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Paul Revere Braniff (August 30, 1897 – June 1, 1954 [a] ) was an American entrepreneur. He was a co-founder of Braniff International Airways with his brother Thomas Elmer Braniff. He served as a mechanic in World War I in the United States Army and then as a pilot in World War II.
Paul Revere Braniff was born in Kansas City, Kansas. He grew up during the early era of aviation, and, as a youngster, became fascinated with the new way of transport. His family moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1900.
Braniff married Marie Agnes Maney on April 29, 1920.
Marie Agnes Maney was born on May 2, 1898, in El Reno, Oklahoma. She was the daughter of James W. Maney, who was an Oklahoma Territory Pioneer. He built thousands of miles of railroads throughout the Western United States. His occupation was Civil Engineer and was President of the Clinton and Western Oklahoma Railroad and founded a chain of grain elevators in the Enid, Oklahoma, area. Marie Maney grew up at Maney House in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that is now a historically protected property. She attended and graduated from schools in Baltimore, Maryland. [1]
Marie Braniff was highly interested in her husband's work. When he founded Paul R. Braniff, Inc. and then its successor Braniff Airways, Inc., she traveled with him scouting new routes. Her love for Paul and his aviation interests led her to compile a very detailed archive on the history of Braniff Airways. She remained highly interested and involved in the preservation of Braniff history even after Paul Braniff's death in 1954. [1]
They had one child, John Paul Braniff, who was born on October 29, 1927. John Braniff died in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on February 1, 2013, at the age of 85. [1]
Braniff joined the United States Army during World War I as a mechanic and private on July 6, 1917. He went to France, becoming a corporal, then a temporary sergeant. In France, he learned to shoot, becoming an avid gunman, although he never used this ability outside of the military.
After being honorably discharged from the Army, Paul Braniff joined his brother Tom in an insurance company that carried the family's name. Paul Braniff, however, kept dreaming about aviation all along and received his pilot's license in 1917. He obtained Transport License Number 690 from Orville Wright. In 1924, he was bought his own aircraft.
Braniff founded his own flying company soon after, eventually helping convince Tom Braniff and other investors to bring money and form the Oklahoma Aero Club, in 1927. Reserved for use of the six investors, the company was registered as the Paul R. Braniff, Inc., thus marking the first birth of Braniff Airways. Paul Braniff flew the company's first flight on June 20, 1928, from Oklahoma City to Tulsa, Oklahoma in a 5-passenger single engine Stinson Detroiter aircraft. Records indicate that there were flights between the two cities prior to the June 20 date. However, company records began recording flights on that date.
Charles Lindbergh's monumental 1927 Atlantic crossing sparked massive interest in aviation around the nation. In Oklahoma, the interest was manifested in the Oklahoma Air Tour of 1928. Sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce of Oklahoma, it involved aviators flying to various Oklahoma town expressing an interest in aviation. The five-day tour, departing Oklahoma City on May 14, 1928, flew eighteen thousand cumulative miles and stopped at eighteen towns. An estimated 100,000 people turned out to view the twenty two aircraft and hear the pilots, including Braniff, promote the benefits of commercial aviation. The Oklahoma cities of Altus, Miami, and Guthrie, built airports specifically for air tour usage. The tour was operated again in 1929, but the onslaught of the Great Depression ended any further air races.
At the time, the airline was involved with the National Transcontinental air race.
In November 1929, Paul R. Braniff, Inc. was purchased by Universal Airlines, was renamed as Braniff Airlines, and moved headquarters to St. Louis. [2]
In 1929, Braniff left the United States to go to Mexico to help someone build a struggling Mexican airline company (apparently this person was Alberto Braniff, but no evidence of this, nor of Alberto Braniff being related to the American Braniff brothers, has ever been reported[ citation needed ]).
Braniff remained in Mexico until 1930.
While in Mexico, Braniff gained airline industry expertise. He returned to the United States with innovative ideas for a new Braniff airline, including the use of faster aircraft that he knew would help the airline by bringing quicker turn-around times and, as a consequence, enable the airline to carry more passengers.
