Aviation Specials – May 2018

Extreme Airports // 7

ATLANTA

many smaller operators – were making

their mark on the country’s domestic

scene. Among them was the tiny fi rm

Huff Deland Dusters from Macon, Georgia

which specialised in aerial application

of chemicals on agricultural land. The

business moved to Monroe, Louisiana in

1925 and became Delta Air Service three

years later, the name chosen to refl ect the

fi rm’s base in the Mississippi Delta.

The air mail scandal

The Kelly Act of 1925 brought major

changes to commercial aviation across

the USA. The innocuous-sounding

legislation directed the US Postal Service

to allocate the transportation of air

mail, previously fl own by the military,

to civilian fi rms. Between February

15, 1926 and October 25, 1930 no less

than 34 contract air mail routes were

established. Towards the end of 1930 the

Postmaster General brought

executives from the

major airlines

together and

allowed

them to share the business among

themselves. This locked out smaller

carriers and led to a senate investigation.

The meeting became known as the

‘Spoils Conference’, the awards became

mired in scandal, and in 1934 congress

ordered the Army Air Corps to take over

again. In less than three months 13

military airmen were killed in crashes,

and by May 9 the post was being carried

by civilian aircraft again. But by then

reorganisations had swept the industry,

as the airlines had struggled to survive

without lucrative contracts – United

Airlines was born out of mergers of

Pacifi c Air Transport, Stout Air Services,

Varney and National Air Transport,

while American Airways (later American

Airlines) was formed from a combination

of Robertson Aircraft Corporation and

Colonial Air Transport.

The new breed of larger carriers

set up shop in cities across the USA

including Chicago (United

and American), Miami

(Eastern), Atlanta

(Eastern), Minneapolis

(Northwest) and St Louis (Trans World

Airlines). From these they operated to

smaller conurbations across the country,

as well as to major commerce centres,

including New York, Washington DC, Los

Angeles, San Francisco and Sea le.

The start of hub and spoke

Meanwhile, Delta Air Service had

established a passenger service between

Dallas, Texas and Jackson, Mississippi

(later extended to Atlanta and Fort

Worth), but it was suspended when the

mail contract for the route was awarded

to American in 1930. Delta gained new

business after the postal scandal was

resolved, and by 1934 it was fl ying between

Charleston South Carolina and Fort Worth

with stops in Columbia, Augusta, Atlanta,

Birmingham and Meridian. The airline

moved to Atlanta in 1941, from where it

scheduled ten daily departures – three

to Fort Worth, one to Birmingham, and

two each to Cincinnati, Charleston and

Savannah. Two years later it added New

Orleans, followed by Chicago and Miami

in 1945. Its 1953 acquisition of Chicago

and Southern Air Lines enabled it to serve

Chicago, Detroit and Houston, and the

ABOVE RIGHT:

Piedmont Airlines

NAMC YS-

shares the apron

with one of the

fi rm’s Boeing 737s,

two Eastern Air

Lines Boeing 727s

and an Eastern

Douglas DC-9.

(AirTeamImages.

com/The Samba

Collection)

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