Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracey V. Wilson. Okay, okay.
Speaker 1: So this is one of those episodes that I thought
Speaker 1: would be, oh, this will be a pretty quick one
Speaker 1: to do when I'm traveling and really busy, and then
Speaker 1: it ballooned and became two episodes. Uh so it'll be
Speaker 1: today in the next episode that we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about how commercial aviation developed in the twentieth century. And
Speaker 1: it's one of those things that, as I said, it
Speaker 1: just kept growing and growing as I worked on it,
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of innovation and regulation and tragedy
Speaker 1: that have all been part of shaping this relatively young industry.
Speaker 1: And even at two episodes, I would still only call
Speaker 1: it a brief history of commercial aviation. I feel like
Speaker 1: many of the things that come up over the course
Speaker 1: of these two episodes are things that we could do
Speaker 1: entire episodes on, and in some cases even series on.
Speaker 1: And in the interest of expectations aagement, while we are
Speaker 1: going to talk about some things that happened on an
Speaker 1: international level, I'm going ahead entitling this commercial aviation in
Speaker 1: the US, because we do talk a lot more about
Speaker 1: US companies and regulation than anything else. And um, speaking
Speaker 1: of regulation, this is only going to run up to
Speaker 1: the year that the US de regulated the airline industry
Speaker 1: in the late seventies. There's a whole lot more that
Speaker 1: happens after that, um, But we're going up to that
Speaker 1: because to me, that's sort of like the what I
Speaker 1: would categorize as the early aviation industry, even though it
Speaker 1: spans seventy years UM. And today in Part one, we
Speaker 1: are just going to go up to and a little
Speaker 1: into World War two. So buckle up, because here we go. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: since the early nine hundreds, when the possibility of air
Speaker 1: travel became a reality at all, many entrepreneurs, including Orville
Speaker 1: and Wilbur Wright, we're trying to figure out how to
Speaker 1: make flight into a business. We've discussed a lot of
Speaker 1: other contenders who come up when we're talking about who
Speaker 1: gets the true credit the invention of flight. But apart
Speaker 1: from that question, the rights put a lot of hustle
Speaker 1: into monetizing this new mode of travel. Specifically, they started
Speaker 1: talking to the U S Army about possible applications of
Speaker 1: their new technology, although they had to do a lot
Speaker 1: of convincing to get the Army on board with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they I mean they were talking to other people
Speaker 1: in other countries as well, but uh, they were really
Speaker 1: trying to sell to the Army. And a Navy man
Speaker 1: named Charles Furnace had first seen the Rights fly in
Speaker 1: nineteen o four when he was on leave for the holidays,
Speaker 1: and from that point he became a huge fan, and
Speaker 1: after years of following their work, he helped the Rights
Speaker 1: by assisting Charles Taylor, who was their mechanic, so he
Speaker 1: became their employee officially in the spring of nineteen o eight,
Speaker 1: when they desperately needed help rebuilding their North Carolina camp
Speaker 1: to prepare for new test flights. They had been away
Speaker 1: from it for some time, and when they came back,
Speaker 1: thinking that they would do new test flights in prep
Speaker 1: for this Army stuff, they're like, oh, this camp is
Speaker 1: a mess now, and actually took a lot more effort
Speaker 1: to get it back up to the point that they
Speaker 1: could work from there than they had anticipated. At that point,
Speaker 1: the Rights had cut a deal with the U. S.
Speaker 1: Army to build them an airplane and other interested parties had,
Speaker 1: like the Army, suggested that they would be willing to
Speaker 1: buy if the rights could build a plane that had
Speaker 1: the capability to carry a passenger as well as meet
Speaker 1: a series of maneuvering and speed requirements. And on the
Speaker 1: morning of May fourteenth, eight Wilbur Wright piloted the first
Speaker 1: known passenger flight, and he took that man, Charles Furnace,
Speaker 1: on a beach flight that lasted less than half a minute,
Speaker 1: as a way of thanking Charlie for his help and
Speaker 1: support over the years, because even before they hired him,
Speaker 1: he would always pitch in when they needed a hand.
