Jack Frye - The "Kid-Magnate"

This Arizona Daily Star article is very revealing of Jack Frye's visionary traits and dedication to the early airline industry.

At just age 25, in this article, Jack Frye addresses the Pima County Bar Association about the future of aviation in the Southwest. He refers to aviation as a "good substitute to the fountain of youth." His vision of transporting passengers up to 20 per plane, and businessmen being able to travel all the way from El Paso to Los Angeles is ground breaking news for 1927. He also emphasises passenger safety during a time when the public were very reluctant to board a flying machine. Safety was a hallmark of Standard Airlines having flown over 37,000 miles the prior five years without incident. Jack was quite a salesman as well as a respected and highly experienced pilot that could back up what he said in front of serious legal professionals.

Right click on the image to see full size.

Standard Airlines News Clips - 1929

Baggade tag image courtesy David Kusrow

Here is a collection of news articles on the Air-Rail route Jack Frye's Standard Airlines established. They go into great detail on the new service and its advantages to its city stops along the way.

                            


           

Ed Betts on Aero Corp & Standard Airlines

Mr. Ed Betts, retired TWA pilot and aviation historian now deceased, produced what I think is the best accounting of Jack Frye's Aero Corp and Standard Airlines that I know of. It was this article that really set me off into the study of these pioneering airlines and the seeded desire to know about my cousin, Nevajac Frye's father. My father being a reader of great depth and ferocity had one day in the 90's sent me a copy of the AAHS Journal volume 39, number 3 (Fall 1994) of which after reading the Betts article, I was set on a new flight path of both aviation and family history.

The stand alone page link below gets you to the Ed Betts article in full. Right click on the images when you get there to view in full size for best reading enjoyment. Eric

L-R: Paul Richter, 'Tommy' Tomlinson, Jack Frye, Walter Hamilton

Click here for the Ed Betts article.

Many thanks to the AAHS Journal for allowing the Jack Frye blog to post this work online.

Fokker Trimotor & Standard Airlines

Design and development:

In 1925, while living in the US, Anthony Fokker heard of the inaugural Ford Reliability Tour, which was proposed as a competition for transport aircraft. Fokker had the company's head designer, Reinhold Platz, convert a single-engined F.VII A airliner (a 1924 Walter Rethel design) to a trimotor configuration powered by 200 hp Wright Whirlwind radial engines. The resulting aircraft was designated the Fokker F.VII A/3M. Following shipment to the US, it won the Ford Reliability Tour in late 1925. The Trimotor's structure comprised a fabric-covered steel tubing fuselage, and a plywood-skinned wooden wing. The Fokker F.VII B/3M had a slightly increased wing area over the A/3M, with power increased to 220 hp per engine, while the F.10 was slightly enlarged, carrying 12 passengers in an enclosed cabin. The aircraft became popularly known as the Fokker Trimotor.

Operational history:

The 8- to 12-passenger Fokker was the aircraft of choice for many early airlines, both in Europe and the Americas. Along with the similar Ford Trimotor, itself having an all-metal design based on the World War I aircraft designs of German engineer Hugo Junkers, it dominated the American market in the late 1920s. However, the popularity of the Fokker quickly came to an end after the 1931 death of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne in the crash of TWA Flight 599, a Fokker F.10. The subsequent investigation, which revealed problems with the Fokker's plywood-laminate construction, resulted in the temporary banning of the aircraft from commercial flights, more stringent requirements for its maintenance, and the rise of all-metal aircraft such as the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2.  (source wikipedia)

First US Air-Rail Service

In the collection of Standard Airlines brochures I received from Daniel Kusrow, herin lays an historic copy of Volume 1, Number 1 issue of the Standard Airlines newsletter. As you can read on the headline, it announces the first ever Transcontinental Air-Rail service route in the US! This is the beginning of a large dream Jack Frye had envisioned early in his illustrious career paving the way to what would become TWA.

Points of destination included Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson, Douglas Arizona and El Paso Texas. The inaugrural openning of the new service was February 4, 1929, just prior to the horrible US stock market crash later in October of this year. From New York, passengers traveled by rail on the Texas & Pacific Line to St. Louis, then connected with a Ford Tri-Motor to Sweetwater Texas. Then jumped on the 'Sunshine Special' train to El Paso. Jack Frye's Standard Airlines would then take over and fly the passengers to Los Angeles. All in all the Standard Airlines Air-Rail service cut a whopping 16 hours off the trek's travel time to 47 hours!

Here is an early video series that covers a 48 hour flight of what this post is referreing to, and in original B&W footage. How far we have come... Enjoy the show.

Videos provided by twaladybug

Standard Airlines artistic Postcards

A big thanks again to Daniel Kusrow of Airline Timetable Images for donating hard copies of these great and artistic Standard Airlines postcards to the 'Jack Frye - Aviation Pioneer' blog. They really represent the style and mood of the times in an artful and attractive way of advertising that has unfortunately been lost in our modern era.

These 1929 era postcards detailing the Los Angeles and El Paso route schedules make me want to go take a hop on Standard Airlines! Bright colors and a vintage flavor set these advertisements apart from the competition. A trait Jack Frye and his crew diligently pursued in all facets to growing their ground breaking airline of the 20's.

Click on images for larger view.

Enjoy...

Standard Airlines baggage label

  

Vintage baggage labels are very collectable today, documenting information in sometimes colorful and artistic styles of their time. The artists are rarely known, and to find samples in this condition are equally rare.

