Author: Robert G. Waldvogel

Long Island, with its treeless expanse known as the Hempstead Plains, proximity to Manhattan, and gateway to the country and the European continent by means of the Atlantic Ocean, gave rise to numerous, once-famous aircraft manufacturers, including the American Aeronautical Corporation, the American Airplane and Engine Corporation, Brewster, Burnelli, Columbia, Cox-Klemin, Curtiss, EDO, Fairchild, Grumman, Ireland, the LWF Engineering Company, Loening, Orenco, Ranger, Republic, Sikorsky, Sperry, and Vought. Producing airplanes, powerplants, and components, they built pioneer designs and biplanes during the 1910s and 1920s, introduced significant advancements during the two-decade Golden Age between 1919 and 1939, and churned out military…

From often-snowbound New England to sunny Florida, Northeast Airlines, forever associated with its “Yellowbird” aircraft, chartered a checkered course that entailed financial lifelines, a dual-sided personality, and major carrier competition. Its route system, pieced together by Civil Aeronautics Board approvals, became an elusive attempt to establish an identity and profitability. From Railways to Airways As the 1930s dawned, surface travel was mostly achieved by rail, with few bona fide airlines and rudimentary, open-cockpit biplanes transporting mail and the occasional brave soul. But Maine Central Railroad, seeking to extend its service from tracks to the air, formed Boston-Maine Airways in July…

A cadre of professionals with airline experience, the desire to establish a hub with a significant number of origin-and-destination passengers, a short-range, twinjet fleet, and a name strongly suggestive of the city it was based in, combined to create Presidential Airways. Its hub was Washington-Dulles International Airport, where it offered numerous capital connections. Concept Hailing from nearby McLean, Virginia, 37-year-old Harold (Hap) Pareti was the brainchild of the carrier, which constituted his second one. His first, $1 billion per year PEOPLExpress, was initially a resounding success. After he resigned from it, having achieved president and CEO status, he decided to…

The old saying of “If you can’t beat them, join them” may be well known. But Muse Air was the result of its unknown opposite, namely, the person who had already joined them tried to beat them. “Them” was a carrier that eventually grew into the nation’s fourth-largest airline, Southwest Airlines. Southwest Competitor The person whose airline ultimately bore his name and took on Southwest was Lamar Muse, a Houston native with more than three decades of aviation industry experience with the likes of Trans Texas, Continental, American, Southern, Central, Universal, and Southwest itself. Achieving the role of its president,…

“Aloha, the Hawaiian greeting of “hello” and, by little stretch of the imagination, “welcome,” became the name of the state’s second major airline because its founder realized that not everyone was. He was once one of them. The People’s Airline That founder, Ruddy F. Tongg, Sr., an Asian-American and Honolulu publisher, was once refused boarding on a flight to the U.S. mainland because of his ethnicity, and the event became the catalyst for a Hawaiian carrier that would both employ and transport non-Caucasians. It would, for the first time, offer competition to Inter-Island Airlines, a subsidiary of the Inter-Island Steam…

From the cactus that characterizes Arizona rose a uniquely structured deregulation carrier which established its hub there in the early 1980s and became the quintessential symbol of the southwest — so much so, in fact, that that plant became its very call-sign, as in, “Cactus 155, you’re cleared for takeoff.” That airline was America West. It only plied the skies for a brief two decades. But it demonstrated quality, resilience, and a unique breed captured by its initial slogan of “Less fare, more care.” Foundation Incorporated in 1981 after obtaining funding from ten investors and a New York banking…

Despite appearances to the contrary today, Port Washington, Long Island, with its calm, sheltered waters and location 15 miles from Manhattan, was once conducive to aviation development, at least that using pontoons and floating hulls as opposed to that with wheels. Wealthy Gold Coast mansion owners like the Vanderbilts, the Guggenheims, the Belmonts, and the Astors had the finances to invest in early “aerial yachts,” taking off from the very water that fronted their homes. “Residents contributed mightily to the advance of flying, beginning as far back as 1910,” according to Daniel Pedesich in his article, “The Aeronautical Heritage of…

Restricted by Civil Aeronautics Board route and fare authorizations back in the early 1960s, and left with little choice but to operate Boeing 707s and Douglas DC-8s at the time, airlines had few options with which to compete with one another and attract passengers. American, however, sought to differentiate itself on the transcontinental route by offering higher speeds and therefore shorter flying times with a new aircraft, the Convair 990. Design Origins Although smaller and lagging behind Boeing’s 707 and Douglas’s DC-8, the aircraft, in its initial CV-880 form, featured the same overall configuration as the Boeing and Douglas contenders,…

When a man stamps his name on the carrier he establishes, it reflects his strengths, philosophies, and ideals. In the case of Henson, they were quality and longevity. Hagerstown Commuter Both man and airline, in this case, were Richard A. Henson, who was born only seven years after the Wright Brothers conquered flight with the airplane that would characterize his career. There are things a person wants to do in life. Then there are those things he must do to fulfill that life. For Henson, that was flying. “First and foremost, Henson was a flyer – a flyer in the…

Today’s airline passengers search the internet for the lowest possible fare, pay for their ticket with a credit card, have an electronic boarding pass sent to their cellphones, and ultimately board the aircraft after a gate agent scans their QR code. Depending upon the route, they settle into their seats, have access to the latest inflight entertainment, and may be wined and dined, depending, of course, upon their chosen class. Aircraft a century ago seated relatively few and were initially unpressurized. Long-range international and intercontinental journeys were measured in days, not hours, and entailed multiple city and country stops. They…