Speaker 1: And later that day Charlie was once again a passenger
Speaker 1: in a much longer two mile flight, this time with
Speaker 1: Orville right as the pilot. So eight became a milestone
Speaker 1: year in commercial aviation, but it also marked a serious
Speaker 1: tragedy in the effort to turn air flight into a business.
Speaker 1: On September seventeenth of that year, Orville carried an Army
Speaker 1: lieutenant named Thomas Selfridge in a demonstration flight at Fort Meyer, Virginia.
Speaker 1: Selfridge was really knowledgeable about aviation. He was a member
Speaker 1: of the Aerial Experiment Association and had designed his own airplane.
Speaker 1: He was also on the five man committee that the
Speaker 1: Army had established to evaluate the White Brothers efforts and
Speaker 1: meeting the requirements that were outlined in their contract. And
Speaker 1: during the test, one of the plane's propellers had a problem.
Speaker 1: It's wooden blade split. An Orville right cut the engine,
Speaker 1: which had started shaking very violently, and he attempted to
Speaker 1: glide the plane into a landing, but a rear rudder
Speaker 1: shifted position and the plane was pretty abruptly tipped nose down.
Speaker 1: The flight ended in a very hard crash landing in
Speaker 1: which Selfridge's skull was fractured. Selfridge died later that day
Speaker 1: and was the first fatality in the commercial aviation business.
Speaker 1: Orville Wright broke his leg in several ribs, but he
Speaker 1: did recover over time. The Army allowed the Rights some
Speaker 1: time to recover and rebuild, and they ran some tests
Speaker 1: to determine what had caused the failure in the fort
Speaker 1: Meyer test and to try to address it. After another
Speaker 1: series of demonstration flights in nineteen o nine, they were
Speaker 1: awarded a government contract and they adopted this new technology.
Speaker 1: The U. S. Army required their pilots to wear helmets
Speaker 1: because of Selfridge's death, the Right brothers continued to diversify
Speaker 1: their business strategy to counter the many other entrepreneurs who
Speaker 1: wanted to get into aviation. They were definitely not the
Speaker 1: only people trying to make planes for money, and one
Speaker 1: of the ways that they did so was to open
Speaker 1: the first flying school to train commercial pilots in and
Speaker 1: they did that just outside of Montgomery, Alabama. The pilots
Speaker 1: trained and the Alabama School were taught so that they
Speaker 1: could fly for the Rights traveling exhibitions try to drum
Speaker 1: up sales, and then they in turn were expected to
Speaker 1: be able to teach the buyers how to fly their
Speaker 1: new aircraft. The location was chosen because of the warm
Speaker 1: weather of the South, offered a longer period each year
Speaker 1: to have flight training, and there was a lot of
Speaker 1: open flat farmland. Despite the community in this area doing
Speaker 1: everything possible to welcome the Rights and their school, including
Speaker 1: clearing the land for them and building them a hangar,
Speaker 1: the school only operated for a short time and it
Speaker 1: only had one graduate, Walter Brooke Ins. A series of
Speaker 1: plane malfunctions and the need to start their next tour
Speaker 1: led the Rights to leave the Montgomery area after only
Speaker 1: a couple of months, and they had left behind Brooke
Speaker 1: Ins and some other people to sort of keep it going,
Speaker 1: but it really wasn't happening. The farmland that had been
Speaker 1: set up for the rights eventually became a repair depot
Speaker 1: during World War One, and then it evolved over time
Speaker 1: to become Maxwell Air Force Base. In nineteen eleven, the
Speaker 1: Burgess Company became the first licensed manufacturer of aircraft. They
Speaker 1: operated out of Marblehead, Massachusetts. Sterling Burgess, who owned the company,
Speaker 1: had shifted his interest to aviation after running a successful shipyard.
Speaker 1: He got to deal with the Rights to build planes
Speaker 1: with their patented technology, and they introduced an aircraft called
Speaker 1: the Moth that was very similar to the Rights Model B.
Speaker 1: During the years that Burgess was in business, they got
Speaker 1: fairly heated between Sterling Burgess and the Rights as disputes
Speaker 1: erupted over royalties and shipping schedules. But the Rights still
Speaker 1: recognized that Burgess was really a worthwhile business partner, and
Speaker 1: even as Burgess in the Rights also competed in various
Speaker 1: competitions to advance the aviation field, they continued this partnership.
