This is Emily Gibson reporting from the University of Miami, the location of the Pan American World Airways, Inc. records, on a two-year grant-funded assignment sponsored by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

Did you know that planes that could take off and land on water, like Pan Am’s first Clippers, could be built larger than early land planes because they did not need the heavy undercarriage required for landing on hard ground? Pan Am did not order their planes “off the shelf,” but took an active part in the development of their planes to match the future needs of the company (Pan American Airways 40th Anniversary booklet, 1967). Stay tuned as we continue processing the records of Pan American World Airways, Inc.