Jack Frye Plays Howard Hughes Hand...

Since December 1934, our young, energetic, fiercely competitive 30 year old President of TWA stood at the crossroads of aviation history. He had helped steer the DC aircraft revolution, was the first to offer passengers a new way of life in travel, and he made air transportation respectable, safe, comfortable and on time. Jack Frye pioneering through the 30’s saw the beginning of major technological advances in aircraft and many logistical ground support operations. The discovery of calm flight above the clouds and the discovery of 150 mph winds up there we now call the jet stream were Frye firsts. The first pressurized cabin airliner, the 307 Stratoliner. The advancement of radio communications from ground to air crew that enabled great scheduling efficiency. And the introduction to the new Sperry Auto Pilot system. These are just a few innovations that occurred during the Frye legacy. Then onto the 40’s, Jack Frye helped conceive the new Constellation aircraft that opened up International travel. His service as president in working with the US Government during WWII was superior and generously rewarded by President Harry Truman with the Medal of Merit, America’s highest civilian decoration. The huge expansion of travel routes and eventually the establishment of shorter global air routes, Jack Frye was on the cutting edge of airline development.

Standing at the gate of a new frontier in air travel, Jack Frye owned it, loved every minute of it, consumed it 24 hours a day with extraordinary skill and style for 13 courageous pioneering years as TWA’s chief. His modus operandi was always forward thinking and committing to growing TWA and airline travel as a whole, and this cost money. We must remember the airline industry was seeing new advancements and new ideas on a daily basis during the 30’s through the 40’s. This fact couldn’t be helped being an immerging industry since the dawn of powered flight at Kitty Hawk. But to Jack Frye’s demise as TWA’s chief executive, there was and is always the case in any large corporation, bean counting lawyers that were constantly at his coattails. One Noah Dietrich, Howard Hughes chief council just couldn’t stomach Jack Frye spending his client’s money on airplanes and staff. He couldn’t and wouldn’t see the silver lining beyond the clouds with his business management style. Dietrich was about protectionism, Frye was about growth and expansion and so was Hughes. But, as has been recorded, Dietrich got into Howards ear and for the most part convinced his master that Frye needed to go.

Through the pilots strike in 1946 amidst plunging revenue during the recession, Howard Hughes was still loyal to Jack Frye and he still favored Jack’s business style and bravado though guardedly. According to George Spater, “Hughes wanted to retain Frye on the condition that Dietrich have a greater say in the running of the airline” (Serling 1983). This alleged notion was flatly denied by Frye. It has been recorded that Jack Frye during this tumultuous time of friction between him and Howard, he installed long telephone extension cords in his Washington residence that would enable him to have hours long conversations with Hughes while walking from room to room or preparing a meal or a drink without interruption. Some of the private conversations of Jack and Howard was known to have been recorded by Frye, but to this day no one knows what happened to the tapes. My suspicion is Jack either destroyed them or packed them away in a box of many that ended up in a storage facility, somewhere.

Before Hughes could fire him, Jack Frye played his hand and resigned from TWA, February 17, 1947. He had no ill will toward Hughes, and likewise of Howard. In fact Howard really wanted him to stay on condition he take some of Dietrichs financial advice. Hughes was obviously tentative but Jack being the visionary pioneer type refused. And for good reason. Obviously by Jack Frye’s incredible track record of achievements up to 1947, his career was dedicated and purposeful and made fantastic headway in the globalization of air travel. Did Howard forget that? Was he such a whiner and a small man not to see what Jack Frye had achieved for his investment? Sure the company was in the red but was about to rocket into the black if Jack Frye stayed on board and on course. It was Noah Dietrich that saddled Hughes into succumbing. One of the last persons Jack Frye saw before officially leaving TWA was Hal Blackburn. With unbelief he asked Jack, “Are you really leaving us?” Frye sadly replied, “Blackie, I don’t know.” “Under the circumstances, unless things change, I can’t stay.”

The following are some employee memories of Jack Frye from Serling's 1983 book – Howard Hughes Airline.

Buy it here

George Spater – “I don’t know if he’s ever gotten the credit he deserved. He was a great believer in high standards of service. He’d go over the TWA advertising copy word by word to make sure it was in good taste and honest. He insisted that the airplanes be clean. He was a great originator and innovator.”

