Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was a low-cost US airline headquartered in San Diego, California, that operated from 1949 to 1988. It was the first substantial scheduled discount airline. PSA called itself "The World's Friendliest Airline" and painted a smile on the nose of its airplanes, the PSA Grinningbirds. The Los Angeles Times called PSA "practically the unofficial flag carrier airline of California for almost forty years."
Flying Tiger Line, also known as Flying Tigers, was the first scheduled cargo airline in the United States and a major military charter operator during the Cold War era for both cargo and personnel. The airline was bought by Federal Express in 1989.
American Airlines Flight 1 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from New York International (Idlewild) Airport in New York City to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. During takeoff on March 1, 1962, flight, the Boeing 707 rolled over and crashed into Jamaica Bay in New York City two minutes after taking off, killing all 87 passengers and eight crew members aboard. A Civil Aeronautics Board investigation determined that a manufacturing defect in the autopilot system led to an uncommanded rudder control system input, causing the accident. A number of notable people died in the crash. It was the fifth fatal Boeing 707 accident, and at the time, the deadliest. It was third of three fatal crashes during an operation of American Airlines Flight 1, and the third fatal crash involving one of American's 707s in the New York area within a three-year period after Flight 514 and Flight 1502.
On August 31, 1940, Pennsylvania Central Airlines Trip 19, a new Douglas DC-3A, was flying from Washington, D.C. to Detroit with a stopover in Pittsburgh. While the aircraft was flying near Lovettsville, Virginia at 6,000 feet (1,800 m) and approaching the West Virginia border, Trip 19 encountered an intense thunderstorm. Numerous witnesses reported seeing a large flash of lightning shortly before it nosed over and plunged to earth in an alfalfa field. With limited accident investigation tools at the time, it was at first believed that the most likely cause was the plane flying into windshear, but the Civil Aeronautics Board report concluded that the probable cause was a lightning strike. U.S. Senator Ernest Lundeen was among the 21 passengers and 4 crew members killed. Also on board were "a Special Agent of the FBI, a second FBI employee, and a prosecutor from the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice." At the time of the crash, the FBI was investigating Sen. Lundeen's ties to George Sylvester Viereck, a top Nazi spy working in the US to spread pro-Hitler and anti-Semitic propaganda.
Northeast Airlines was an American trunk carrier, a scheduled airline based in Boston, Massachusetts, originally founded as Boston-Maine Airways that chiefly operated in the northeastern United States, and later to Canada, Florida, the Bahamas, Bermuda and other cities. It was notably small and unprofitable relative to other trunk carriers, being less than half the size, by revenue, than the next biggest trunk in 1971. Northeast was acquired by and merged into Delta Air Lines in August 1972.
Bonanza Air Lines was a local service carrier, a US scheduled airline focused on smaller routes in the Western United States from 1949 until it merged with two other local service airlines to form Air West in 1968. Its headquarters was initially Las Vegas, Nevada, and moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1966.
TWA Flight 3 was a twin-engine Douglas DC-3-382 propliner, registration NC1946, operated by Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) as a scheduled domestic passenger flight from New York, New York, to Burbank, California, in the United States, via several stopovers including Las Vegas, Nevada. On January 16, 1942, at 19:20 PST, fifteen minutes after takeoff from Las Vegas Airport bound for Burbank, the aircraft was destroyed when it crashed into a sheer cliff on Potosi Mountain, 32 miles (51 km) southwest of the airport, at an elevation of 7,770 ft (2,370 m) above sea level. All 22 people on board, including movie star Carole Lombard, her mother, Clark Gable's press agent, Otto Winkler, three crew members, and 15 U.S. Army soldiers died in the crash. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigated the accident and determined that the cause was a navigation error by the captain.
AAXICO Airlines was an airline based in the United States. AAXICO is an acronym for American Air Export and Import Company. Initially founded as a non-scheduled airline or irregular air carrier, AAXICO was awarded certification as a scheduled air cargo airline in 1955 by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now-defunct Federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all US commercial air transportion. However, in 1962 AAXICO reverted to a supplemental air carrier. In 1965, it was nominally bought by Saturn Airways, another supplemental airline, but AAXICO was the surviving management and ownership. In its later years, AAXICO was noted for its consistent profitability, financial strength and its near total focus on flying for the military.
