Airplanes and Air Transport. The centuries‐old dream of powered, heavier‐than‐air, controllable flight became reality on 17 December 1903, when Orville Wright lifted his fragile biplane off the sands of Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina, and traveled 120 feet in twelve seconds. Orville, his brother Wilbur, and other pioneer aviators quickly recognized and exploited the military and commercial potential of the new means of transport. The first air express delivery in the United States took place in November 1910, when a department store in Columbus, Ohio, flew a bolt of silk to Dayton, Ohio. The following year, on 25 September, Earle Ovington flew the first Post Office–sanctioned airmail as part of an aerial meet at Garden City, New York. The first sustained effort to carry passengers came in 1914. Operating from January to March, the St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line safely carried some twelve hundred people between the Florida cities in a two‐seat (pilot and one passenger) Benoist flying boat.

Single‐passenger airline operations, obviously, were not economically viable. With their limited lifting capacity and unreliable engines, airplanes could best be employed in carrying lightweight, high‐value cargo. The U.S. Post Office early recognized the advantages and limitations of air transport. In 1918, farsighted postal officials established the U.S. Air Mail Service. Over the next nine years, this government‐operated adjunct of the Post Office established a transcontinental air route from New York to San Francisco, inaugurated systematic night flying, and experimented with radio and instrument navigation. Between 1918 and 1927, postal airmen flew more than 13.7 million miles and carried over 300 million letters, setting a standard of excellence for bad‐weather and night flying unmatched in the world and laying the foundations for U.S. commercial aviation.

The outstanding performance of the Air Mail Service drew the attention of private investors. Congress facilitated their entry into aviation by passing the Air Mail Act of 1925 and the Air Commerce Act of 1926, measures that assured profit and established the essential regulatory structure for the early development of commercial aviation. Encouraged by Charles Lindbergh's dramatic transatlantic solo flight in May 1927, an event that brought enormous public attention to aviation, the private sector began to make substantial investments in air‐transport enterprises.

By the early 1930s, four major domestic airlines that would dominate the industry for the next forty years had emerged. All were headed by dynamic individuals: William A. Patterson of United Air Lines, Edward V. Rickenbacker of Eastern Air Lines, C.R. Smith of American Airlines, and Jack Frye of TWA. One airline, meanwhile, came to monopolize international travel. Pan American Airways, the government's “chosen instrument” for international service, established long‐distance operations throughout Latin America and across two oceans. Under the adroit leadership of Juan Trippe, this superbly run company also flew a series of impressive flying boats, culminating in the four‐engine Boeing 314. The federal government underwrote the development expenses for Pan American's international routes by providing generous postal subsidies. Between 1929 and 1940, Pan American received $47.2 million in mail payments, compared to the $59.8 million received by all domestic airlines. This funding enabled Pan American not only to expand worldwide but also to turn a modest profit.

In an effort to lessen their dependency on federal subsidies, the domestic airlines emphasized passenger travel in the 1930s. Their transition from reliance on mail contracts to passenger operations was facilitated by a series of technological developments that produced a new generation of airlines. Important advances in airframe design led to the adoption of stressed‐skin metal wings and fuselages in place of the previous fabric‐covered, wood‐framed construction. At the same time, improved cylinder heads and pistons, plus better fuel, resulted in more efficient, reliable, and powerful engines.

The first modern passenger transport, the twin‐engine Boeing 247, went into service with United Air Lines in 1933. A streamlined, all‐metal stressed‐skin plane powered by two 550‐horsepower Pratt & Whitney engines mounted into nacelles on the wing, the 247 could carry ten passengers at a cruising speed of approximately 160 miles per hour. The Douglas DC‐3 appeared in 1936. The 21‐passenger DC‐3, which within three years was carrying 80 percent of all U.S. air travelers, gave airlines the first real opportunity to make a profit from flying passengers.

