The See-Through 747
December 8, 2025
In the first grade, my two favorite toys were both 747s.
The first was an inflatable replica, similar to those novelty balloons you buy at parades, with rubbery wings that drooped in such violation of the real thing that I’d tape them into proper position. To a six-year-old it seemed enormous, like my own personal Macy’s float.
The second toy was a plastic model about twelve inches long. Like the balloon, it was decked out in the livery of Pan Am. One side of the fuselage was made of clear polystyrene, through which the entire interior, row by row, could be viewed. I can still picture exactly the blue and red pastels of the tiny chairs.
Also visible, in perfect miniature near the toy plane’s nose, was a blue spiral staircase. Early 747s were outfitted with a set of spiral stairs connecting the main and upper decks – a touch that gave the entranceway a special look and feel. Stepping onto a 747 was like stepping into the lobby of a fancy hotel, or into the grand vestibule of a cruise ship. In 1982, on my inaugural trip on a 747, I beamed at my first real-life glimpse of that winding column. Those stairs are in my blood — a genetic helix twisting upward to a kind of pilot Nirvana.
That’s a passage found in chapter two of my book.
It’s that second toy, the one with the transparent fuselage, that I bring to your attention. As it happens, I discovered a photograph, buried in an old family album, in which you can see it. While I’ve always remembered the toy, I had no idea that a picture of it existed.
That’s me holding the plane, of course, with my sister and my mother in front. It’s Christmas morning, 1972.
Look closely and you can see the rows of seats, sectioned into different colors. The first class seats look red. On the left wing it says “Pan Am.” You can’t see the spiral stairs, but they’re in there, in the middle of that blue part. It appears the entire fuselage was look-through, not just half of it, as I’d written.
One wonders what sorts of shitty toys are available these days for first-grade airplane buffs.
That plastic plane is long gone, sadly. I’m not saying you should save all of your childhood toys, but be careful. This one, surely, deserved to be set aside. Even so young, I already has aspirations of becoming a pilot. It would’ve made a meaningful keepsake.
The picture, at least, remains.
Last Thursday, by the way, marked the 34th anniversary of the demise of Pan American World Airways. The company ceased operations on December 4th, 1991. I remember watching it on the news, in a hotel room in Burlington, Vermont.
I was fortunate enough to fly twice on an actual Pan Am 747. From Rio de Janeiro to New York, in 1982, and from Frankfurt to New York in the fall of 1991, shortly before the end.
(Note: A number of readers have pointed me to 747 toys for sale on eBay similar to the one I’ve described. These are not the same; they’re flimsier and cheaper than the one I had. The colors are different too.)
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15 Responses to “The See-Through 747”
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I had the inflatable 747 with the droopy wings ! It had the National Airlines logo on it. Loved sailing it across the room. Great memories🤣 -airline.hardcopy
PanAm will fly again shortly, btw, with a fleet of A320s to begin with
No. Pan Am is not going to “fly again.” A wholly new company is recycling the old name, that’s all.
I could legally change my name to “Juan Trippe.” That doesn’t make me Juan Trippe.
There are a ton of similar models out there, some vintage but most of them new or near new. This one however has the right color interior. Did yours have the “moving stewardess”? I think the one Jim posted below is the same one, just with a green upper deck rather than blue.
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-1950s-pan-am-747-toy-airplane-495294729
Your missive about 747’s and PanAm took me way back. I was based in Nairobi, Kenya in the 1980s when PanAm had a hedge hopping route from New York to Dakar, Lagos (or was it Abkdjan or Accra?), ending in Nairobi.
It was one of the few ways to travel from Africa to the U.S. without going through Europe (old colonial connections die hard).
So on one winter trip our travel agent had screwed up the ticket pricing for my family, and by the time the agents had straightened it out, the only seats left were first class upstairs. In those days paying regular fares, somehow we still had enough credit to make that transition?
In any case, climbing the spiral stairs to such a speacial and “private” space still makes me giddy at the memory.
PanAm will always be special to me – I have 1/400 models of the 747-400 and the SP. Been lucky to fly on many 747 flights and have over 35 menu’s of First and Business class. flt801 JFK NRT flt201 JFK GIG flt5 JFK SFO HKG – 24 flights on the 747SP which was a great plane – in the front you could see forward as the cabin curved. The iconic spiral staircase.
