Air transportation industry: The First Airlines - Business in United States of America

Air transportation industry

Air transportation industry: The Civil Aeronautics Board Period

Air transportation industry: Deregulation

Air transportation industry: After September 11, 2001

In 1927, Trippe’s new company, Pan American World Airways (Pan Am), received the contract to fly the mail from Key West, Florida, to Havana, Cuba. Trippe felt that he could increase profits by transporting a few passengers along with the mail. One of his first customers was the gangster Al Capone.
In 1930, the U.S. Post Office awarded the following contracts: New York-California via Chicago to United, New York-California via St. Louis to Trans World Airlines (TWA), New York-California via Dallas to American, and several routes along the east coast to Eastern. Two regional airlines that later became international also received routes: Braniff International Airways got the Chicago-Dallas route and Delta Air Lines got Atlanta-Chicago.

The controversial millionaire (later billionaire) Howard Hughes made three important technical innovations during the 1930’s. They were retractable landing gear, flushed rivets, and an oxygen feeder system. The first two streamlined airplane designs and increased their speed. The third allowed planes to fly at higher altitudes and also increased their speed.

Two aircraft, the Douglas DC-3 and the Boeing 315, boosted the air transportation industry during the 1930’s. The Douglas DC-3 had two engines, flew at 180 miles per hour, was easier to fly than previous passenger planes, and was more comfortable for passengers. The Boeing 315, also known as the China Clipper, was a four-engine plane with pontoons as big as fishing boats. It landed and took off from water, so it could land anywhere in the ocean in an emergency, carried seventy-four passengers, had a 175-mile-per-hour cruising speed, and offered a range of 3,500 miles without refueling. As the nickname indicates, it was designed to fly from the United States to China, so Pan Am built refueling stations on islands such as Oahu, Wake, and Guam for its Hong Kong-San Francisco and New Zealand- San Francisco routes. It was the largest passenger plane ever regularly flown until the Boeing 747 came along.