The federal government promoted airline‐industry growth before World War II not only by providing subsidies but also by licensing airmen and aircraft and by constructing and operating the ground facilities that made possible safe point‐to‐point navigation. In addition to its existing responsibility for radio aids to navigation, Washington expanded its regulatory activities in 1936, by taking over three air‐traffic‐control centers that had been set up by the airlines six months earlier to deal with expanding air traffic. In 1938, the Air Commerce Act established the framework for government policy toward aviation that would last for the next forty years, creating a regulatory structure that encompassed strict economic control, safety oversight, and federal operation of the nation's airways and air‐traffic‐control facilities.

America's entry into World War II temporarily ended the rapid growth of the airline industry, which carried 3.4 million passengers—primarily business travelers—in 1941. By June 1942, the army had requisitioned 200 airplanes out of the industry's total of 360. The war years saw a dramatic increase in aircraft utilization as the airlines struggled to meet the demands for priority air travel. Despite the sharp reduction in equipment, the airlines, by filling most seats carried nearly as many passengers in 1942 and 1943 as they had in 1941.

The U.S. air‐transport industry underwent rapid expansion during the 1950s, reflecting partly the nation's vibrant economic growth. The decade witnessed two watershed events. Flying larger, pressurized four‐engine Douglas DC‐6s and Lockheed Constellations that could carry more than fifty passengers from San Francisco to New York in ten hours, domestic airlines boarded 38 million passengers in 1955, marking the first year that airlines hauled more people than railroads. Three years later, international airlines took more travelers to Europe than steamship companies did.

The explosive growth of the air‐transport industry during the 1950s imposed an intolerable strain on an air‐traffic‐control system designed for DC‐3s. Following a series of midair collisions, Congress passed the Federal Aviation Act in 1958. The new law created the Federal Aviation Agency, which united all the government's principal safety‐related functions in a single, powerful organization that reported directly to the President.

The new regulatory structure was in place in time for the jet revolution of the 1960s, which saw piston‐engine and turboprop airplanes give way to faster, more efficient jet transports. At the same time, changes in airline fare structures lured leisure travelers away from trains and buses. By the mid‐1960s, some 50 percent of airline passengers were traveling for pleasure rather than business, a pattern that would remain constant for the rest of the century.

The 1960s were golden years for the air‐transport industry. The major trunk carriers grew larger, regional airlines prospered, and scheduled air‐taxi lines brought air service to small communities. By the end of the decade, few people were outside the aerial network that was coming to dominate intercity transportation. The number of passengers carried by scheduled airlines rose from 56.3 million in 1960 to 158.5 million in 1969. At the same time, the net operating income of domestic airlines averaged $255.4 million a year, while international airlines averaged $139.4 million.

The good times ended in the early 1970s. The appearance of the wide‐bodied “jumbo jets”—the Boeing 747, Douglas DC‐10, and Lockheed L‐1011 Tristar—added capacity at a time when demand was leveling off. The oil crisis of 1973–1974 quadrupled airline fuel prices. Finally, in 1974 the nation entered a period of inflation and economic stagnation that the press labeled “stagflation.”

As the airlines struggled, the federal government abandoned the regulatory structure in place since 1938. In October 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the landmark Airline Deregulation Act, by which Washington gave up the control over routes and fares that it had exercised since 1938. Airlines now were free to add or drop routes as market conditions dictated and to charge whatever fares they pleased.

Deregulation could not have come at a worse time. Another round of cost increases occurred in 1979 and 1980, together with a deep recession that lasted into 1982. In the midst of these economic woes, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization began an illegal strike, crippling the nation's air‐traffic system. President Ronald Reagan fired eleven thousand strikers, breaking both the strike and the union. Several years passed before the air traffic control system fully recovered.

New airlines proliferated in the unregulated environment, increasing from thirty‐six in 1978 to ninety‐six in 1983 (although only two survived the decade). At the same time, the industry's costs doubled. Between 1979 and 1983, the domestic airline industry suffered a staggering net loss of $1.2 billion.

The later 1980s witnessed a wave of mergers and bankruptcies as the air‐transport industry struggled to adjust to the new deregulated era. Not until the mid‐1990s did a measure of stability and profitability return to an industry once again dominated by a handful of giant carriers.