John Collins – “It was Jack Frye who thought up the idea of putting a red carpet down between the boarding gate and the airplane. I laughed at this and talked Jack out of it by claiming the carpet would blow away the first time there was a high wind. But later United adopted the idea and so did TWA.”

Carter Burgess – “God he was a bright guy. He was a great writer, a remarkable master of the English language. Some of his memorandums were masterpieces. I remember one he wrote to John Collins about the size of the cinnamon buns on morning flights. ‘They look like cow pies’, Frye complained. He could be ruthless yet he was a very decent guy, and he could fly an airplane about as well as any pilot who ever lived.”

Bob Rummel – “Easygoing in appearance but very tough and determined underneath.”

Jean Phillips – Frye was reputed to have Indian blood and Jean believed it. She told Jack, “When you come down the corridor I know it’s you before you step foot in my office.” But I never hear Frye coming. I think it’s because he walks on the balls of his feet like an Indian.

Image courtesy Eric Johnson collection

Jack Frye left a huge part of himself with TWA,

                                                 the airline he loved so much...

All that I have read, and the former TWA employees that I have spoken too unanimously concur that Jack Frye was a beloved president. To this day for those who remember him and his story, every single memory and perception of the man who trail blazed TWA into the history books express - Jack Frye was the aviators aviator, the employees favorite boss, and the passengers fondest memory of a man who delivered them the best travel service with style and a pleasure knowing they were in safe and comfortable hands. It was Jack Frye that originally conceived and delivered the idea of safety, on time schedules and comfort for his guest travelers. And it is recorded that many employees in management and in the rank and file truly wanted Frye to return as their chief through his remaining 12 years of life. He constantly put himself in the travelers position to find out what pleased them as America's most personable airline executive... What a Legacy! May he continue to be remembered and honored as such.

We have covered most all of Jack Frye's incredible career pioneering the airline industry, but there is much more to tell of this great American. Stay tuned...

Frye announces First ever Shorter World Travel routes

With all of the pioneering TWA developments in air travel up to this point in 1946, our favorite airline president, Jack Frye had done it again. And you the flying public have a lot to be thankful for that Mr. Frye's impact along with his terrific TWA team made it so that traveling from the US to the Orient and Europe in the shortest amount of time would establish airline routes we have enjoyed for over 47 years now!

 

I tell you, if there ever was a story of a man's life in aviation to be told to the world on the big screen, Jack Frye's is it. Speilberg, Scorsese or whomever, are you listening? The Jack Frye blog will be happy to consult and help capture the essence of this true American hero...

 

 

Here we see Jack Frye, second from right, conferring with other airline company executives about the new shorter world travel routes. He and Northwest Airlines executives had agreed to take the lead on this new frontier after hearing many complaints from passengers that the traditional lines across the globe were just too long. So, Jack Frye, being the quintessential visionary, decided to do something about it - another notable TWA first!

 

 

First announcement of the new shorter world travel routes.

 

 

 

Here shown is retired Navy Rear Admiral H.B. Miller, recently hired in 1946 by Jack Frye to head the TWA public relations department with his first order of business being to address the consumer complaints on new world travel developments. It was a success!

 



Images courtesy WHMCKC

 



Constellation makes History - First into Paris

 

Images courtesy WHMCKC

TWA wins Safety Award, 1945 Best Year Ever!

Mr. Ned H. Dearborn, president of the National Safety Council, in response to a 'perfect safety record' for the year 1945, sent president Jack Frye a letter that stated,

 

"It is with great pleasure that we inform you that Transcontinental & Western Air, has been granted a Certificate of Safe Operations - in recognition of its having operated the entire year of 1945 without a passenger or crew fatality. The directors and staff of the National Safety Council join me in extending to you our heartiest congratulations on this fine contribution to safe air transportation."

 

Read Jack Frye's response to this letter of recognition beginning in second paragraph. 