Speaker 1: The Burgess Company was awarded a military contract during World
Speaker 1: War One, but it took a significant effort to meet
Speaker 1: the demands of the deal. Just as the war was
Speaker 1: coming to a close. On November seven, nineteen eighteen, Burgess
Speaker 1: Plant Number two, which at that point was the main
Speaker 1: manufacturing facility, was destroyed by fire. This spelled the end
Speaker 1: of the company. Outstanding orders were completed by the number
Speaker 1: one facility. The five hundred employees of the company were
Speaker 1: giving their last paycheck, and then the company was shuttered.
Speaker 1: And coming up, we'll talk about the first commercial airline
Speaker 1: to open, But first we're gonna pause for a little
Speaker 1: sponsor break. While there were a number of flights being
Speaker 1: made for money in the nineteen teens, the first actual
Speaker 1: airline didn't launch until nineteen fourteen. January one of that
Speaker 1: year marks the first time that an actual airline. The St.
Speaker 1: Petersburg Tampa Airboat Line opened its doors as a business
Speaker 1: with a regular route schedule, and the route was just
Speaker 1: as the airline's name advertised. It ran passengers from St. Petersburg,
Speaker 1: Florida to Tampa, Florida by going across the bay, and
Speaker 1: this flight took less than thirty minutes. That was a
Speaker 1: significant improvement over the two hours of steamboat would take
Speaker 1: to make the same twenty one mile, it's about thirty
Speaker 1: four kilometers run. Of course, going or driving around the
Speaker 1: bay would have been even longer than that. The mayor
Speaker 1: of St. Petersburg, Abraham C. Field, was the airline's first customer,
Speaker 1: and he boarded a so called flying boat designed by
Speaker 1: a St. Louis entrepreneur named Thomas bin Wa. Bill had
Speaker 1: purchased his ticket by auction. A lot of people wanted
Speaker 1: to be the first passenger, and he ended up paying
Speaker 1: four hundred dollars or it. It wasn't a perfect flight.
Speaker 1: Some minor engine trouble made them make a brief water
Speaker 1: landing and then restart before they made it as Tampa,
Speaker 1: but this was still considered a success. The St. Petersburg
Speaker 1: Tampa Airboat Line did not have longevity. It only ran
Speaker 1: for four months because as the winter moved into spring,
Speaker 1: most of the wealthy people in the area snowbirds made
Speaker 1: their way back north, and then there just wasn't enough
Speaker 1: interest or money to keep it going. But in those
Speaker 1: four months, the airline made two flights a day, six
Speaker 1: days a week, at a ticket price of five dollars. Again,
Speaker 1: that four hundred dollar one was an auction to be
Speaker 1: first uh and then they had another five dollar charge
Speaker 1: that they would make per hundred pounds of freight if
Speaker 1: they were carrying freight. Pilot Tony Janis flew a total
Speaker 1: of twelve hundred five passengers in that short time that
Speaker 1: the airline was in operation. One of the legacies of
Speaker 1: this St. Pete Tampa line is an award that was
Speaker 1: established in nineteen sixty four by the Tampa and St.
Speaker 1: Petersburg Chambers of Commerce, The Tony Janis Award, issued by
Speaker 1: the Tony Janis Distinguished Aviation Society. He continues on to
Speaker 1: this day and recognizes quote extraordinary accomplishments in the field
Speaker 1: of commercial aviation. One of the major steps in the
Speaker 1: progression of commercial aviation was the establishment of the U.
Speaker 1: S National Airmail Service in August of nine eighteen, and
Speaker 1: this new influx of money that it brought into the
Speaker 1: aviation industry bolstered that new in the completely burgeoning industry
Speaker 1: at a time when passenger fairs were just a few
Speaker 1: over non existent. They were there were some people interested
Speaker 1: in paying to fly, but they really were not enough
Speaker 1: to sustain this. Carrying mail offered a real ongoing business
Speaker 1: that provided as much as of all revenue for some companies.
