Earlier in May my husband and I had the chance to go out to The Great Tennessee Air Show at the Smyrna Airport. To be honest, it was a terrible day for an air show - pouring down rain the majority of the time we were there that morning. Not an ideal morning for the wife, standing in the rain looking at planes. However, to my surprise, rounding the corner to park for the show, I saw what could best be described as a graveyard for old airplanes...a smile immediately hit my face. Right before me was an old Pan Am 727 jet! Here in Smyrna, TN could possibly be one of the last remaining Pan Am jets - if not the last. I present the Pan Am Boeing 727 "Clipper Troubadour."
- A special thank you to Michael Davis Photography for providing the interior photo of the Pan Am 727.
To the ordinary person this may look like a big pile of rusting mess, but to me...what a piece of history and how exciting! Where had it been, what cities had it visited, who had ridden on it? Traveling recently I found myself looking around on the plane while we were waiting for take-off. There were so many other “stories” on that plane besides my own. Honeymoons, adventures, or just coming home to the ones you love. Coming back to this Smyrna gem, brings a sense of nostalgia that maybe one of its stories was Frank Abagnale’s.
Next year TPAC will be presenting Catch Me If You Can based on the movie by DreamWorks Pictures and Frank Abagnale’s true story that inspired it. For more info, click here.
The nuts and bolts of a Boeing 727:
-94 seats
-580 mph
-1700 mile range
-3 Pratt & Whitney JT8D Engines
-The Boeing 727 went into service February 1964. Pan Am ordered 25 B727 on February 1,1965 at roughly $4.1 million each.
Happy flying,
Jacquie