These images of a 1930 Standard Airlines baggage label advertising the Fair Weather Route of Standard Airlines are courtesy of Daniel Kusrow on the Airline Timetable Images website. It details eastbound and westbound flights with milage and time slots as well as rail connections north and south. My how air travel back then was so much easier and simplistic. It took a little longer but air travel must have been an adventure.

Fly the 'FAIR WEATHER ROUTE'

click images for larger view

Many thanks to Daniel Kusrow  for donating hard copies of these original route brochures of Standard Airlines. These scanned images of the original winter of 1929 'FAIR WEATHE ROUTE' brochure of Standard Airlines are prized posessions of the blog. Daniel is the co-proprieter of the  AIRLINE TIMETABLE IMAGES website. You will be viewing many more priceless original images of brochures and baggage emblems from his collection as we fly along on the JACK FRYE - Aviation Pioneer blog.

This week we bring you 'The FAIR WEATHER ROUTE' established by Jack Frye's Standard Airlines which was the first of its kind that embodied all of the creature comforts of early air travel, combined with rail service to southwest destinations from Los Angeles to El Paso Texas. This route was the first of its kind in American aviation! Other services included a flying school, special parties, sightseeing trips and hanger service rentals for a complete aviation operation for the one-time and or avid passenger and pilot.

Standard Airlines was and still is noted as The Pioneer Airline.

Collage of FRYE Airline Entrepreneurship

Image source http://www.timetableimages.com

Talk about having an impact towards the future of Airline and Cargo transportation, Jack Frye was thee central figure of innovation and business savvy setting in motion the great Airline business of today. His aviation signature permeates the whole industry as we now know it. Oh if he could see today what he began as a dream and passion!

AERO Corp of California

A 1926 photo of the Aero Corporation. (L-R) Sheriff Traecer, Jack Frye,

Richmond Edwards, Walt Hamilton, Lee Willey, Paul Richter and Sherriff Biscailuz.

 

William John (Jack) Frye was born on March 18, 1904 and was raised on the family ranch near Wheeler Texas. The 15,000 acre cattle ranch was a family affair and Jack, along with his brother Don and sister Opal, each owned a small portion of the herd. Jack's first exposure to aviation was almost his last one. He was age 14 at the time when three Army planes made an emergency landing near Wheeler due to weather and mechanical problems. They were stuck there three days waiting for good weather, during which time young Jack ran many errands for them. He did'nt get to watch their departure as he was bedridden with a severe case of pneumonia. In 1921-1922 he served a year with the Army Engineers. After some time working on the ranch, Jack sold his share of the herd and bought a car. Along with Don and two friends they set out for Southern California where the "good paying jobs" were supposedly available.

 

Well it turned out to be washing dishes, selling newspapers and "soda jerking" at a drugstore. Jack met a veteran pilot and barnstormer named Burdett Fuller, at the drugstore who operated a flying school and had a few WW1 surplus Jennies for local and charter flights. He flew out of a field located on "Barnstormers Row", a group of airdromes located on the outskirts south of downtown Los Angeles on 104th street and Western Avenue. For the price of $5, Jack took his first ride in an airplane. It only lasted 15 minutes, but this was enough to convince him he wanted to be a pilot. Jack rented the plane for $20 a week on his meager $25 a week pay, so it took several months before he had enough experience (7-1/2 flying hours) to solo. On the same day as he made his solo flight he took his first paying passenger for a ride. Within a short time Jack owned his own Jenny (it cost $350).

Frye soon established a reputation as an excellent pilot and instructor. The new Long Beach airport hosted a Memorial Day Air Meet (May 30, 1925) where 25,000 fans witnessed 50 pilots and their planes compete in 10 events for cups and cash prizes. Jack won the "Dead Stick Landing" contest.

Among the students at the Burdett School who also became an important part of TWA's roots in later years were Paul Richter and Walt Hamilton. The trio of "Jack, Paul and Ham" became very close friends and in early 1926 they pooled their resources ($5000) and bought Fuller's interests. This included the goodwill of the business, 14 planes, the repair shop and equipment, a well established flying school and air taxi service.

 

Burdett Airport, 1925

On February 3, 1926, the Aero Corporation of California was formed with a total investment of $50,000.In 1927, the corporation was reorganized and Frye was elected President; Richmond Edwards and Hamilton VP's; Charles Cradick, Secretary; Paul Richter, Treasurer. Lee Willey was appointed Chief Instructor. Lee Flanagin, in exchange for his work as a "grease monkey," learned to fly and became an instructor.

 

 

 

Aero Corp obtained the Regional Distributorship for the American-built Fokker aircraft. At the time, this included the single-motor six-place high wing monoplane called the Universal. Aero Corp established branch offices in Phoenix and Tucson for the sale and maintenance of the Alexander and Fokker aircraft.

 

Jennys circa 1925. Note the "Blck Cats" aerial team logo on the tail fin.

On November 26, 1927, Standard Airlines, a subsidiary of Aero Corp, inaugurated a three-times-a-week schedule between Los Angeles and Phoenix-Tucson, the first This is a good example of Jack Frye's firm belief there was a bright future flying passengers on a regular schedule as the company did not have an airmail contract. Under Jack's leadership, business was great and, at one time, as many as 86 men were employed in the shops. Aero Corp's maintenance and engineering were considered among the best in the country. The flying school was among the first to be accredited by the Department of Commerce and also ranked among the best.

Ultimately, these operations led by Jack Frye, Paul Richter and Walter Hamilton merged becoming Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA) by 1930.