With that idea, Paul R. Braniff convinced Tom Braniff and the other four investors to buy two Lockheed Vega aircraft. Braniff Airways, Inc. was formed in November, 1930. [3] : 23
Paul R. Braniff headed to Washington, D.C. in 1934, being called to testify before the congress, which was heading an investigation against air mail services. He returned to St. Louis with a contract for Braniff Airlines to carry mail, the first time the airline had obtained an airmail contract. [3] : 24
Braniff then set on exploring new markets for the company that bore his last name. In 1936, Braniff headed to Brazil, and he returned to St. Louis convinced that the company would do great economically if established in South America. The carrier was awarded a 7719-mile route from the Mainland US to far South America in 1946 with service beginning in 1948. Braniff Airways, Inc. began doing business as Braniff International Airways with the beginning of South America service. [3] : 22
Braniff had been running the day-to-day operations of the airline but decided to leave the carrier in 1935. He was replaced by Charles Edmund Beard who would eventually become the President of Braniff Airways in 1954. [3] : 21
Intending to retire from aviation, Paul Braniff sold the airline to his brother Tom. It was after he left that Braniff International Airways became a major player in United States-South America travel and vice versa, as Braniff International Airways began daily flights to various points in that continent and to Europe after the jet era began, with their distinctive livery that included many colors not seen before on aircraft fuselages.
Braniff went to Oklahoma to try to work as a mechanic, and he established the Braniff Engineering Corporation. That company was the first one to introduce the Lennox Air Conditioners and heating systems in Oklahoma.
At 44 years old, Braniff was re-called into military service as the United States entered World War II, in 1941. He flew aircraft in the United States Army Air Forces. He flew with the IX Troop Carrier Command in England. But, after his second service in the military was over, so was his flying career.
Braniff later worked as an advisor for the Douglas Company in Los Angeles. He moved to Oklahoma, where he worked for another aviation-related company as salesman, selling used aircraft parts.
Braniff was diagnosed with cancer later in his life, and he went on to spend his last couple of years relatively inactive. Expected to survive his cancer, Braniff suffered a cold in the summer of 1954, which later turned into a pneumonia. He underwent surgery to correct the pneumonia, but the surgery aggravated the cancer. He died on June 1, 1954, from complications of cancer that his doctors stated was directly connected with pneumonia and resulting surgery. Braniff was 56. Braniff's tombstone at his burial site incorrectly states he died on June 15, 1954. [4]
Air Midwest, Inc., was a Federal Aviation Administration Part 121 certificated air carrier that operated under air carrier certificate number AMWA510A issued on May 15, 1965. It was headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, United States, and from 1991 was a subsidiary of Mesa Air Group. Besides initially flying as an independent air carrier, it later operated code sharing feeder flights on behalf of Eastern Air Lines as Eastern Air Midwest Express, on behalf of American Airlines as American Eagle, on behalf of Trans World Airlines (TWA) as Trans World Express and on behalf of US Airways as US Airways Express. It also operated feeder flights on behalf of Braniff (1983–1990) and Ozark Air Lines in addition to flying for Mesa Airlines. Air Midwest was shut down by its parent company, Mesa Airlines, in June 2008.
Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport is five miles north of Lubbock, in Lubbock County, Texas, United States. Originally Lubbock International Airport, it was renamed in 2004 for former Texas governor Preston E. Smith, an alumnus of Texas Tech University.
Braniff Airways, Inc., operated as Braniff International Airways from 1948 until 1965, and then Braniff International from 1965 until air operations ceased, was an American airline that operated from 1928 until 1982 and continues today as a retailer, hotelier, travel service and branding and licensing company, administering the former airline's employee pass program and other airline administrative duties. Braniff's routes were primarily in the midwestern and southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America, and South America. In the late 1970s it expanded to Asia and Europe. The airline ceased air carrier operations in May 1982 because of high fuel prices, credit card interest rates and extreme competition from the large trunk carriers and the new airline startups created by the Airline Deregulation Act of December 1978. Two later airlines used the Braniff name: the Hyatt Hotels-backed Braniff, Inc. in 1983–89, and Braniff International Airlines, Inc. in 1991–92.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1930:
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1928:
Pan American-Grace Airways, also known as Panagra, and dubbed "The World's Friendliest Airline" was an airline formed as a joint venture between Pan American World Airways and Grace Shipping Company. On September 13, 1928, a small single-engine Fairchild airliner flew from Lima, Peru, to Talara, Peru, which marked not only the beginning of Pan American Grace Airways but also the inauguration of scheduled air transportation along the West Coast of South America. From this short flight in 1928 to nonstop flights from New York to South America with Douglas DC-8 Intercontinental Jets in 1966, Panagra became the standard-bearer for transportation between the US Mainland East Coast and the West Coast of South America for 39 years. The "World's Friendliest Airline" merged with Braniff International Airways in 1967, and the combined carrier became the largest US airline serving South America.