Speaker 1: Early airmail pilots were operating on what was called cams
Speaker 1: contract airmail routes. They were mapped out by the Post
Speaker 1: Office Department. Before the establishment of an official airmail service,
Speaker 1: the Post Office was using military aircraft and pilots on
Speaker 1: its airmail service roots. They ran between New York, Philadelphia
Speaker 1: and Washington, d c. That transition from military craft and
Speaker 1: pilots to the Post Office Department managing things on their
Speaker 1: own was enabled in part by Army Captain Benjamin Lipstner,
Speaker 1: who resigned his commission to become the air Mail services
Speaker 1: first Superintendent in nine nine. The oldest carrier in the
Speaker 1: world that has retained its original name launched. That carrier
Speaker 1: is KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. It merged with Air France
Speaker 1: in two thousand four, but it still operates under its
Speaker 1: original name, and the following year began offering flights between
Speaker 1: Amsterdam and London, a route that it still offers almost
Speaker 1: a hundred years later. The first year of KLEM illustrates
Speaker 1: what we were saying a moment ago about passengers versus
Speaker 1: cargo as the economic drivers of early commercial aviation. The
Speaker 1: company's flights transported three d forty five passengers in year
Speaker 1: one and twenty five thousand kilos of mail and cargo. Today,
Speaker 1: a single flight routinely carries almost as much cargo at
Speaker 1: about twenty thousand kilos, and even more passengers, topping out
Speaker 1: a more than four hundred. Within a decade caleum Royal
Speaker 1: Dutch Airlines was traveling a regular route to Indonesia, which
Speaker 1: was still a Dutch colony at that time. By the
Speaker 1: mid nineteen forties, they were running flights to Mexico and
Speaker 1: New York. The late nineteen teens and early nineteen twenties
Speaker 1: was when commercial airports started opening around the globe. London's
Speaker 1: Hounslow Heath Aerodrome opened as a commercial airport in nineteen nineteen,
Speaker 1: though it had been an airfield used by the Royal
Speaker 1: Flying Corps for almost a decade before it became a
Speaker 1: commercial entity. Australia Sydney Airport and Minneapolis St. Paul International
Speaker 1: Airport both opened in nineteen twenty. East Prussia got a
Speaker 1: dedicated commercial airport in nineteen twenty two at Flugavin de Voo.
Speaker 1: The first transcontinental NonStop flight took place in nineteen twenty three.
Speaker 1: Uh Fokker T two aircraft piloted by two US Army
Speaker 1: Air Service officers who were Lieutenant John A. McCready and
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Oakley G. Kelly, made this journey from Roosevelt Field,
Speaker 1: Long Island to Rockwell Field and Sandy Ago, California. They
Speaker 1: did that over the course of twenty seven hours. Their
Speaker 1: average speed was yeah, I always uh. That's always a
Speaker 1: good reminder, right. Air flight was not speedy. Speedy is today.
Speaker 1: On February the Contract Airmail Act, also known as the
Speaker 1: Kelly Act, was passed into law in the US and
Speaker 1: this essentially let the US Postal Service delegate their work
Speaker 1: managing routes, pilots, etcetera. Two contracted airlines and the first
Speaker 1: five contracts went to Colonial Air Transportation, National Air Transport,
Speaker 1: Robertson Aircraft Corporation, Western Air Express, and Varney Airlines. The
Speaker 1: U s Air Mail Service still had its own dedicated
Speaker 1: pilots and aircraft. They were running mail along the Transcontinental
Speaker 1: Flyway while the contracted airlines were handling shorter regional routes
Speaker 1: that changed over a fairly short period of time, though
Speaker 1: and by commercial airlines were handling all of the mail.
Speaker 1: By the end of the almost four dozen airlines had
Speaker 1: postal service contracts. Once again, the airmail business helped move
Speaker 1: the industry forward. Prior to the Airmail Act, of a
Speaker 1: lot of flight was still really precarious and kind of improvisational.