At the new year of 1946, a letter by Jack Frye to his employees reviews the greatest year in TWA's history, that is 1945. Some of the highlights he touches on are:

• The greatest air traffic ever.
• The most airplanes TWA had ever flown.
• TWA awarded new routes to Europe, Middle East, Africa, India and Caylon.
• First plane to span the Atlantic by TWA, a Douglas Skymaster.
• TWA's first commercial Constellation, the Paris Skychief flew from DC to Paris in record time setting a new standard for International airline travel.
• Various new domestic routes established across the US.
• The purchase of 36 new Constellations for $30,000,000.
• Acquisition of 8 leased Douglas DC-4 airliners for overseas operations.
• 5 Stratoliner aircraft re-purchased from the military, updated and reconditioned for Transcontinental duty.
• Over 9,000 over-ocean missions for the Air Transport Command.
• The welcoming back of hundreds of employee's from military service, plus the addition of 3,000 more new employee's, totaling 10,000 employees company wide.

Images courtesy WHMCKC

Frye calls for Worldwide Transport System

In 1945, Jack Frye stated - "The pioneering spirit which developed this country", he said "went into territorial hibernation when our development had reached the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. We have been a rich nation living off the fat of our richly developed country. We didn't really need foreign trade, or so we thought, but now we face a most difficult future. We face the end of this war with much of our natural resources used up. Our government will be in debt 300 billion dollars (wow, what we would give for that today!) or more. We probably will have 15 million or more people facing unemployment. What are we going to do about it?"

 

Thus Jack Frye and TWA on the cutting edge envisioned the new global reach of the Constellation being just around the corner. A feat full of challenges, rewards and a future of epic commerce proportions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images courtesy WHMCKC

 

Progression of TWA Firsts and Jack Frye

Image courtesy WHMCKC

 

 

Up to this point of Jack Frye's ten year span as TWA's president in 1944, this is quite a resume of aircraft development with Mr. Frye at the helm. Even more impressive is the fact that Jack as The Flying President not only flew passenger over the country, he had a large hand in the design specifications of these 5 ground breaking aircraft. Usually top tier executives leave everything up to their engineering groups. Not Jack Frye, he was an on-hands type of leader that 'knew and flew' these aircraft intimately and loved every aspect of flight

 

The DC-1, DC-2, DC-3, 307 Stratoliner and the greatest prop driven airliner ever conceived, the Constellation. With these five aircraft he covered the whole gamut of manufacturers including Douglas Aircraft, Boeing Aircraft and Lockheed Aircraft. It doesn't get any better than that.

TWA & LaGuardia Airport

LaGuardia has a long and storied history. The airport site was first occupied by the Gala Amusement Park, a popular destination owned by the Steinway family. In 1929, the park was transformed into a 105-acre private flying field and first named Glenn H. Curtiss Airport after aviation pioneer Glenn H. Curtiss, and then re-named North Beach Airport.

In 1937, New York City took over the airport and enlarged the grounds with the purchase of adjoining land and by filling in 357 acres of waterfront along the east side. In 1939, it re-opened with a new name, New York Municipal Airport-LaGuardia Field. The airport was leased to the Port Authority in 1947.

Today, LaGuardia Airport is one of the busiest in the nation, handling more than 25 million passengers per year. Another destination Jack Frye had his visionary hand in during his tenure growing TWA.

LaGuardia today!

Flight of the CONNIE by the NAHM

I am pleased to announce a brand new website that fits right in with our current topic of interest - The Costellation. Mr. John Roper, National Airline History Museum VP of Operations has just forwarded to me the new site covering the restoration process of a Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation aircraft registration number N6937C.

Website screenshot

 

This video is John Roper addressing the museum members and guests at the

2013 annual meeting covering past and present events at the museum.

 

 

You can follow along at by clicking on this link to witness the unfolding of the historic recreation of the inaugural 1944 flight Jack Frye and Howard Hughes piloted from Burbank to Washington DC in a record setting 6 hours, 58 minutes!

Be sure to register to receive updates on the 70th anniversary flight schedule of the Star of America slated for April 2014. This should be a spectacular event I cant wait for. Many thanks to the National Airline History Museum for all of the volunteers and personal donations that are making this historic event possible.

Eric

Jack Frye and his 'CONNIE'

The Lockheed Constellation & Jack Frye

 

Walter Hamilton, Jack Frye, Paul Richter

 

 

The Lockheed Constellation was the greatest propeller-driven airliner ever conceived and flown around the globe. The plane was cutting-edge in its time during the frantic 40s & nifty 50s, ferrying over 60 passengers from LA to DC and beyond to the Orient at well over 300 mph. The plane opened the world up to new frontiers in passenger travel and changed the way we live. This was a grand time in passenger aviation that served its customers in a most luxurious and glamorous way and it was TWA that led the way. So who led TWA? Jack Frye! The 6’2” gentle, burley man had a keen sense of vision and bravado to trail blaze airline aviation by introducing new technology just as he had done the previous 25 years. Beginning with his first company, Aero Corporation of California during the 1920s, then with Standard Airlines, the two companies merged with a third, Western Air & Express and became Transcontinental & Western Air Inc. or T&WA. Headed by Jack Fry, the three companies would eventually be called Trans World Airlines (TWA).

