The Birth of Commercial Aviation in the United States

A Question of Definition

Every few years, one of the leading United States domestic airlines - United, American, Delta or TWA, for example - will celebrate an anniversary of its birth and customarily will trace its history back to an ancestor airline, and claim to be the oldest airline in the United States. They can all make a reasonable claim. United, for example, habitually points to Varney Air Lines, which started operations on 6 April 1926; American goes back almost as far, with Robertson Aircraft Corporation, which started on 15 April; while TWA and Delta both claim Western Air Express's 17 April date for their claim to firstliness. United's claim is a little weak, as Varney only made one flight on 6 April, and operations were not resumed for another three weeks. Delta's claim is because it bought Western Air Lines, WAE's descendant, in recent years. Another claim is made by Northwest Airlines, which took over the operations of another air mail contractor which had started on 7 June 1926. All these airlines have valid claims to early pioneering, and each claim is valid, provided the necessary adjectives are used to ensure strict historical accuracy.

Without detracting from these worthy claims for recognition, the term oldest is often, unfortunately, confused with first; so that the general impression is that all the airlines of the USA were years behind Europe, Australia, South America, and Japan - even darkest Africa - in starting air transport operations as a commercial venture. This could not be further from the truth. Many airlines in the United States had existed, even for a brief period flourished, before 1926, and this does not even include the splendid Post Office Air Mail Service. This organization served the nation from 1919 to 1927, establishing a commendable record and building up a fund of experience. It was able to pass on many hard-won lessons for future operators before the decisive governmental decisions of 1925 (The Air Mail Act) and 1926 (the Air Commerce Act) established the formula by which the air mail was carried by independent companies under contract to the us Post Office.

A Question of Record-Keeping

One reason why the annals of the pre- 1926 airlines have not been handed down for posterity is simply because of a possibly unintentional accident by