With the financial backing of Western Air Express (WAE), MidContinent is incorporated under Delaware laws on June 19, 1929. Employing 13 Fokker Model 8 Super Universals, the company inaugurates revenue services from a base at Denver down to El Paso (a WAE connection) via Pueblo, Las Vegas, Santa Fe, Albuquerque (another WAE connection). In December, a service is initiated from Pueblo to Dodge City, Wichita, and Kansas City. The fleet at year’s end comprises the original 8 Super Universals.
Two Boeing 40B-4s join the fleet in March 1930 and in May the Pueblo route is extended nonstop to Amarillo, another WAE stop. The final expansion occurs in August as the Amarillo terminus is stretched via Wichita Falls to Dallas, also a WAE terminus.
On September 27, 1931, the carrier is taken over by its backer and is officially dissolved on December 16.
MID-CONTINENT AIR LINES: United States (1938-1952). Hanford Air Lines is renamed in August 1938. During the next six years, it maintains its route network linking the upper midwest with Tulsa, Oklahoma. The fleet in 1939 comprises 5 Lockheed L-10 Electras. These help to carrier to record its first profit in December.
The first three production L-18 Lodestars are delivered between March 30 and August 7, 1940 and are placed into service on August 17. Destinations now visited from Minneapolis (MSP) and Minot, North Dakota, include Kansas City, St. Louis, and Tulsa.
Bookings for the year total 35,634.
Following the outbreak of war in December 1941, Mid-Continent modifies the North American B-25B Mitchell bombers employed in the Halsey-Doolittle raid on Tokyo in April 1942 and settles into the provision of flight training programs through 1945. Plans are announced for a merger with American Airlines, but the CAB does not approve the move.
The route network on January 1, 1946 covers 2,522 unduplicated miles. Destinations visited from the Kansas City base include Min-neapolis-St. Paul, Omaha, Des Moines, St. Louis, Tulsa, Muskogee, Fort Smith, Texarkana, Shreveport, and New Orleans. Applications are made to the CAB for a new route linking Minot, North Dakota, with Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Operations continue apace in 1947 and Mid-Continent expands its routes late in the decade. Omaha and Kansas City to St. Louis service begins on January 26, 1948. During the first quarter, three Douglas DC-3 s are acquired from Northwest Airlines.
Flights commence in 1949 to New Orleans and Houston. An attempt to acquire Parks Air Service is blocked by the CAB. Simultaneously, it proposes to inaugurate Convair CV-240 service in early 1950. In July of that year, the carrier is awarded a CAB local service certificate for certain of its routes.
While climbing away from Tulsa on February 27, 1951, a CV-240 with 4 crew and 30 passengers suffers the loss of its right engine, strikes trees, and slides to the ground; although the aircraft is destroyed, there are no fatalities.
A DC-3 with 4 crew and 21 passengers, misses its approach to the municipal airport at Sioux City, Iowa, during a snowstorm on March 2. It stalls, crashes, and catches fire (16 dead).
A new three-phase expansion plan is announced in mid-December, but comes to naught. Plagued throughout its history by poor traffic and a weak route system of only 26 cities, the company allows itself to be taken over by Braniff International Airways on August 15, 1952.
MID-CONTINENTAIRLINES (1): United States (1964-1965). This Mid-Continent is formed as a third-level carrier at Morris, Illinois, in late fall 1964. Equipped with a de Havilland DH 104 Dove and a Beech 18, the company begins scheduled passenger and cargo flights to Chicago, International Falls, and Winnipeg on December 18. Services over this route are only maintained for a year.
MID CONTINENT AIRLINES (2): United States (1969-1970). Just as short-lived as its Illinois predecessor, MC-2 is set up at Memphis, Tennessee, in 1969 to provide scheduled daily passenger shuttles to what will become a total of 21 regional destinations. Employing Cessna 402s, the commuter initially inaugurates revenue frequencies to Blytheville, Jonesboro, Dyersburg, Union City, and Paducah. Overextended, the company folds in 1970.
World History