Now for The Rest of the Story, as famous radio announcer Paul Harvey would lament before every one of his thought-provoking broadcasts. It is a little known fact or should I say, a large four engine fact, that Jack Frye was an integral part, if not the lead in the concept and thrust behind the Constellation. Yes, I said Jack Frye - not Howard Hughes who is often incorrectly attributed as being the lead conceiver of this great aircraft. It was Jack Frye at his best in thought about this new airliner that would serve the world in a whole new way. And this just as he had done with the Douglas DC-1 about ten years earlier, which by the way in its later variant, the DC-3, is still considered the greatest air cargo plane ever invented - a point which cannot be emphasized enough to Frye’s historical credit.

The Constellation was Jack’s airplane. It is well-known that Howard Hughes was an aviator who loved flying and designing. But as a new partner in the company when the Constellation hadn’t yet experienced birth pains, Hughes did not know much about transporting passengers or designing airliners. This was Jack Frye’s expertise. Jack knew years earlier before Howard that the company needed more larger airplanes which could generate more revenue miles with more routes. Jack had already secured bid proposals on the new airliner before Howard came on board as TWA’s prime shareholder. This was a global vision Jack had since conceiving the first transcontinental airline with the Fokker & Ford Tri-motor aircraft out west for his company, Standard Airlines in 1927. Yes, Jack Frye was in for the long haul with airline aviation and the new Constellation was in his sights before pencil hit paper. The globalization of air travel as a whole in 1942 was about to go big with our favorite airline president leading the way.

Some noted articles and notes of Jack Frye’s early influence on the L049 Constellation.

Here is the text of a respectful but pointed response from Jack Frye to the editor of LOOK magazine clarifying the facts of Howard Hughes role in the Constellation project.

"As a reader of LOOK, I have noted with personal interest the references made to me and TWA in your current series of articles - The Howard Hughes Story.

A number of my friends in the aviation field have called my attention to, and I have recognized as much myself, several gross errors appearing in the article which refers to Mr. Hughes's introduction to TWA and that part concerning me...

The references concerning that part Mr. Hughes performed in connection with the Boeing Stratoliner and Constellation are grossly exaggerated . . . TWA had already secured bids from one manufacturer on the airplane in question that ultimately evolved into the Constellation - before Mr. Hughes ever showed interest in TWA or became its principal stockholder.

In conclusion, I would like to say that Mr. Hughes deserves credit for having the courage to financially support the purchase of the Stratoliner and Constellation after he purchased a stock interest in TWA."


Well, this former TWA president pretty much settles any questions as to ‘who’ and how the Constellation came into being...

 

Flight Magazine announces the new Constellation, June 19, 1942

 

 

 

 

 

Though Lockheed’s Hall Hibbard and his team of engineers were given the task of designing the aircraft for manufacturing in the Burbank plant, Flight Magazine recognized Jack Frye and Howard Hughes being the ‘developers’ of the Constellation. A very important historical detail often glazed over in favor of Hughes and not Frye in many other write ups, websites and the like. We can thank Hughes for having the money to support the project and some detailed sub-assembly input but Frye had the overall vision and concept of the plane solid in his sights before Hughes joined TWA.

Announced March 1942 by the Skyliner Magazine, the new

Lockheed Constellation is ready for its maiden flight.

Caption reads:

'The Lockheed Constellation designed and built for TWA, will be test flown at the Lockheed plant in Burbank, Calif., this summer, it has been announced by Jack Frye (right inset), who with Howard Hughes (left inset) conceived the ultra-modern transport. Here are the first pictures of the airliner, built to fly from LA to NY in 8-1/2 hours at altitudes above 25,000 feet and at cruising speeds of nearly 300 miles an hour. The plane carries 57 passengers and a crew of seven. The above is a wind tunnel model'.

