eir sacrifices, the foundation upon which commercial air transportation was built. The honor of being the first air freight operator would probably have to go to Henry Ford, who at the time owned Ford Air Transport and was just as well known in aviation as in the automobile industry. The first original all-cargo air carriers were Slick Airways, United States Airlines, the Flying Tiger Line, and Air News. All were certified in 1949, but most were gone within a 5-year period (Air Trans 323). Commercial passenger airlines were struggling into existence in the U.S. in the mid 1920’s when much of Europe was already covered by a network of air routes. Only one minor American passenger line had flourished for any length of time - Aeromarine Airways. After a number of widely publicized accidents in the ocean off of Florida, Aeromarine was in decline, and was also turning the financial community against investments in airline enterprises. Americans remained skeptical about air travel, and while not as fast as planes, ground transportation was much safer. There were no strong Perry 3objections however to improving an existing government service. So it happened that organized air transport in the U.S. started with flying the mail. And the way the early airmail service developed provided the springboard that would enable American commercial aviation, by the late 1920s, to catch up with the Europeans and then to surpass them (Air Mail 158). The air freight industry was a dull and unpromising business until the 1960’s when commercial airlines jumped into the competition in an all-out effort to attract business from the nation’s industrial firms. Commercial airlines struggled to make a profit. They were convinced that putting cargo in the extensive belly space below the passenger deck could be a lucrative profit center. Delta, Eastern and United and others continued their all-cargo service duri...