Pueblo Memorial Airport is a public airport located six miles east of Pueblo, in Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. It is primarily used for general aviation.
Ponca City Regional Airport is a city-owned airport two miles northwest of Ponca City, in Kay County, Oklahoma, United States.
Brownsville/South Padre Island International Airport is 5 mi east of downtown Brownsville, Cameron County, in the U.S. state of Texas.
Albert George Leonard ("Len") Morgan was an American aviator, writer, publisher, entrepreneur, photogrammetrist, and investor.
Topeka Regional Airport, formerly known as Forbes Field, is a joint civil-military public airport owned by the Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority in Shawnee County, Kansas, seven miles south of downtown Topeka, the capital city of Kansas. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 called it a general aviation airport.
Mid-Continent Airlines was a trunk carrier, a scheduled airline which operated in the central United States from the 1930s until 1952 when it was acquired by and merged with Braniff International Airways. Mid-Continent Airlines was originally founded as a flight school at Rickenbacker Airport in Sioux City, Iowa, during 1928, by Arthur Hanford Jr., a dairy operator. The Hanford Produce Company was the largest creamery in the United States with over 100 trucks in operation. The company was primarily a dairy but also sold ice cream and poultry. The Hanford's also founded and built the new Rickenbacker Airport and operated eight gas stations and several service repair garages under the name Hanford's, Inc. The airport was a division of Hanford's, Inc., but the service stations and garages were later sold to finance airline operations. Mid-Continent was based in Kansas City, Missouri at the time of its acquisition by Braniff.
Braniff Inc. was an American airline that operated flights from 1984 until 1989 and was partially formed from the assets of the original Braniff International Airways. The domestic air carrier was originally headquartered at Dallas Love Field in Dallas, Texas, and later Orlando, Florida. The airline is sometimes referred to as "Braniff II".
Robertson Aircraft Corporation was a post-World War I American aviation service company based at the Lambert-St. Louis Flying Field near St. Louis, Missouri, that flew passengers and U.S. Air Mail, gave flying lessons, and performed exhibition flights. It also modified, re-manufactured, and resold surplus military aircraft including Standard J, Curtiss Jenny/Canuck, DeHavilland DH-4, Curtiss Oriole, Spad, Waco, and Travel Air types in addition to Curtiss OX-5 engines.
Harding Luther Lawrence was executive vice president of Continental Airlines and then president and chairman of Braniff International Airways, a Dallas, Texas-based carrier. Lawrence's bold and dramatic accomplishments at both airlines earned him the reputation as not only a maverick of the transportation industry but as one of the last legendary titans of aviation. While at Braniff, Lawrence turned the conservative airline into a progressive and flamboyant carrier known for high fashion flight attendant uniforms, exemplary inflight service, and brightly painted planes. Lawrence' revolutionary approach included approving the "End of the Plain Plane" campaign in 1965, which called for imaginative aircraft paint schemes, interiors, and never before seen passenger service comforts. Previous airlines were commonly patterned after less than appealing military operations.
Charles Edmund Beard was the former President of Braniff International Airways, from 1954 until 1965. He was the third president since its inception in 1928, the first person outside the Braniff family to be CEO of the airline. Beard, along with Braniff Board Chairman Fred Jones, managed the airline conservatively, but recorded record growth and traffic statistics between 1954 and early 1965.
Thomas Elmer Braniff was an American entrepreneur. He was a co-founder of Braniff International Airways, along with his brother Paul Revere Braniff. Known as Tom Braniff, he was also a noted insurance pioneer in Oklahoma. In 1928 he formed Paul R. Braniff, Inc., with his brother Paul Braniff, to operate schedule air carrier flights between Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
R. V. Carleton who worked for Braniff International, the Dallas, Texas, based airline, for nearly 40 years, began as a line captain and retired as executive vice president. As an aviator he pioneered South American airline routes and chaired the first worldwide symposium on supersonic transport aircraft. He was a celebrated figure in the field of aviation with an impressive list of accomplishments and contributions to the industry that he cherished.
Gordon Sprigg Darnell was an American auto mechanic, airplane mechanic, Army officer, Army pilot, airmail pilot, airline pilot, volunteer fireman and one of ten recipients of the Airmail Flyers' Medal of Honor.
This is the history of Braniff International Airways.
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