A point I want to reiterate that may seem petty, antagonizing or even disrespectful in some circles, is that Howard Hughes has been portrayed as the sole ‘ideas’ man behind the Constellation as some authors, TV shows and a certain movie have recorded. Frye carried at least half the weight, if not more of TWA’s development with Lockheed on the Constellation before Howard came on board. This includes all of the behind the scenes company management on the project that is unseen in the public eye. Jack needs to be recognized for his contribution. Howard was the technical partner who later enjoyed the actual nuts and bolts of the build. As we know, Howard Hughes was a clinically-detailed, deep-thinking individual who wrapped himself up to the inth degree of cerebral gymnastics. He was perfectly suited for this share of the project, however haphazard he may have been. But he didn’t know airliners and neither did Lockheed for that matter. Jack Frye was a contributor to the entire concept of a large airliner which could provide the speed and comfort he desired for his customers. Jack knew what would sell tickets for which he and his engineering crew developed many aspects of the airplane based on comfort, safety and efficiency for the flight crew, the ground crew and the passengers. He knew what people needed and wanted and worked very hard without the need to be ‘out front’ in the limelight like the narcissistic Hughes. Jack Frye was the rock behind the project, the clear and solid thinking aviator who would define the meaning of ‘practicality’ when it came to designing the Constellation. I am sure Jack Frye had a great rapport with designer, Hall Hibbard and his team of engineers, fending off Hughes’s idiosyncrasies and indecisions which have been well-documented in all aspects of his bizarre life. To give Howard credit for the whole Constellation project is nauseating and simply not true.

Jack Frye (sitting) and the Lockheed Martin staff, 1945

On this blog space it is time for Jack Frye to be awarded full recognition and a job well done for developing one of the most advanced propeller driven airliners in history, the L049 Constellation. As stated earlier, this was Jack Frye’s airplane through and through and it’s time someone publically set the records straight.

As we unfold more Constellation stories and articles, Jack Frye is integral to all of the Constellation’s history-making travels at home and abroad during his time as President of TWA. So much so, he and his new airplane opened up the globe to travel routes never considered until he, yes Jack Frye, introduced another new first for his company and the airline aviation story that would change the world. Stay tuned.

Special Note: Hall L. Hibbard who built early fighters and commercial airplanes. Born in Fredonia, Kansas, he grew up in the Philippine Islands (where his father was a missionary) and studied at the College of Emporia and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began his career as a draftsman for the Stearman Aircraft Co. in Wichita, Kansas and three years later became a chief engineer. In 1932 he joined Lockheed, where he was quickly promoted to Vice President and Chief Engineer because of his work on the Electra, the world's first 200mph commercial plane. During World War II, Hibbard was responsible for designing and developing the Hudson bomber, P-38 Lightning fighter, P-80 Shooting Star fighter, C-69 Constellation transport and XR-60 Constitution. Later he helped develop several military versions of the Constellation. He rose to Senior Vice-President and director of Lockheed and was a trustee of the Carnegie Institute of Technology.

Eric Johnson,

Jack Frye Aviation Pioneer blog

http://jack-frye.blogspot.com

2013

 

Worlds First Airline onto Frye's Aero Corp.

Before we move into the Boeing L049 Constellation and Jack Frye's important role in its development, I wanted to set a brief background of history leading up to his beginnings in the airline industry..
 

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When thinking about passenger air travel you would assume the first passengers boarded and flew on an airplane over land to their destination. Well, believe it or not, this isnt the case. The first daring passengers actually flew aboard an Airboat! And this is the very airboat that was commissioned for the first paid passenger flight in the world.

 

Follow this link

Thomas Benoist model XIV, 1914

 

In 1913, just eleven years after the Wright Brothers flew under power making worldwide history, Tony Jannus came to St. Petersberg Florida with his brother Roger, and his mechanic, to pilot Thomas Benoist's "Flying Boat" No. 43 into aviation history. On January 1, 1914, Percival Fansler's "St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line" became the world's first scheduled passenger airline service to use heavier than air aircraft, carrying passengers between the yacht basin in St. Pete and the Hillsborough River in downtown Tampa. The line lasted 3 months carrying just one passenger at a time that sat next to the pilot! What is the old addage? - "One baby step at a time." St. Petersburg Mayor A. C. Phiel paid $400 for the honor of being the first passenger on the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line. The flight occured January 1, 1914 and took 23 minutes, 11 hours shorther than traveling by rail. In total, the line carried 1,204 passengers.
 