Speaker 1: Pilots flew a lot closer to the ground between two
Speaker 1: hundred and five hundred feet that's between sixty one and
Speaker 1: a hundred fifty two. They did this because they were
Speaker 1: navigating from visual queues below along with their compasses. There
Speaker 1: was not a lot else to the navigation process. But
Speaker 1: as air mail made the industry financially sustainable, it also
Speaker 1: opened the doors for companies to start offering regular commercial
Speaker 1: passenger services with established, consistent schedules. It also was right
Speaker 1: on the heels of the Airmail Act that the first
Speaker 1: flight touchdown at Candler Field outside of Atlanta in n
Speaker 1: on a plot of land that had once been a racetrack.
Speaker 1: Handler Field would of course eventually become one of the
Speaker 1: busiest airports in the world, and somewhere I spend a
Speaker 1: shocking amount of time Heartsfield Jackson International Airport. I spend
Speaker 1: less time than you, but I always marvel at how
Speaker 1: gigantic it is. As these changes were taking place in
Speaker 1: the world of airmail. President Calvin Coolidge signed the Air
Speaker 1: Commerce Act of nine into law. This placed a lot
Speaker 1: of responsibility regarding the aviation industry in the United States
Speaker 1: in the hands of the Secretary of Commerce. The Air
Speaker 1: Commerce Act gave the Secretary of Commerce the authorization to
Speaker 1: license pilots and aircraft, and to establish and define air
Speaker 1: roots and allocate resources to develop navigation aids. That also
Speaker 1: gave the Secretary of Commerce the responsibility of investigating aviation accidents.
Speaker 1: The international field of commercial airlines continued to grow as well.
Speaker 1: Deutsch Lufthansa, which is today simply Luftanza, started offering regular
Speaker 1: service in Germany in nine. It operated continuously until after
Speaker 1: World War Two, when it was shut down with the
Speaker 1: defeat of Nazi Germany, and it reformed in nineteen fifties three,
Speaker 1: rebuilding the company from the ground up. We're about to
Speaker 1: talk about the beginnings of an airline that's much beloved
Speaker 1: by nostalgia enthusiasts. But first we will take a break,
Speaker 1: and here from one of the sponsors that keeps our
Speaker 1: show going. In seven, Pan American Airways, known more commonly
Speaker 1: as PanAm, began running mail service between Key West Florida
Speaker 1: and Havana, Cuba. PanAm went on to hit a number
Speaker 1: of significant milestones in commercial aviation history over the course
Speaker 1: of the late twenties and up through the nineteen forties.
Speaker 1: PanAm innovated by being the first to run a regular
Speaker 1: schedule over water, the first to carry emergency lifesaving equipment,
Speaker 1: the first to develop its own air traffic control system,
Speaker 1: the first to sell all inclusive international packages in the
Speaker 1: first to provide round the world service in a company
Speaker 1: called huff dalind Dusters was operating out of Monroe, Louisiana,
Speaker 1: as a crop dusting company that was incorporated as a
Speaker 1: new organis station called Delta Air Service, named for the
Speaker 1: Mississippi Delta, which was central to its business region. Delta
Speaker 1: started offering passenger flights in nine nine, with stops in Dallas, Texas, Jackson, Mississippi,
Speaker 1: and Shreveport, and Monroe, Louisiana. It expanded to include Tuscaloosa
Speaker 1: and Birmingham, Alabama, Meridian, Mississippi, Atlanta, Georgia, and Fort Worth,
Speaker 1: Texas within a year, but a lack of a government
Speaker 1: airmail contract meant that not enough money was coming in,
Speaker 1: and Delta ceased passenger offerings until nineteen thirty four, when
Speaker 1: it finally got its airmail contract. That is also the
Speaker 1: year that it began operating as Delta air Lines, marks
Speaker 1: a significant moment in commercial airline staffing. Ellen Church was
Speaker 1: hired that year as the first female flight attendant Boeing
Speaker 1: air Transports who hired her. You would know that company
Speaker 1: today as United Airlines. Church's story is one that's both
Speaker 1: triumphant and frustrating. It sounds a lot like a lot
Speaker 1: of the other stories that we have had about women
Speaker 1: in avation. She was a very accomplished woman, including being
Speaker 1: a nurse and a licensed pilot, But of course airlines
Speaker 1: were not hiring women to pilot their aircraft in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty That would not happen until nineteen seventy three, when
Speaker 1: Emily Howell Warner was hired at Frontier Airlines. But Ellen
Speaker 1: Church was determined to get into the industry one way
Speaker 1: or another, and so she just started making her case
Speaker 1: to airline executives. She was quoted in the New York
Speaker 1: Times as saying, quote, don't you think it would be
Speaker 1: good psychology to have women up in the air? How
Speaker 1: is a man going to say he is afraid to
Speaker 1: fly when a woman is working on the plane. She
Speaker 1: also pointed out that nurses would make excellent staffers to
Speaker 1: have on board, and suggested that nurses could be the
Speaker 1: ones to help the passengers with their luggage and dispensing
Speaker 1: with snacks, which was business at the co pilot had
Speaker 1: been handling up to that point. It does not surprise
Speaker 1: me that anyone suggests that perhaps a nurse would be
Speaker 1: a good person to work as a flight attendant, but
Speaker 1: the idea that the co pilot was the person who
Speaker 1: had been handing out snacks cracked me up a little bit.