In June 1995, the industry carried its ten billionth passenger since the St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line began flying in 1914. Over the years, air travel had changed from an individual adventure to a routine feature of the national scene. By the end of the century, with U.S. airlines carrying some 750 million passengers a year, plus a significant portion of small parcel traffic, the industry clearly had become a vital component of the nation's transportation infrastructure. For both business and leisure travel, Americans had come to rely on air transport no less than earlier generations had depended on railroads, buses, and steamships. Air travel, however, brought a speed that had not been possible previously, contributing to the accelerated pace of life that characterized the second half of the twentieth century in the United States.

The end of the economic boom of the 1990s, coupled with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which involved the hijacking of four commercial aircraft, profoundly affected air travel and the airline industry. Tightened airport security caused delays as passengers underwent security checks. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), established by Congress in November 2001 within the Department of Transportation, enforced stricter employment standards on airport-security personnel and exercised broad authority over airline safety. In 2003, with congressional approval, the TSA permitted pilots to carry guns, and Tom Ridge, head of the new Department of Homeland Security, announced that 5,000 armed air marshals would soon be flying incognito on commercial flights.

Air travel plummeted in the fearful aftermath of 9/11, further battering an industry already in economic difficulty. United Airlines and US Airways declared bankruptcy and other carriers teetered on the brink of insolvency, faced with declining revenues, unprofitable routes, rising fuel costs, union demands, and competition from budget airlines such as Southwest, AirTran, and JetBlue. The six biggest U.S. carriers lost $7.4 billion in 2002. The worst of the crisis eased by 2004 thanks to cost-cutting and other measures, as well as an upturn in air travel and air-cargo shipments, but the industry clearly faced fundamental changes as the new century unfolded.
See also Aviation Industry; Energy Crisis of the 1970s; Federal Government, Executive Branch: Other Departments: Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation; Federal Regulatory Agencies; Military, The; Postal Service, U.S.; Technology; Wright, Wilbur and Orville.

Bibliography

Ronald Miller and and David Sawers , The Technical Development of Modern Aviation, 1970.
Nick A. Komons , Bonfire to Beacons: Federal Civil Aviation Policy under the Air Commerce Act, 1926–1938, 1978.
W. David Lewis and and Wesley P. Newton , Delta: The History of an Airline, 1979.
Marylin Bender and and Selig Altschul , The Chosen Instrument: Pan Am, Juan Trippe—the Rise and Fall of an American Entrepreneur, 1982.
R.E.G. Davies , Airlines of the United States since 1914, 1982.
Roger E. Bilstein , Flight in America, 1908–1983, 1984.
William M. Leary , Aerial Pioneers: The U.S. Air Mail Service, 1918–1927, 1985.
Henry Ladd Smith , Airways: The History of Commercial Aviation in the United States, reprint, 1991.
Roger E. Bilstein , The American Aerospace Industry, 1996.

William M. Leary

Paul S. Boyer

Juan Terry Trippe

Juan Terry Trippe (1899-1981), the undisputed pioneer of the American overseas aviation industry, led Pan American Airways from 1927 to 1968. Having opened up Latin America, the African periphery, the Pacific, and Southeast Asia during the 1930s, Pan American played an important role in World War II before spearheading mass, low-cost tourism across the North Atlantic to Western Europe in the 1950s.

Juan Trippe was born on June 27, 1899, to a well-off New York family, which, despite his first name, had no significant Hispanic connections. He attended the Hill School and entered Yale University in 1917. Trippe and some classmates became Navy pilots after America entered World War I, but they saw no combat. He later returned to Yale, graduated in 1921, and became a Wall Street bond salesman.

But Trippe and his wealthy associates were fascinated by aviation, whose future seemed rich with possibilities. Having bought some surplus Navy planes in 1923, they organized Long Island Airways before creating Colonial Air Transport in 1924 to fly between New York and Boston. Aviation attracted little business, however, until the federal government intervened to control entries, routes, and franchises, while also providing airmail contracts as virtual subsidies. After a dispute within Colonial over extending it to Miami, Trippe resigned in 1926 and formed a new corporation, which merged in 1927 with Pan American Airways. He became president and general manager.