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Worlds first paid passenger flight over Tampa Bay.

 

Since 1911, the US Post Office had been flying various yet dangerous air mail deliveries exploring the new mode of mail delivery. May 15, 1918 was the first scheduled air mail flight from Philadelphia to Washington piloted by Lt. James Edgarton.

New in 1916, the Curtiss JN-4D Jenny was widely used for Barnstorming demonstrations and carrying mail. And as we know the Jenny was Jack Frye's and Paul Richter's plane of choice of their company Aero Corporation of California at Burdett Field training new pilots, carrying mail and barnstorming themselves in the 20's.

 

 

Black Cats aerial team flying Jenny's

Jack Frye's Curtis JN-4D Jenny ferrying mail to Catalina Island.

Next in the history line of airline advancement was the US Governments role in establishing scheduled air mail flights across the country. Starting May 15, 1918, the Army Air Service commissioned two Jenny's to fly from Washington DC and Long Island New York respectively. The idea was to establish a Washington-Philadelphia-New York route. They were to meet in Philadelphia, trade mail bundles and continue onto each respective destination. Well, it didnt go so well. One of them got lost while following railroad lines and roads with no maps and a compass that had failed, and had to land. Upon landing the Jenny was damaged. The connecting flight made it to his destination but without the mail he was supposed to receive from the damaged plane.

Continuing on, the Army Air Corps withdrew from air mail service flights and the US Post Office decided to enlist their own pilots and aircraft. After many trials and fatal incidents, 1920 began with the First Transcontinental air mail service flights with a Capt. Benjamin Lipsner helping to establish the new service. This historic first began in September 1919 which reached Omaha, Nebraska. By 1920 the new service had reached San Francisco. The outcome was a dramatic reduction in mail deivery times from 3 days by rail to around 29 hours by air! A huge milestone in airline aviation.

The next hurdle of overnight air mail service was very dangerous and difficult to overcome. Can you imagine flying without navigation tools or a way to follow the stars in weather, and at night? The pilots had to be tough, talented and daring far beyond ever imagined. Consequently more fatalities occurred. Soon bonfires and lighted beacon's were lit along routs and landing strips. Also the planes began to be equipped with flares, crude landing lights and lighted instruments. The pilots also utilized fhe following of landmarks, waterways, familiar towns and anything that was easy to recognize from the air.

To see how pilots found their way, follow this link

I would like to notice another airline that flew flying boats with passengers aboard with great frequency and success in the 1920's. This company was called Aeromarine Airways. One of our contributors to the Jack Frye blog is Mr. Daniel Kusrow who makes it possible for us to display his early airline images. These are some fantastic shots of early transcontinental flying at its best just prior to Jack Frye (age 16) coming to California to persue his dream.

 

Visit Daniel Kusrow and Bjorn Larsson's excellent website here

(Following images courtesy by permission, Daniel Kusrow)

 

 

A view of the Aeromarine Airport on the beach at Atlantic City, N.J., in the summer of 1920 or 1921. A Model 50 has been driven up on the beach for easy loading. The big sign says:
"Aero-Marine 20 Passenger Flying Boat
Standard Flights $12.00
New York flights $75.00
Information Tickets Here"

 

 

The Ambassador in New York harbour, passing the Lapland (18,565 grt, 620 ft. long) of the Red Star Line. In the early 1920s this liner, built in 1909, plied the Atlantic Ocean between New York and Antwerp.
(Photo from the "Aviation and Aircraft Journal" of November 28, 1921)

 

 

Photo dating to the days of Aeromarine West Indies Airways, taken from the looks of it in Florida, possibly at Key West. The aircraft is an unidentified Model 75. The man smiling on the dock is Edwin Musick, later legendary Chief Pilot of Pan American, but then an Aeromarine pilot. The tall person standing in the background in white is Aeromarine's Chief Test Pilot, Cyrus J. Zimmermann

(brother of Chief Engineer Paul G. Zimmermann).


 

Photo taken from a passing ferry between Key West and Havana, March 1922.

 

 Photo of the Aeromarine arrival in Havana Bay, where the harbour is situated.
The ramparts of the Fortaleza de la Cabaña can be seen to the left.

