Commercial Air Flight Opened Unlimited Opportunities

By Bob Granath

This is the first of a two-part series on the history of commercial flight and how the aviation business led to similar opportunities for entrepreneurs in space.

On a brisk day just over a century ago, what started as a venture between two brothers changed the world forever. On Dec. 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright opened the realm of air travel with their first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In 10 short years, commercial aviation became a reality. Fast forward another 50 years and humans not only were flying in the air, but also in space.

After another half-century of spaceflight, NASA and its industry partners have inaugurated the Commercial Crew Program, ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station, once again launching humans from American soil.

Individual inventors such as the Wight Brothers were the original investors in the early development of aviation. They were successful because of their willingness to challenge a belief held by many that human flight was impossible.

“If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance,” said Orville Wright.

Various government agencies, such as the military, soon showed interest. Once it became cost-effective to carry paying customers, commercial aviation also took off – just as commercial space is today.

First Commercial Flight

The first paying fixed-wing passenger checked his bag on Jan. 1, 1914. Pilot Tony Jannus flew his customer, Abram Pheil, from St. Petersburg to Tampa, Florida. The trip across the 21 miles of Tampa Bay took 23 minutes.

Jannus auctioned off the privilege of traveling on this inaugural flight with prospective passengers bidding large amounts of money for the one seat. Pheil, a former mayor of St. Petersburg, was the winner paying $400 ($5,000 in today’s currency) for the privilege.

On that New Year’s Day in 1914, one person flew one commercial flight. A century later, the International Air Transportation Association estimates 8 million passengers fly world-wide on almost 100,000 flights each day. That equates to almost 3 billion air travelers every year.

One of the first commercial uses of aviation was delivering mail. The first experimental American airmail delivery was made on Sept. 23, 1911, under the authority of the U.S. Post Office Department. The service was intermittent until domestic U.S. Air Mail was formally established by the Post Office Department on May 15, 1918. At that time, the first special Air Mail stamps were issued.

The U.S. government began to take a serious role in the development of the aviation age with the formation of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or the NACA, on March 3, 1915. The NACA was established to “undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research.”

Part of the U.S. government’s early interest in aviation centered on possible military applications. In fact, aviation proved to be a viable industry with the onset of World War I.

In 1914, the U.S. Census Bureau listed only 16 aircraft companies. Their collective output was 49 aircraft.

By the end of the First World War, 175,000 people were employed at 300 airplane manufacturing plants in the United States. By the time of the armistice on Nov. 11, 1918, the new industry produced 13,844 aircraft.

Airports Begin Dotting America

Along with a flourish of commercial airlines, airfields were springing up across America. In 1923, Atlanta alderman William Hartsfield was assigned to find a place for a new airport. The goal was to convince the U.S. Post Office Department to give the Georgia capital one of the contracts for a lucrative airmail route.

Candler Field in the Atlanta suburb of Hapeville, Georgia, was originally an auto racetrack similar to the one at Indianapolis, Indiana. Through Hartsfield’s efforts, barnstormers and former World War I aviators began flying in and out of Atlanta in the early 1920s. On Sept. 15, 1926, Atlanta aviation history was made when the first air mail flight took off from the city.

Hartsfield went on to serve as Atlanta’s mayor and the airport is now named for him and Mayor Maynard Jackson. During the late 1970s, Jackson helped lead the effort to build a modern airport terminal, which opened in 1980. According to the Airports Council International’s “World Airport Traffic Report,” the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the busiest in the world with more than 110 million people passing through the hub in 2019.

First Modern Passenger Airliners

The Boeing 247 is considered the first modern passenger airliner. Introduced in 1933, the aircraft was similar to a low-wing, twin-engine military bomber with retractable landing gear. Put into service by United Air Lines, it could accommodate 10 passengers and travel at 155 mph.

At about the same time, the Douglas Aircraft Co. DC-3 became a popular airliner due to its cruising speed of 207 mph and a range of 1,500 miles, revolutionizing air transport. When converted to the military version, designated the C-47, it was widely used in World War II.

During the 1930s and 1940s, passenger aviation made important strides, but there was a significant drawback. The 247 and the DC-3 could only fly as high as 10,000 feet, due to the reduced levels of oxygen at higher altitudes. Flying higher would allow airliners to rise above air turbulence and storms prevalent at lower levels.

The breakthrough came with the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, which began service in 1940 with TWA — Trans World Airlines. Derived from the B-17 bomber, it was the first aircraft with a pressurized cabin. The 33-seat Stratoliner flew as high as 20,000 feet and could travel at 200 mph.

During the Second World War, the NACA also made numerous crucial contributions sometimes referred to as “the force behind our air supremacy.” Most notably, the agency played key roles in producing innovative superchargers, providing more efficient engines for high altitude bombers and improved technology for wings.

Following the war, com-mercial aviation grew at a rapid pace with airlines regularly transporting passengers and cargo. This expansion was aided by wartime technology development such as that of heavy B-29 bomber airframes. The aviation industry also began transitioning from propeller aircraft to jets.

The first commercial jet airliner to fly was the British de Havilland Comet first flown in 1949. During the late 1950s, Boeing’s 707 and the Douglas DC-8 offered comfort and safety leading to extensive commercial jet air travel in the United States.

As aircraft traveled farther and faster, test pilots began to launch in rocket-propelled experimental aircraft taking humans to the edge of space.

On Oct. 14, 1947, U.S. Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1 rocket plane breaking the “sound barrier” –- about 768 mph — at Muroc Air Force Base, now Edwards Air Force Base, California. In doing so, he accomplished another feat once thought impossible.

A decade later, rockets launched the first satellites into Earth orbit and a new breed of pilot, called “astronauts” were eager to take the trip beyond the atmosphere.

Check back on Sept. 15, 2020 for part 2: the concluding feature article on how the dawning of the Space Age led to opportunities for entrepreneurs to utilize the new frontier.

Pioneers Found Novel Approaches to Early Commercial Aviation

By Bob Granath

Some of the pioneering entrepreneurs of aviation found novel approaches to make use of the new technology.

In the 1920s, Atlanta opened an airport seeking to secure a lucrative contract for one of the new air mail routes. One of the first to open for business at the new air field was Georgia native Doug Davis. The World War I aviator and barnstormer started the Douglas Davis Flying Service with the first airport hangar at what then was called Candler Field. Today it is the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

In 1924, Davis was selected by the Curtis Candy Co. to form the Baby Ruth Flying Circus to advertise the new chocolate bar. The plan was to fly over large crowds during outdoor events and drop hundreds of samples attached to tiny parachutes. However, this approach required an assistant to pitch the candy bars overboard while Davis flew the airplane.

One of those Davis enlisted was an 11-year-old boy who loved aviation and frequently dropped by the new Atlanta airport to talk to some of the pilots who worked there.

That youngster was my father, Buster Granath.

After getting permission from Granath’s parents, Davis strapped the wide-eyed aviation enthusiast on a cushion in the back seat of a bi-plane. Granath didn’t recall what event brought together the crowd that would be the target for the candy drop.

“At that age, it was the most exciting thing I’d had the chance to do,” Granath said. “It was great just having the chance to fly.”

Over a period of eight years, Davis repeated the process in 40 states, usually with the assistance of young aviation buffs such as Granath.

No copyright is claimed for these features that appeared in their original form on NASA.gov on Dec. 1, 2015 at:

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/commercial-flight-opens-unlimited-opportunities