Airlift International was an American cargo airline that operated from 1945 to 1991, initially under the name Riddle Airlines. It was certificated as a scheduled freight airline in 1951 by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now-defunct federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all US commercial air transport. Airlift's headquarters were at Miami International Airport, Florida.
Slick Airways was one of the first scheduled cargo airlines in the United States, awarded a certificate for scheduled cargo service in the same proceeding that awarded a certificate to Flying Tiger Line. The airline was founded by Earl F. Slick, a Texas aviator and multimillionaire who along with his brother, inherited $25 million in oil wealth after their father's death in 1930.
Known for the first few months of its existence as Orvis Nelson Air Transport, Transocean Air Lines was a supplemental air carrier, a type of US airline defined and regulated by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now defunct Federal agency that, from 1938 to 1978, tightly regulated almost all US commercial air transportation. During the time the airline operated, supplemental airlines were charter/scheduled hybrids, legally able to operate a limited amount of scheduled service, which Transocean did, especially towards the end of its existence. Transocean was based in Oakland, California. The airline was among the most operationally capable of the supplemental airlines, regularly operating many thousands of miles from the United States. At times it accounted for over 20% of the revenue of all supplemental air carriers, and it usually was the largest supplemental by revenue. However, Transocean fell on increasingly hard financial times during the 1950s and ceased operating in 1960.
American Airlines Flight 28 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight that crashed on October 23, 1942, in Chino Canyon near Palm Springs, California, United States, after being struck by a United States Army Air Forces B-34 bomber. The B-34 suffered only minor damage, and landed safely at the Army Airport of the Sixth Ferrying Command, Palm Springs.
In the mid-20th century, Dwight W. "Poddy" Mercer established at least four airlines in the Los Angeles area:
Caren Marsh Doll, also credited as Caren Marsh, is an American former stage and screen actress and dancer specializing in modern dance and tap. She is notable as one of Judy Garland's stand-ins in The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Ziegfeld Girl (1941). She is one of the last surviving actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood. From 1937 until 1948, Marsh appeared in motion pictures with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, including a small uncredited part in Gone with the Wind. She became a dance instructor in 1956.
California Central Airlines (CCA) was a post-war American scheduled price-focused intrastate airline based at Burbank, California, the most prominent airline associated with Charles C. Sherman. CCA slightly preceded, and during its existence was bigger than, its contemporary and competitor, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA). The core route of both airlines was from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area.
On January 28, 1948, a DC-3 aircraft operated by Airline Transport Carriers with 32 persons on board, mostly Mexican farm laborers, including some from the bracero guest worker program, crashed in the Diablo Range, 20 miles west of Coalinga, California, killing all passengers and crew. The crash inspired the song "Deportee" by Woody Guthrie.
American Airlines Flight 6001 was a transcontinental flight from New York City's LaGuardia Airport to Hollywood Burbank Airport. On the morning of January 10, 1945, during a missed approach to Hollywood Burbank Airport, the American Airlines Douglas DC-3-277B operating the flight crashed into the nearby Verdugo Hills. All of the 21 passengers and 3 crew members were killed in the crash.
Standard Airways operated intermittently from 1946 through 1969 as a small supplemental air carrier a type of US airline regulated by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now-defunct US federal agency that tightly regulated airlines from 1938 to 1978. From 1964 onward, a supplemental air carrier was a charter airline. Until 1964, such airlines were charter/scheduled hybrids and Standard Airways did operate some scheduled services. The airline went bankrupt in 1964 and did not operate again until 1966 with new investors. It converted to jets but then ceased flying again on August 1, 1969. Many attempts were made to restart the airline until the CAB finally revoked its certificate in 1975.
North American Airlines Group or North American Group, dba North American Airlines was a "combine", a group of US irregular air carriers and related companies under common control that acted as an early scheduled low-cost carrier in the period 1949–1957. It can be seen as a form of virtual airline.