Speaker 1: Boeing Air Transports leadership was sold enough on this idea
Speaker 1: to start a three month test program that involved hiring
Speaker 1: eight women, including Ellen Church, to take care of the passengers,
Speaker 1: which freed up the co pilots for other duties, and
Speaker 1: then when the three months were over, an entire new
Speaker 1: career had been established. It was so successful for the
Speaker 1: airline that other airlines quickly started their own similar programs,
Speaker 1: and even other travel industries like railway companies started hiring
Speaker 1: women attendance to offer hospitality to their customers. Of course,
Speaker 1: the career of airline stewardess, as it was called for
Speaker 1: a very long time was riddled with a lot of
Speaker 1: sexist requirements for the women applying for those positions. They
Speaker 1: had to have nursing degrees, they had to fall within
Speaker 1: a narrow and very low weight range, they had to
Speaker 1: be in their early twenties, and they had to be
Speaker 1: pretty and single. And if they met those requirements, they
Speaker 1: also had to be willing to clean the plane, be
Speaker 1: able to manage heavy lifting, and be ready to serve
Speaker 1: as first responders in the event of a medical emergency.
Speaker 1: I don't think we really get into it on here,
Speaker 1: but then there was also a lot of sexism, and
Speaker 1: like the standards of dress for flight attendants, and like
Speaker 1: the uniforms were made and what was required to be
Speaker 1: worn with them. Um, I mean, it's not sexist to
Speaker 1: say that you have to have a nursing degree, but
Speaker 1: to say that you have to be young, pretty, single,
Speaker 1: thin woman is well, and at the time the idea
Speaker 1: of a male nurse was pretty unheard of. So contextually, yes,
Speaker 1: to say you have to be a nurse means only
Speaker 1: women's right, right. The first modern passenger airliner, the Boeing
Speaker 1: TO forty seven, was introduced in n three. It included
Speaker 1: a lot of new features, including autopilot and d icing equipment.
Speaker 1: United Airlines started offering coast to coast flights within the
Speaker 1: US with a bowing to forty seven that same year.
Speaker 1: The re required seven stops along the way and it
Speaker 1: took twenty hours, which is a lot, but that improved
Speaker 1: the earlier time of coast to coast strips by more
Speaker 1: than seven hours. It's so funny today that it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: tame me six hours. Yeah uh. Two years later, Boeing
Speaker 1: introduced the three oh seven Strato Liner, which was the
Speaker 1: first high altitude commercial airliner, and that was because it
Speaker 1: had the first pressurized cabin. It also had a flight
Speaker 1: engineer as part of its crew to manage pressurization and
Speaker 1: other aspects of the plane's functions, leaving the pilot free
Speaker 1: to focus on flying. Five of the ten Strato Liners
Speaker 1: that Boeing built became part of the U. S. Army's
Speaker 1: transport fleet during World War Two. The first commercial airline
Speaker 1: terminal in North America was opened in ninety five, and
Speaker 1: that was the Art Deco style Newark Airport Administration Building,
Speaker 1: which was dedicated by Amelia Earhart. That airport has been
Speaker 1: running since and for eleven years after the commercial terminal opened.
Speaker 1: It was the only airport serving the Greater New York area.