I flew the original 747-100 a few months after the inaugural flight in January 1970. I took PA100 JFK LHR June of 1970. I still have the coach menu – Cocktails were 50 cents, cigarettes 30 cents, a split of Champagne set you back one dollar. Most men wore suits and ties, woman dresses. When first saw it after flying on DC8’s and 707’s it looked like a flying cruise ship to me.
Yes, I remember it well!
I think it would be a good idea to hunt down a copy of that plane to keep on a shelf somewhere, as it will always bring back pleasant memories. I’m guessing you could find one. There’s a whole page on ebay.
Here you go, Captain.
Merry Christmas!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/257223669410?_trksid=p2332490.c101875.m1851&itmprp=cksum%3A2572236694106eaffddf5a7740e3a039e514c1a32532%7Cenc%3AAQAKAAABELbQdNnV9E6H66rV4nIZYAZCOANuR76zl8wG%252FmKawEdd%252FZzO2T5yUdpwsFRr7Sz0JN1UDaoVsLJpr3rPVbiyAkOPMsGm0ey3voOTSqO5rFTAmqTrY31yBJLNRRWDQ%252F%252B0PEj71Cc9Vp4m8BzIPgG5a6HgO2qzOdqjhMlbYv3bk6ubggzO9Ssqu6QmgLTj7nENNgYYEcjRW%252Bt44zYRDL8EFSpT3js5GDZEiIUFXpKvO%252F9OkOd%252B%252Bx3qOYUPzXmW79Sb2KJqtQ3na5ZhQMysvTW%252FfTeEfBCVUWB5NuLl79kw1LZOFH1yu%252Bdu2W9WUYuWKziplr581fNvmCgU8BssQhyp%252FnhFAfHQR87r0UIEHk6EDVi1%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2332490&itmmeta=01KC73QX70H9QQ7GDBKE0EP70G
I remember getting the Airfix BA 747 kit for Christmas ‘84. Afterwards our maths teacher asked us what we got. ‘I got a 747’ I told him proudly. As a follow up I had to clarify that it wasn’t a real one.
Went LAX-LHR on a PanAm 747-100 in about 1970/1 as a kid, I swear that thing had 10-abreast 3-5-3 seating but maybe I’m not clearly remembering that as I was about eight years old. It had those nasty headphones that were basically air tubes, the food was gross, and when you’re that young with no entertainment other than the crappy blurry movie and a few channels of vaguely-musical sounding noises, ten red-eye hours on a plane is horrible once the excitement of departure is over.
3-5-3 is ELEVEN-abreast. I don’t believe any 747 was configured this way. Some early 747s were laid out with 3-3-3, but eventually 3-4-3 became the standard. Yes, that’s ten.
Reminiscent of some other little boys playing airliner at around that time:
“Hot Pants, Love Potions, and the Go-go Genesis of Southwest Airlines”
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/southwest-airlines-50-anniversary/
That was then. This is lately:
“The US Government Is Letting Southwest Airlines Off Easy”
https://jacobin.com/2025/12/trump-southwest-airlines-fine-holidays
All grown up now.
The upper deck at Pan Am had 14 business seats. (On my F/B picture I am standing in front of that spiral staircase).
On top of that staircase it was a nice little galley/ bar. Many passenger would carryon conversations with us. One memorable is with Paul Simon throughout the night going down to rio, talking about his life in Paris.
I got that same 747 toy for Christmans when I was 5 or 6. You described it on these pages at least once before and I was sure, based on your description, that we’d had the same one. It was one of my favorites. The only disappointment was the toy’s MLG, which was comically wrong for practical “it’s a toy” reasons. Even at that age, I knew it just wasn’t right. 🙂
Heh, I’ve been up those spiral stairs. Unaccompanied minor crossing atlantic on an Alitalia 747, started feeling sick (stress, maybe?). Cabin crew decided to put me upstairs in the unused upper level (perhaps it was their rest area). Gave me 3 seats to lie down across. It worked, didn’t upchuck.
Wish I could relate a bunch of cool stuff about the upper level, but it was just the same seats as cattle class and I don’t remember more. But is was definitely a tight spiral stair, perhpas that novelty snapped me out of my funk. Once I felt better I’m sure I was glued to the window for the approach and landing.