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'Panair do Brasil' was Brazil's flag airline and Latin America's largest carrier from the 1940s through the 1960s. It began operations in October 22nd, 1929, as NYRBA do Brasil S.A., a local subsidiary of NYRBA, Inc. (New York, Rio, and Buenos Aires Line). One year later, as the parent company was acquired by Pan American World Airways, this affiliate was renamed Panair do Brasil S.A. It ceased operations abruptly in February 10th 1965, when the Brazilian military government instated the year before suspended its routes and alloted them to Varig. The controversial decision to liquidade Panair so suddenly originated a long dispute in Court. Finally, in December, 1984, it was recognized that the airline operated within regular technical and financial parameters when shut down, and the government was sentenced to pay reparations to its former owners. The forced bankruptcy was suspended on May 5th, 1995, and the company now seeks indemnizations in Justice.

Contents

Trivia

See also

Sources

References

External links

Trivia

★ Panair do Brasil was the first non-US airline to acquire the Lockheed Constellation.

★ In the 1940s, the airline had the most extensive network of domestic routes in the world.

★ Panair seconded only UK's BOAC in placing orders for the de Havilland Comet, the world's first commercial jet airliner. The orders were later cancelled due to flaws on the plane's original design.

★ Just as Pan Am called their planes "Clippers", Panair do Brasil baptized its fleet with the names of "Bandeirantes".

★ Panair do Brasil DC-8s can be seen in a handful of movies, including French productions "La Peau Douce" (1964) and "Homme de Rio" (1964).

★ The abrupt shutdown of Panair was so traumatic to Brazilian society under dictatorship that celebrated musicians Fernando Brant and Milton Nascimento composed a song called "Nas asas da Panair" ("On the wings of Panair") as a tribute to the airline.

★ Part of Panair's logo is still visible at the company's former hangar at Santos Dumont Airport.

★ Former employees of Panair do Brasil, their families and friends attend an annual reunion on the week of October 22nd, the airline's birthday. This tradition has been religiously preserved since 1966 and there is a movement to include it in the Guinness World Records .

See also

★ New York, Rio, and Buenos Aires Line

★ Pan American World Airways

★ Varig

★ Cruzeiro do Sul

★ Pan American-Grace Airways

★ Juan Trippe

★ Eduardo Gomes

★ Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco

★ Carlos Lacerda

★ Juscelino Kubitschek

★ João Goulart

★ Airlines in films

Sources

★ Pouso Forçado: A história por trás da destruição da Panair do Brasil pelo regime militar, Sasaki, Daniel L., , , Record, 2005,

★ Breve História da Aviação Comercial Brasileira, Pereira, Aldo, , , Morrow, 1987,

★ Nas asas da Panair, Abreu, Theophilo E., , , , 2000,

★ Nas asas da história: lembranças da Panair do Brasil, Barbosa, Nair P., , , Agir, 1996,

★ Pan Am: An Airline and Its Aircraft, Davies, R.E.G., , , Crown, 1987, ISBN 0517566397

★ Airlines of Pan American since 1927, Banning, Gene, , , Paladwr, 2001, ISBN 1888962178

★ Caravelle: The complete story, Wegg, John, , , Paladwr, 2005,

★ A Dream of Eagles, O'Neill, Ralph, , , San Francisco Book Company/Houghton Mifflin Company, 1973, ISBN 0-913374-02-4

References

External links

★ Wings across the Amazon - Panair in northern Brazil

★ Airport Development Program - Panair do Brasil's role in WWII

★ Grounded by force - A detailed article of the forced end of Panair

★ Too many wings - An article contemporary to the shutdown of Panair, later contradicted by Brazilian Justice

★ Obra da ditadura - An account of the end of Panair (in Portuguese)

★ Panair do Brasil - Timetable images

★ Panair do Brasil - Photo archive