Sets of permutations that generate the symmetric group pairwise

The paper contains proofs of the following results. For all sufficiently large odd integers n, there exists a set of 2n−1 permutations that pairwise generate the symmetric group Sn. There is no set of 2n−1+1 permutations having this property. For all sufficiently large integers n with n≡2mod4, there exists a set of 2n−2 even permutations that pairwise generate the alternating group An. There is no set of 2n−2+1 permutations having this property.