Speaker 1: That was the case until LaGuardia opened in ninety nine,
Speaker 1: and the origin story for a Guardia is based in
Speaker 1: New York Mayor Feararello LaGuardia's unwillingness to deplane in Newark
Speaker 1: in ninety four, the mayor refused to exit the plane
Speaker 1: that had carried him from Pittsburgh to Newark on the
Speaker 1: basis that the destination listed on his ticket was New York.
Speaker 1: The t w A flight that he was on continued
Speaker 1: from Newark to Brooklyn, where it landed in Floyd Bennett Field,
Speaker 1: and there the mayor disembarked, along with several reporters he
Speaker 1: had arranged to come along for the ride because it
Speaker 1: was a publicity stunt. He then held a press conference
Speaker 1: to announce that New York needed its own commercial airport
Speaker 1: and they were not going to depend on New Jersey anymore.
Speaker 1: They wrote ground in Queens for a new airport in
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty seven, on a five hundred fifty eight acre
Speaker 1: plot of land that had once been an amusement park.
Speaker 1: New York City Municipal Airport was opened on October fifteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine, and then had a name changed to
Speaker 1: New York City Municipal Airport, LaGuardia Field two weeks later,
Speaker 1: and then LaGuardia Airport in nineteen forty seven. A lot
Speaker 1: of people were like, you should have just called the
Speaker 1: Lagortia from the beginning. As New York and New Jersey
Speaker 1: were competing for airport dominance in the region, airlines were
Speaker 1: expanding their route offerings to progressively wider ranges. In ninety six,
Speaker 1: PanAm started offering flights crossing the Pacific Ocean, something that
Speaker 1: had taken a great deal of planning the year before.
Speaker 1: In ninety five, the company had tasked Captain Edwin Music
Speaker 1: with running survey flights to plot the route out, and
Speaker 1: that route eventually ran from San Francisco to China, with
Speaker 1: stops on islands owned by the US, where PanAm had
Speaker 1: established hotels because that trip took sixty hours and it
Speaker 1: included four overnight stops along the way. PanAm started its
Speaker 1: transatlantic passenger service on thirty nine, when a Boeing B
Speaker 1: three four team called Dixie Clipper took twenty two passengers
Speaker 1: from New York to Europe. Similar to the Pacific route.
Speaker 1: The company had surveyed route across the Northern and the
Speaker 1: Southern Atlantic, depending on the final destination and the years
Speaker 1: before World War two, PanAm established service to fifty two
Speaker 1: countries around the world. In The Civil Aeronautics Act was
Speaker 1: signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on June
Speaker 1: and this established the Civil Aeronautics Authority, which included the
Speaker 1: Civil Aeronautics Board to oversee aircraft and pilot certification, and
Speaker 1: the Civil Aeronautics Administration to manage airway development, air traffic control,
Speaker 1: and safety programs. World War two really brought a lot
Speaker 1: of the commercial airline industry to a halt. We mentioned
Speaker 1: already some specific planes that had been commercial airliners, and
Speaker 1: they became part of military efforts once the war started.
Speaker 1: That really wasn't unusual. Two hundred of the three hundred
Speaker 1: sixty airline aircraft that were active in the airline industry
Speaker 1: were requisitioned by the military. The Air Transport Command was
Speaker 1: established in ninety two and managed the use of commercial
Speaker 1: planes to transport materials and people around the world during
Speaker 1: the war. In earlier wars, similar things happened with people's
Speaker 1: like personal ships also, so it's like the whole idea
Speaker 1: was not a totally new no. Uh, non military air
Speaker 1: travel essentially stopped as priority was given to war related
Speaker 1: travel needs. The Office of Defense Transportation started printing posters
Speaker 1: with the text is your trip necessary? Needless travel interferes
Speaker 1: with the war effort. Airlines like pan Am that had
Speaker 1: already established global roots were especially valuable to the military,
Speaker 1: and both airliners and staff were contracted through the Air
Speaker 1: Transport Command. During the war, President Roosevelt became the first
Speaker 1: US president to fly while serving in office. And that
Speaker 1: is where you will end Part one and part two
Speaker 1: will look at a stretch of a little over three
Speaker 1: decades during which the airline industry went through incredible growth.
