's plan for the reconstruction of Berlin during the Nazi era, Prof. Ernst Sagebiel
13407-410: The world's smallest duty-free shop . Tempelhof Airport closed all operations on 30 October 2008, despite the efforts of some protesters to prevent the closure. A non-binding referendum was held on 27 April 2008 against the impending closure but failed due to low voter turnout. The former airfield has subsequently been used as a recreational space known as Tempelhofer Feld . In September 2015, it
13530-519: The years other local flight attendant bases outside the US included London for intra-Europe and transatlantic flying, Warsaw, Istanbul and Belgrade for intra-Europe flights, a Tel Aviv base solely staffing the daily Tel Aviv-Paris-Tel Aviv service, a Nairobi base solely staffing the Nairobi-Frankfurt-Nairobi service as well as Delhi and Bombay bases for India-Frankfurt flights. Pan Am also operated Rest and Recreation (R&R) flights during
13653-456: Was added on the Northern route on July 8, 1939, by the Yankee Clipper . Eastbound flights left on Saturday at 7:30 am and arrived at Southampton on Sunday at 1 pm GCT. Westbound service departed Southampton on Wednesday at Noon and arrived at Port Washington on Thursday at 3 pm. After the outbreak of World War II in Europe on September 1, 1939, the terminus became Foynes until the service ceased for
13776-558: Was also the year Pan Am withdrew its last DC-4 from Tempelhof. As a result, all of the airline's Berlin routes were exclusively served with DC-6Bs as of 27 June of that year. Although the DC-6B was a less advanced aircraft than either the Viscount or the Caravelle , it was more economical. By the early 1960s, Pan Am had a fleet of 15 DC-6Bs stationed at its Tempelhof base, which were configured in
13899-410: Was also the year US supplemental Saturn Airways began operating a comprehensive inclusive tour (IT) charter flight programme from Tempelhof under contract to local package holiday consolidator Flug-Union Berlin, using Douglas DC-6A/Cs and DC-7Cs . On 2 December of that year, a Boeing 727-100 became the first jet aircraft to land at Tempelhof. Boeing had leased the aircraft to Pan Am for
14022-702: Was announced that Tempelhof would also become an emergency refugee camp . Tempelhof was often called the "City Airport". In its later years, it mostly had commuter flights to other parts of Germany and neighbouring countries; but it had in the past received long-haul, wide-bodied airliners , such as the Boeing 747 , the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar and the Lockheed C-5A Galaxy . The first of these three first appeared at Tempelhof on 18 September 1976, when Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) flew in Boeing 747SP Clipper Great Republic to participate in
14145-633: Was founded as a shell company on March 14, 1927, by United States Army Air Corps officers Henry "Hap" Arnold , Carl Spaatz and John Jouett out of concern for the growing influence of the German-owned Colombian air carrier SCADTA , in Central America . Operating in Colombia since 1920, SCADTA lobbied hard for landing rights in the Panama Canal Zone , ostensibly to survey air routes for
14268-578: Was installed in 1964. It also held large amounts of information about cities, countries, airports, aircraft, hotels, and restaurants. The computer occupied the fourth floor of the Pan Am Building , which was the largest commercial office building in the world for some time. The airline also built Worldport , a terminal building at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. It was distinguished by its elliptical, four-acre (16,000 m ) roof, suspended far from
14391-593: Was later renamed as Panair do Brasil . Pan Am also partnered with the Grace Shipping Company in 1929 to form Pan American-Grace Airways , better known as Panagra, to gain a foothold to destinations in South America. In the same year, Pan Am acquired a controlling stake in Mexicana de Aviación and took over Mexicana's Ford Trimotor route between Brownsville, Texas and Mexico City , extending this service to
14514-459: Was named as president of the new Aviation Corporation of the Americas, but Trippe and his partners held 40% of the equity and Whitney was made president. Trippe became operational head of Pan American Airways, the new company's principal operating subsidiary. The US government approved the original Pan Am's mail delivery contract with little objection, out of fears that SCADTA would have no competition in bidding for routes between Latin America and
14637-419: Was ordered to replace the old terminal with a new terminal building in 1934. The airport halls and the adjoining buildings, intended to become the gateway to Europe and a symbol of Hitler's "world capital" Germania , are still known as one of the largest built entities worldwide, and have been described by British architect Sir Norman Foster as "the mother of all airports". With its façades of shell limestone ,
14760-532: Was short-lived, as all were commandeered for military service when the United States entered World War II. During World War II most Clippers were pressed into military service. A new Pan Am subsidiary pioneered an air military-supply route across the Atlantic from Brazil to West Africa. The onward flight to Sudan and Egypt tracked an existing British civil air route. In January 1942, the Pacific Clipper completed
14883-616: Was soon replaced by Bell OH-13 Sioux . Further helicopters stationed over the years where Sikorsky H-19 Chikasaw (1958–1964), Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw (1962–1964), Bell UH-1B (1964–1971)and finally Bell UH-1H (May 1971– August 1994). Fixed wing aircraft stationed at Tempelhof were Cessna O-1 Bird Dog (1965–1975), De Havilland Canada U-6 Beaver (1968 – January 1980), Cessna O-2A (1975–1979), Pilatus UV-20A Chiricahua (1979–1991), Beechcraft U-8D Seminole (1960s), Beechcraft U-21 (1970s–1986 and 1991–1994), as well as Beechcraft C-12C (1986–1991). American Overseas Airlines (AOA), at
15006-831: Was the first airline to begin regular landplane flights across the Atlantic on October 24, 1945. In January 1946, Pan Am scheduled seven DC-4s a week east from LaGuardia Airport , five to London ( Hurn Airport ) and two to Lisbon. The time to Hurn was 17 hours and 40 minutes, including stops, or 20 hours and 45 minutes to Lisbon. A Boeing 314 flying boat flew LaGuardia to Lisbon once every two weeks in 29 hours and 30 minutes; flying boat flights ended shortly thereafter. TWA's transatlantic challenge—the impending introduction of its faster, pressurized Lockheed Constellations —resulted in Pan Am ordering its own Constellation fleet at $ 750,000 (equivalent to $ 10.07 million in 2023) apiece. Pan Am began transatlantic Constellation flights on January 14, 1946, beating TWA by three weeks. In January 1946,
15129-629: Was well regarded for its modern fleet, innovative cabin design and experienced crews: cabin staff were multilingual and usually college graduates, hired from around the world, frequently with nursing training. Pan Am's onboard service and cuisine, inspired by Maxim's de Paris , were delivered "with a personal flair that has rarely been equaled." From 1950 until 1990 Pan Am operated a comprehensive network of high-frequency, short-haul scheduled services between West Germany and West Berlin , first with Douglas DC-4s , then with DC-6Bs (from 1954) and Boeing 727s (from 1966). This had come about as
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