A flown cover from the first U.S. mail and passenger flight of Aeromarine West Indies Airways on November 1, 1920, from Key West to Havana.

Airlines began taking over the Air Mail for the US Post Office in 1925. By 1927 the airline system was providing a reliable schedule of air mail service. It continued to lead and shape the industry by regulating the airways and guiding its growth promoting safety and technology. The Air Mail Act of 1925 allowed the Post Office to pay private airlines to deliver the mail. Payments were based on the weight of the mail carried. The Post Office later added a subsidy to help offset airline operating losses, until more efficient aircraft could be developed.

Jack Frye is now 21 years old upstarting his aviation career by beginning his own transcontinental airline company, The Aero Corporation of California. The rest is history!

 

Aero Corp in 1927. Jack Frye second from left.


 

 

 

We have come full circle from the very first powered flight and the first airline in the world up to Jack Frye's point of entering the airline business. Go to the first post on the Jack Frye Aviation Pioneer blog to read Jacks beginning's in global aviation... Thanks for reading.

Eric
 

Jack Frye - Arizona's #1 Pilot, Literally!

As a side story, another noteable first for Jack Frye being awarded the very First Pilots License in the state of Arizona. Here is the article describing the event during the covering of Jack coming to Phoenix piloting his executive DC aircraft to establish a new Phoenix-San Francisco air line route, another noteable first for TWA. I believe this "fly-In" occured in September of 1938 which as stated in this article, 11 years prior or 1927 was when the license was actually awarded. Jack was also awarded a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity in order to establish and provide Air Transportation service through Arizona.

I am in contact with the appropriate Arizona officials to obtain copies of these historic documents and will share them with you on the Jack Frye blog, hopefully in the near future.

                  


Below is the moment aviator Jack Frye arrived at Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix for what newspaper writers called a Homecoming of Arizona's No.1 Pilot.

Airline baggage image courtesy Danial Kusrow

Inaugrural STRATOLINER Commercial Flight

 

 

The 'dress rehersal' flights through the worlds newest travel-zone, the 'sub-stratosphere' 4 to 5 miles above the earth was held the week of June 23-29. as a final preliminary to the regular operation of the fleet of Boeing Stratoliners.

 

The new 307 STRATOLINER went into Coast To Coast service, July 8, 1940. On hand for the inaugrural flight from Burbank Terminal is movie stars Brenda Joyce and Tyrone Power who were on board for the historic flight to LaGuardia Field, New York. The 307 was piloted by captains W.G. Golain and Jack Zimmerman for the 12 hour and 13 minute flight.

 

Jack Frye's company officially breaks the elevation barrier for all the world to see setting the standard for future airline travel. What a hallmark of his and his development teams career.

 

 

First passengers on the historic flight.

 

 

 

Images courtesy WHMCKC

 

 

For a more complete history of the Boeing 307 Stratoliner aircraft, click here

 

Frye Announces TWA Plans, June 1940

New TWA TRANSCONTINENTAL Routes for the Stratoliner. The next historic milestone in air travel for Jack Frye and company. These were exciting times to be able to serve passengers nationwide with the new Stratoliners and their comfortable pressurized cabins. When we compare a route map of the 21st century and its hundreds of lines amassed like a city of spider webs, versus the simple map below from 1940, this truly depicts the sensational advancement and coverage airline companies have weaved into the fabric of our nation, and the globe!

We take it for granted that airline travel in the pioneering years up to 1940 as shown here, was not a normal everyday occurance folks could experience going about their daily business. We tend to forget, this period was still a luxury to be able to fly from state to state, and coast to coast for the average citizen. It was still out of reach for the masses for reasons of affordability and the fact that there just wasn't enough seat space to go around. Oh yes, Jack Frye must have had many nights of sleeplesness wrestling with how-to accomodate more and more passengers and to grow his company safely, on time and at a profit. This announcement might well have been one of those nights he was able to wrestle and tame knowing his companies new plans were pointing toward success.

Right click on image to view full size in a new window

Images courtesy WHMCKC

Orson Wells receives Gold

 

Image courtesy WHMCKC

 

 

TWA offered memberships into what they called the Stratoliner Club. These medallions were issued to members before the war in 1940. Shown enlarged for detailed viewing.

 

Front

Back

Paper certificate signed by Jack Frye