Entrepreneur - Record Setter

Entrepreneur/Record Setter

When Frye was 14, three Army Jennies made an emergency landing near the pond where he was skating. He forgot his new skates and spent the day running errands for the flyers. Frye contracted pneumonia, which was cured, and a fanatical interest in aviation, from which he never recovered.

• His motto, “safety, passenger comfort and schedule” greatly influenced the airliner industry.
• Founder of the Aero Corporation of California in 1927, which formed Standard Airlines, a major airmail transporter.
• Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) became a leader in high altitude research and fostered the development of a series of advanced transport aircraft, including the DC-1, DC-2, Boeing 307, and Lockheed Constellation.
• Frye set numerous records beginning with a commercial aircraft altitude record of 22,680 feet in 1929.
• In 1934, Frye flew from Los Angeles, California to Newark, New Jersey in the new DC-1 setting a record transcontinental time of 13 hours, four minutes.
• Frye and Howard Hughes piloted the Constellation on a record breaking flight across the country on April 17th, 1944.
• In 1955, Frye formed the Frye Corporation to develop a rugged trimotor airplane for use in underdeveloped countries.

Dead Stick Trophy, 1925

Bell Airport, Long Beach, Ca