Supersonic Clipper

Year: Circa 1965
Artist: Unknown
Size: 44 X 34.5
 
Notable sales:
Potter & Potter Auctions, jan 2022, $3,600
 
A fabulous, rare poster capturing Pan Am's ambition for future supersonic flight. While this poster was obviously not photographed by Kronfeld or Krainin, it is captured in the Kronfeld/Krainin series since it resembles the design style of this series.
 
Pan Am toyed with the idea of adding supersonic jets to its fleet and took options for 6 Concordes in the early 1960s before President Kennedy announced US commitment and support to develop an American SST. Ultimately, the supersonic jets were not economically viable and the American development program was dropped in the early 1970s, while the Concorde program was significantly curtailed. Pan Am never exercised its Concorde options.
 
From the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, Pan Am produced a poster series based initially on photographs by Chester "Blackie" Kronfeld who was Pan Am's staff photographer from 1950 through his tragic death in an American Airlines plane crash on March 1, 1962 while on assignment. Kronfeld was succeeded by Ewing Krainin who is credited for a few of the photos in this poster series.
 
This series of posters includes a couple of notable departures from previous and future Pan Am posters. First, they have a horizontal orientation. Second, they are larger than the typical 28 x 42 poster, measureing 44 x 34.5. This series leverages destination images as the poster hero, with the only text telling you that Pan Am will take you there. Finally, some of these images were used in Pan Am's calenders from the mid-1950s through the mid-1960s.
 
Pan Am published several versions of this poster series, first with a black and red Pan American logo tagline with a stylized prop plane, then a similar Pan American logo tagline with a jet plane, and finally a blue and red Pan Am logo tagline with a jet plane.