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Man Builds Pan Am Jet Cabin Replica in His Garage

by Caleb Johnson on October 30, 2009 at 11:01 AM

For today's frugal travelers, it might be hard to imagine a time when commercial flights were luxurious. But that's just what Pan Am offered back in the day. Anthony Toth, a global sales director at United Airlines, fell in love with this high-altitude decadence at an early age while flying to visit family in Europe. Now, Toth has taken his love to new heights.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Toth spent more than $50,000 recreating a first-class cabin from a Pan Am World Airways 747 in his garage. For 20 years, Toth has collected vintage Pan Am gear -- from headphones to a coffee maker -- by salvaging parts from retired airplanes that are dumped in the Mojave Desert. The end result is a nearly exact replica (There is that flat-screen TV.) of a '70s-era jet cabin. There's original reclining seats, overhead compartments, and a red, carpeted staircase. What he couldn't find, he recreated as accurately as possible (e.g., the faux Pan Am boarding passes).

What would drive a grown man to embark on such an elaborate project? Tosh says he felt a connection with Pan Am from the first time he stepped aboard. "There was no other aircraft I could walk on board that intrigued me more than the Pan Am cabin," he told the Journal. "Everything symbolized something. That meant something to me as a youngster."

It's doubtful today's youngsters will one day build similar shrines to JetBlue or Southwest. If they did, it wouldn't take a garage; you could fit those cramped seats and small overhead spaces into a closet. [From: The Wall Street Journal, via Gizmodo, via Neatorama]

Tags: airplane, flying, home, jet, pan am, PanAm, replica, retro, top, travel

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