Beginning with a 90-mile airmail route from Key West to Havana, Trippe spearheaded Pan American's spectacular expansion into the coastal cities of Latin America and established 11, 000 miles of routes by late 1929. He secured the indispensable U.S. airmail contracts and began lobbying for Pan American's position as a "chosen instrument" of American policy in South America, a continent of vast distances, impenetrable terrain, and many U.S. strategic and economic interests. State Department backing often bolstered his negotiations with foreign governments for routes, landing rights, terminals, and customs' privileges.

In 1929 W. R. Grace & Co. and Pan American organized Panagra (Pan American and Grace Airways) to operate on the west coast of Latin America. By the early 1930s Pan American had largely overshadowed its competitors in the region. In return for its government-sponsored quasi-monopoly abroad, Pan American followed Washington's tight regulatory policies by shunning the American market.

Pan American expanded rapidly despite the Great Depression and gained prestige by employing Charles Lindbergh, the "Lone Eagle" of public acclaim, and by turning what had been the adventure of flight into a safe, reliable, and profitable business venture. Trippe built an elaborate infrastructure of weather stations and communications, navigation, and maintenance facilities, first in Latin America and then on Hawaii and other Pacific islands. The Pan American market for long-range aircraft stimulated the American aviation industry, most notably in developing the comfortable, 60-passenger "Clipper, " with which Pan American pioneered service in the mid-1930s both across the Atlantic and via the Pacific to Manila.

Inevitably, Pan American became deeply involved in American foreign policy as World War II approached. There was constant competition over new markets with government-controlled foreign airlines, which contended that Trippe was building a global empire to strengthen American diplomatic and military power. Japan, for example, was angered, first when Trippe bought the China National Aviation Corporation in 1933, and again when he established links to British South Pacific territories after 1939. Simultaneously, the New York-Lisbon Clipper flights became famous, and very lucrative, as one of the few neutral routes into a Europe at war.

Pan American, now linked to the Air Force's global Air Transport Command, became a major contract carrier for the government after Pearl Harbor, particularly in ferrying planes from northeastern Brazil across Africa to the Middle East. Pan American even inaugurated air travel for a president, carrying Franklin D. Roosevelt to and from the Casablanca conference in early 1943. With its German and Italian rivals destroyed, and British and French international airlines greatly weakened financially, Pan American emerged victorious after 1945. But its international monopoly had ended as its American competitors learned the skills of oceanic flight when drafted by Washington into the war effort.

Trippe tried to revivify the "chosen instrument" concept by making Pan American (renamed Pan American World Airways in 1949) into a regulated monopoly, with the federal government owning 49 percent of the stock, but the plan died. In 1950, just as foreign air competitors were reaching American shores, he was refused the right to fly domestically, with the reliable income that this would generate. In 1952 Trippe encouraged mass tourism across the North Atlantic to Western Europe by instituting tourist class fares, with installment purchases after 1954. Volume flights required larger aircraft, and Trippe, having developed commercial jet service in the late 1950s, bought the first Boeing 747s in 1966.

But Trippe's desire to create a vast global system, servicing virtually every airport everywhere without strong regard for volume or profit, combined with a growing foreign and American competition to which Pan American could not adjust. There were major difficulties in the 1960s, with half-filled aircraft and shrinking revenues. Trippe retired in 1968, after 41 years at the helm, and died on April 3, 1981. His empire went downhill. A proposal that the shah of Iran buy it in 1975 was rejected. It filed for bankruptcy early in 1991 and ceased flying later in the year.

Further Reading

Trippe and American overseas aviation in general have attracted much study. Sweeping, popularized biographies are: Charles Kelly, Jr., The Sky's the Limit (1963); Robert Daley, An American Saga: Juan Trippe and His Pan American Empire (1980); and Marylin Bender and Selig Altschul, The Chosen Instrument: Pan Am, Juan Trippe, The Rise and Fall of an American Entrepreneur (1982). More scholarly are Richard Caves, Air Transport and Its Regulators (1962); R. E. G. Davies, A History of the World's Airlines (1964); and Wesley Phillips Newton, The Perilous Sky: U.S. Aviation Diplomacy in Latin America, 1911-1931 (1978). □