Speaker 1: And we will also have a special guest at the
Speaker 1: end of the show. Yeah, it's like a little bonus
Speaker 1: episode at the end of the next one where we
Speaker 1: get to have a fabulous person on to check with
Speaker 1: longtime friend of the show joining Holly. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: about this stuff a lot, and it's the reason I
Speaker 1: wanted to do this episode is because I have been
Speaker 1: flying so much this year. Um, and I occasionally ruminate
Speaker 1: on like how did we get here to the point
Speaker 1: that everything that seems so uh sort of mundane to
Speaker 1: us and like part of just part of everyday life.
Speaker 1: I gotta go to the airport get on a plane.
Speaker 1: But literally a century ago that was like a mind
Speaker 1: boggling concept. Yeah. Well, and for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: like it still is a totally like not part of
Speaker 1: their experience at all. Like when like my family, my
Speaker 1: my parents did some flying before I was born because
Speaker 1: my dad was an army and like we deployed to Vietnam,
Speaker 1: you did it on a plane. Um, But the like,
Speaker 1: we never had a family vacation that involved air travel
Speaker 1: at all. And I never got on a plane until
Speaker 1: I was in college and went to a conference. Um,
Speaker 1: and then I was reading a thing before we came
Speaker 1: in here. Like something like eight percent of people in
Speaker 1: the world have never been on a plane, but only
Speaker 1: like twenty of Americans have never been on a plane. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I Also my dad was career Air Force. We never
Speaker 1: took a plane anywhere for me. Yeah, even if we
Speaker 1: were going very far, we always drove it. Um. One
Speaker 1: of those reasons we'll talk about a little bit in
Speaker 1: Part two. But it was not uh cost effective for
Speaker 1: family to fly at all. Commercially, so there are many
Speaker 1: barriers for a lot of people. Yeah, we had that,
Speaker 1: plus my mother being terrified of flying, which is something
Speaker 1: I kind of inherited from her and then had to
Speaker 1: deal with as I became an adult whose job required
Speaker 1: some air traveled. Yes. Uh, I never was afraid of
Speaker 1: flying as a kid. Had a little period where I
Speaker 1: became afraid of it after a little scared. Now I'm
Speaker 1: over at a file of time. Uh. I have a
Speaker 1: little bit of listener mail from our listener Catherine, and
Speaker 1: I love it because she sent us a postcar bush.
Speaker 1: She put it in an envelope, so I have no um,
Speaker 1: none of the smearing that we occasionally get. She writes,
Speaker 1: High Tracy and Holly. My name is Catherine and I
Speaker 1: started listening to your podcast earlier this summer. I work
Speaker 1: on cruise ships as a costumer, and one of my
Speaker 1: friends who I work with introduced me. I'm a huge
Speaker 1: fan of history as my dad as a history teach
Speaker 1: your thank you to your Dan for being an educator,
Speaker 1: and she says, and I particularly love your spooky episode.
Speaker 1: Since my birthday is Halloween, I look forward to more
Speaker 1: spooky episodes of this October Best Catherine, PS, I hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this postcard. I picked it up while I
Speaker 1: was working on a ship that traveled to the Mediterranean,
Speaker 1: specifically Malta, my friend Olivia who started me listening, and
Speaker 1: I thought you would like it. It's a beautiful picture
Speaker 1: of Malta. Thank you so much, Catherine, and also, um,
Speaker 1: one cool job too. Happy birthday coming up? It will
Speaker 1: not It will only be a couple of weeks away
Speaker 1: when this episode airs, So I hope you have a
Speaker 1: wonderful October and Halloween birthday season. That sounds fantastic to me. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us, you can
Speaker 1: do so at History Podcast at house to Works dot com.
Speaker 1: You can also find us everywhere on social media as
Speaker 1: Missed in History and on the Internet as Missed in
Speaker 1: History dot com. If you would like to subscribe to
Speaker 1: the show, we sure would enjoy that. You can do
Speaker 1: that on the I Heart Radio app, at Apple podcast
Speaker 1: or wherever it is you listen. Stuff you Missed in
Speaker 1: History Class is a production of I Heart Radio's How
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows,