Empires of the Sky

by Alexander Rose

  31. The Trap

  1. Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 66–67, 70; Daley, American Saga, pp. 15–16.

  2. Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 63–64, 103; Trippe, Pan Am’s First Lady, pp. 1–2, 9–10.

  3. On the development of aviation law, see Komons, “William A. MacCracken,” pp. 39–40; W. E. Berchtold, “Trade Routes in the Sky,” The New Outlook, October 1934, p. 16; Josephson, Empire of the Air, p. 199; on Trippe’s lock-out methods, see F. W. Wile, “Pan American Airways,” Fortune 13 (1936), April, p. 159.

  4. Daley, American Saga, pp. 17–18; Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 70–71; on “old fogies,” see Josephson, Empire of the Air, p. 28.

  5. Bilstein, Flight in America, pp. 56–57.

  6. Rust, Flying Across America, p. 36.

  7. Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 73–74; Davies, Airlines of the United States Since 1914, pp. 49–50; Courtwright, Sky as Frontier, p. 67.

  8. These shenanigans are covered in Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 74–77, 81; Josephson, Empire of the Air, pp. 20–25, 27; Davies, Airlines of the United States Since 1914, pp. 61, 195.

  32. The Boom

  1. Corn, Winged Gospel, pp. 18–24; Van Vleck, Empire of the Air, pp. 43–44; Rust, Flying Across America, p. 7. On Trippe and Lindbergh, Daley, see American Saga, pp. 60–63.

  2. Fritsche, A Nation of Fliers, pp. 146–47.

  3. Courtwright, Sky as Frontier, p. 76.

  4. Snider, “ ‘Great Shadow in the Sky,’ ” pp. 105–8; Van Vleck, Empire of the Air, pp. 44–46, 49–51.

  5. W. M. Leary, “Safety in the Air: The Impact of Instrument Flying and Radio Navigation on U.S. Commercial Air Operations Between the Wars,” in Leary and Trimble (eds.), From Airships to Airbus, volume 1, pp. 106–7; Courtwright, Sky as Frontier, p. 62; Davies, Airlines of the United States Since 1914, p. 28. The “prowling cat” quote is in Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, p. 188.

  6. Corn, Winged Gospel, pp. 113–22; Van Vleck, Empire of the Air, p. 52; “Air Enthusiasts Advised on Jobs,” The New York Times, October 7, 1928; R. M. Cleveland, “What Is the Future of Aviation?” Scientific American, October 1929, p. 313.

  7. Douglas, “Airports as Systems and Systems of Airports,” in Leary and Trimble (eds.), From Airships to Airbus, volume 1, p. 72; A. Klemin, “American Passenger Air Transport,” Scientific American, October 1929, p. 326.

  8. Van der Linden, Airlines and Air Mail, pp. 47–48; Rust, Flying Across America, pp. 32–36; Davies, Airlines of the United States Since 1914, pp. 58–62, 67. C. S. Clancy’s lengthy interview with Rogers mentions his time in Munich and Zurich, though Rogers seems to have been so uninterested in airships he did not cross Lake Constance to Friedrichshafen. See Clancy, “Aviation’s Patron Saint,” Scientific American, October 1929, pp. 283–86.

  9. A. Gordon, Naked Airport: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Revolutionary Structure, 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), p. 32. For typical examples, see J. F. O’Ryan (Trippe’s nemesis), “For Safety, the Air,” North American Review, November 1928, pp. 616–20; and W. P. MacCracken, Jr., and W. B. Courtney, “Flight Savers,” Collier’s, March 29, 1930, pp. 14–15, 46, 48–50.

  10. For numbers, see Series L 265–273, “Air Transport—Accidents: 1927 to 1945,” in Historical Statistics of the United States, 1789–1945, p. 225; Leary, “Safety in the Air,” in Leary and Trimble (eds.), From Airships to Airbus, volume 1, p. 106; “Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities, 1900–2007,” at www.fhwa.dot.gov/​policyinformation/​statistics/​2007/​pdf/​fi200.pdf; “31,000 More Killed in Our Motor Massacre,” Literary Digest, June 14, 1930, p. 11. Admittedly, unlicensed or undertrained pilots flying (or stunt-flying) private planes (sometimes homemade) added another 2,875 accidents and 965 deaths to the 1927–29 air total, but even then, one could hardly compare the lethality of the two modes of transport. For a harsh view of amateur fliers, see T.J.C. Martyn, “ ‘Fool Flying’ Takes a Grim Toll,” The New York Times, October 7, 1928; a typical example is “8 Killed, 11 Injured in 6 Plane Crashes,” The New York Times, October 8, 1928. Trains were, statistically speaking, by far the safest way to travel; see “A New Era for the Railroads,” Railway Age, February 21, 1931, p. 397.

  11. W. B. Courtney, “Up and Going,” Collier’s, March 23, 1929, p. 9.

  12. Courtwright, Sky as Frontier, p. 102; Courtney, “Up and Going,” p. 9.

  13. The most precise figures for passengers are given in Series K 246–256, “Air Transport—Scheduled Air Transportation, Domestic Only: 1926–1945,” in Historical Statistics of the United States, p. 224.

  14. Courtwright, Sky as Frontier, p. 10; Rust, Flying Across America, pp. 59, 51; Kolm, “ ‘Who Says It’s a Man’s World?’ ” p. 153.

  15. Rust, Flying Across America, p. 78.

  16. Series K 239–245, “Air Transport—Aircraft Production and Exports: 1913–1945,” in Historical Statistics of the United States, p. 224.

  17. Bilstein, Flight in America, pp. 62–69; Anon., “How the Airplane Will Speed Up Business,” Literary Digest, March 30, 1929, pp. 18–19; Cleveland, “What Is the Future of Aviation?” p. 314.

  18. Anon., “All Aboard the Lindbergh Limited,” Literary Digest, March 2, 1929, p. 54; Anon, “The Fokker ‘F-10’ Monoplane,” Flight, December 13, 1928, pp. 1048–49; M. R. Stearns, “All Aboard by Air,” World’s Work, April 1929, p. 144.

  19. Van Vleck, Empire of the Air, p. 51.

  20. Douglas, “Airports as Systems and Systems of Airports,” in Leary and Trimble (eds.), From Airships to Airbus, volume 1, pp. 55–58, 60.

  21. Anon., “Airports,” World’s Work, November 1929, p. 37; W. E. Arthur, “How Shall We Design Our Airports?” Scientific American, October 1929, pp. 298–301; Gordon, Naked Airport, pp. 25, 28. See also Series K 257–264, “Air Transport—Airports, Aircraft, Pilots, and Miles Flown: 1926–1945,” Historical Statistics of the United States, p. 225; W. B. Courtney, “Up and Going,” Collier’s, March 23, 1929, pp. 54, 56.

  22. Rust, Flying Across America, pp. 48, 68–69; A. Phillips, “Over the Scenic Southwest,” Air Travel News, November 1929, p. 11; W. B. Courtney, “High-Flying Ladies,” Collier’s, August 20, 1932, p. 45.

  23. Darling, “Across the Continent in Forty-Eight Hours,” p. 55; H. E. McLaughlin, Footsteps in the Sky: An Informal Review of U.S. Airlines Inflight Service, 1920–Present (Denver, Colo.: State of the Art, 1994), p. 18; Rust, Flying Across America, pp. 52–54; Phillips, “Over the Scenic Southwest,” p. 11.

  24. V. G. Darling, “Across the Continent in Forty-Eight Hours,” World’s Work, September 1929, p. 54.

  25. Rust, Flying Across America, pp. 52–54; Darling, “Across the Continent in Forty-Eight Hours,” p. 55.

  26. McLaughlin, Footsteps in the Sky, p. 5.

  27. McLaughlin, Footsteps in the Sky, pp. 10–14; V. Vantoch, The Jet Sex: Airline Stewardesses and the Making of an American Icon (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), pp. 15–20.

  28. Corn, Winged Gospel, pp. 72, 75, 86; Rust, Flying Across America, p. 55; B. Gould, “Milady Takes the Air,” North American Review, December 1929, pp. 691–97. No woman was employed by a commercial carrier until 1934, when Central Airlines (later part of United) hired Helen Richey as co-pilot on the Washington, D.C.–Detroit route. She was forced out by the all-male pilots’ union, and it wouldn’t be until 1973 that another woman (Emily Warner) was taken on by an American airline. Interestingly, there was reverse sexism, as well: Male stewards were forbidden in January 1942, after the United States entered the war, but could be designated as “pursers.” It was not until 1972 that men could work as stewards, or “flight attendants,” as they and stewardesses would come to be called. McLaughlin, Footsteps in the Sky, p. 5.

  29. McLaughlin, Footsteps in the
Sky, pp. 11–12; Vantoch, The Jet Sex, p. 22.

  30. Hasle, interviewed in Courtney, “High-Flying Ladies,” p. 45; S. L. Kolm, “ ‘Who Says It’s a Man’s World?’ Women’s Work and Travel in the First Decades of Flight,” in The Airplane in American Culture, ed. Pisano, pp. 151–52.

  31. Courtwright, Sky as Frontier, p. 106; Rust, Flying Across America, pp. 70–71.

  32. Courtney, “High-Flying Ladies,” p. 45.

  33. “Movie Entertains Air Travelers Flying from St. Paul to Chicago,” The New York Times, February 18, 1929.

  34. Rust, Flying Across America, p. 64.

  35. Darling, “Across the Continent in 48 Hours,” pp. 52–56. On the interiors, see also Phillips, “Over the Scenic Southwest,” p. 11.

  36. Courtney, “Up and Going,” pp. 54, 56; McLaughlin, Footsteps in the Sky, pp. 4, 16–17; Vantoch, The Jet Sex, p. 18; Courtwright, Sky as Frontier, pp. 103–4; Rust, Flying Across America, pp. 62–63.

  37. Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, p. 80; Van der Linden, Airlines and Air Mail, pp. 47, 50; Davies, Airlines of the United States Since 1914, pp. 162–63; Anon., “Aviation,” World’s Work, July 1929, p. 34; Cleveland, “What Is the Future of Aviation?” p. 313. Estimates of Rentschler’s wealth vary a little, depending on sources. Rentschler himself stated to a Senate committee in 1934 the figure given here, of which he realized $9,500,000 after selling some shares. See G. Robinson, “The Rentschlers Fly the Dollar,” New York Daily News, January 19, 1934, p. 33.

  33. Terra Incognita

  1. Daley, American Saga, pp. 36–39, 69–71, 88; Josephson, Empire of the Air, p. 38.

  2. Daley, American Saga, p. 37. On Leuteritz, pp. 45–47.

  3. Josephson, Empire of the Air, pp. 32, 38–39, 40–41; O. E. Dunlap, Jr., “Why Fly Without Radio?” Scientific American, September 1927, pp. 226–28; A. Perry, “Radio Guides the Airway Traveler,” Scientific American, March 1929, pp. 238–39.

  4. Trippe, Pan Am’s First Lady, p, 15; Daley, American Saga, pp. 43–55.

  5. Daley, American Saga, pp. 60–63.

  6. On Hoyt, see “Builders of the Aviation Industry,” Scientific American, March 1929, p. 231.

  7. Davies, Airlines of the United States Since 1914, pp. 212–14; Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, 82–87; Daley, American Saga, pp. 27–32, 36, 58; W. E. Brown, Jr., “Pan Am: Miami’s Wings to the World,” Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 23 (1998), p. 148.

  34. El Dorado

  1. Daley, American Saga, pp. 40–41. On “the eagle,” see Anon., “Lindbergh Unites the Americas,” Literary Digest, January 21, 1928, p. 6.

  2. Josephson, Empire of the Air, pp. 33–35. Capone appears to have been a fan of Pan American. Betty Trippe recalled that when she was at a restaurant in Nassau with some friends (Trippe was away in Washington) the wine waiter came over to say, “Mr. Capone at the next table wants to know if you’d like some Champagne?” Betty said no after looking over and seeing a party of eight men who “looked like real thugs in their flashy tropical suits with padded shoulders.” When Betty was about to leave, the waiter came over again: “Mr. Capone would like to know if the ladies would like to go with him to the Jungle Club [a Nassau nightclub]?” Betty and Co. shook their heads and locked their bedroom doors. The next day the newspapers reported the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Trippe, Pan Am’s First Lady, p. 18.

  3. Anon., “Lindbergh Unites the Americas,” Literary Digest, January 21, 1928, p. 5; Van Vleck, Empire of the Air, p. 70.

  4. Daley, American Saga, pp. 39, 56–65; Josephson, Empire of the Air, pp. 61–62; Trippe, Pan Am’s First Lady, p. 12; Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, p. 103. On aircraft acquisitions, see R.E.G. Davies, Pan Am: An Airline and Its Aircraft (New York: Orion Books, 1987), pp. 12–13, 27. On 36th Street and airport design, see Brown, Jr., “Pan Am: Miami’s Wings to the World,” pp. 148–49; P. Pennoyer and A. Walker, The Architecture of Delano and Aldrich (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2003), p. 69; Gordon, Naked Airport, pp. 44–63; on stewards, see McLaughlin, Footsteps in the Sky, pp. 3–8, and Vantoch, The Jet Sex, p. 25; on the ground staff, see M. C. Hühne, Pan Am: History, Design, and Identity (Berlin: Callisto Publishers, 2016), p. 29.

  5. Quoted in Josephson, Empire of the Air, p. 44.

  6. Daley, American Saga, p. 68; Josephson, Empire of the Air, pp. 66–69; Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 117–20, 147.

  7. S. J. Randall, “Colombia, the United States, and Interamerican Aviation Rivalry, 1927–1940,” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 14 (1972), no. 3, pp. 297–324; Josephson, Empire of the Air, pp. 63–69; Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 140–46; Daley, American Saga, p. 66.

  8. Daley, American Saga, pp. 69–86; Josephson, Empire of the Air, pp. 71–76; R. A. O’Neill and J. F. Hood, A Dream of Eagles (Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1973), pp. 17, 201–3, 229, 283, 307–8; Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 166–75; Davies, Pan Am, pp. 20–21. After the legal documents were signed to wind up NYRBA, O’Neill hastened to leave the Union League Club in New York but was followed, irritatingly, by Trippe as he headed out. Trippe hailed a cab and asked whether O’Neill would like to come with him. O’Neill reluctantly agreed and Trippe spent the ride alternating “between puffs on a big Havana and attempts at witticisms.” He clearly wanted to ask something, and finally, as the cab pulled over, Trippe leaned in: “Ralph, listen. I’ll make you a very attractive offer to manage our Latin American east-coast division.” “Never,” snapped O’Neill. “There’s nothing more to say, except that you’re the last man on earth I would work for.” He got out of the taxi and the two never saw each other again. O’Neill ended up running a gold-dredging operation in deepest Bolivia, where he nursed his grievances and forever cursed the name of Trippe. C. J. Kelly mentions the author bumping into O’Neill in Bolivia in 1960. C. J. Kelly, The Sky’s the Limit: The History of the Airlines (New York: Coward-McCann, 1963), p. 129n.

  9. Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 111–12; Daley, American Saga, p. 66.

  10. Josephson, Empire of the Air, pp. 53–54.

  11. Bender and Alschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 127–28, 130.

  12. Van Vleck, Empire of the Air, p. 75; Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, p. 101; Daley, American Saga, pp. 95–96.

  13. Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 72, 76; Trippe, Pan Am’s First Lady, pp. 26–46. On Van Dusen, see Daley, American Saga, p. 52.

  14. Bilstein, Flight in America, p. 78; “Pan American Airways System,” Aviation, May 3, 1930, p. 70; Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, p. 176; Josephson, Empire of the Air, p. 59; Van Vleck, Empire of the Air, p. 68.

  15. Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 121–22.

  16. Josephson, Empire of the Air, p. 58; S. B. Kauffman and G. E. Hopkins, Pan Am Pioneer: A Manager’s Memoir from Seaplane Clippers to Jumbo Jets (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1995), p. 20. A surprisingly large number of Trippe’s managers in the most remote airfields were Yale graduates, for some reason.

  17. Anon., “Wiping Out Thousands of Miles Between the Two Americas,” Literary Digest, May 18, 1929, pp. 77–79.

  18. Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 104–5.

  35. The Emissary

  1. Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 303, 151; Josephson, Empire of the Air, pp. 196, 78–79; Trippe’s “religion” is quoted in Anon., “America’s Aerial Bridge to the Orient,” Literary Digest, November 23, 1935, pp. 28–29. On Eckener, see Vaeth, Graf Zeppelin, pp. 124–37.

  2. A. Wegerdt, “Germany and the Aerial Navigation Convention at Paris, October 13, 1919,” Journal of Air Law and Commerce 1 (1930), pp. 27–29; Duggan and Meyer, Airships in International Affairs, pp. 123–24.

  3. Memorandum, April 24, 1926, in Box 3, Folder 25, Henry Cord Meyer Papers; Italiaander,
Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, pp. 243–45.

  4. Eckener (trans. Robinson), My Zeppelins, pp. 29–31. Regarding the subsidiaries, Julius Oesterle, a Zeppelin director, believed Eckener had been itching to do this for some time: “He had only the one goal in mind—to lead the airship in Germany to its objective,” and keeping Colsman’s subsidiaries afloat had long “been a thorn in his side.” Oesterle’s notes are printed in Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, p. 273.

  5. Duggan and Meyer, Airships in International Affairs, pp. 126–27.

  6. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, pp. 261–64; C. E. Rosendahl, “Inside the Graf Zeppelin,” Scientific American, March 1929, pp. 201–5; Dick and Robinson, Golden Age, pp. 32–37 (technical figures usually vary slightly between sources), 76 (comparison of Blau-gas performance); menu card for October 11, 1932, reproduced in J. G. Vaeth, “Zeppelin Decor: The Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg,” Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 15 (1990), p. 52; on the Los Angeles figures, see C. E. Rosendahl, “Bigger and Better Blimps,” World’s Work, July 1929, p. 69; “Blue Gas and Hydrogen,” Time, October 15, 1928; “Zeppelin Fuel a Familiar Gas,” The New York Times, October 7, 1928. On the power differences in heat units, see E. A. Lehmann, “Lehmann Describes the Graf Zeppelin,” The New York Times, October 13, 1928. American newspapers habitually referred to Blau gas as “Blue gas”—blau is German for “blue”—though it wasn’t that color.

  7. Eckener (trans. Robinson), My Zeppelins, p. 31.

  8. “Zeppelin Carries 82 on Long Flight,” The New York Times, September 21, 1928.

  9. “Last Zeppelin Test Will Be Made Today,” The New York Times, October 2, 1928.

  10. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 265; “New Zeppelin Home After 35-Hour Trip,” The New York Times, October 4, 1928.