After 50 years,

Juan Trippe, the man who founded Pan American Airways, planned his conquest of the Pacific in the New York public library in the 19205.

Mr Trippe, whose aviation business dreams were crystallis ing rapidly, picked out Wake Island as the key to island hopping across the Pacific.

He learned from clipper ship logs that Wake Island would provide the stepping-stone he was seeking to link the U.S. with Asia via Hawaii, Midway Island, and Guam.

In a letter dated October 3, 1934, Juan Trippe told the Secretary of the Navy that Pan American was ready to fly the Pacific.

This opened a chapter in aviation history which closed this year with news that Pan American is selling almost all its Pacific operations to the free world’s largest airline, United.

The deal is worth $U.5.750

Pan American... Juan Trippe... Harold Gatty...the names are carved deeply into the record of the development of commercial aviation in the Pacific.

Pan Am’s big blue and white aircraft seemed to be everywhere, commanded by neat, enormously com petent, men in dark blue uniforms with the airline’s golden globe badge on their white-topped caps. In their way they were pioneers, even until quite recent years. The original Clippers were flying boats. Then came the great machines of the piston-engined age, the DC-6s, DC-7Cs, and Stratocruisers, to be superseded by the jets, Boeing 707 s and DC-Bs, followed by today’s monarchs of the air, the Boeing 7475. But now Pan Am is to withdraw from the ocean it was instrumental in opening to airborne travellers, the victim of what seems to be endemic problems of cost, management, and uneconomic services. In its place comes United Airlines, the free world’s largest carrier, and a company noted for its success in a very hard business. As PIM aviation correspondent, PETER JOHNSON, details here, United’s arrival can only increase the already tough competition among airlines all over the Pacific Basin.

million, and under it, United gets Pan Am’s losing Pacific division as a going concern.

Pan Am is said to have lost $U.5.63 million on the Pacific run last year.

United will take over Pan Am operations to Australia, Japan, China, New Zealand, Hong kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand and the Philip pines.

This is expected to provide even tougher competition on Pacific routes and could exert more pressure on already

There was no anchorage on Wake Island, and the supply ship had to stand to offshore while barges brought gear ashore in tumultuous seas (be low left). But within two years Pan Am passengers were over nighting on Wake Island in a modern hotel, as shown in the picture below taken in 1937 of a scene in the hotel lobby.