Pan Am at War: How the Airline Secretly Helped America Fight World War II

Filled with larger-than-life characters, and revelations of the vision and technology it took to dominate the skies before and during, World War II, here is a gripping piece of aviation history.

Pan Am at War chronicles the airline’s historic role in advancing aviation and serving America’s national interest before and during World War II. From its inception, Pan American Airways operated as the ＂wings of democracy,＂ spanning six continents and placing the country at the leading edge of international aviation.

At the same time, it was clandestinely helping to fight America’s wars.

Utilizing government documents, declassified Freedom of Information Act material, and company documents, the authors have uncovered stories of Pan Am’s stunning role as an instrument of American might:

• The airline’s role in building air bases in Latin America and countering Axis interests that threatened the Panama Canal
• Creating transatlantic and trans-Africa supply lines for sending Lend-Lease equipment to Britain
• Cooperation with Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese nationalist government to pioneer the dangerous ＂Hump＂ route over the Himalayas
• The dangerous seventeen-thousand-mile journey that took President Roosevelt to the high-stakes Casablanca Conference with Winston Churchill
• The daring flight that delivered uranium for the atomic bomb.

Mark Cotta Vaz is a New York Times bestselling author of thirty-six books. His award-winning and critically acclaimed works include The Invisible Art (coauthored with Craig Barron), Living Dangerously, and the Twilight Saga movie companion series, all #1 New York Times bestsellers. Vaz has written for numerous periodicals, including Cinefex, Yoga Journal, and Wired. He lives in San Francisco Bay area in California.

John H. Hill has worked in the museum field for more than thirty-five years, first at Laguna Art Museum, and at SFO Museum since 1986. At SFO Museum he curates exhibitions, develops collections on the history of commercial aviation, and oversees the operation of the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum. Hill also a board member of the Pan Am Historical Foundation. He lives in San Francisco, California.