Created at White Lake, New York, in 1972 to provide scheduled passenger and cargo services to regional destinations. Employing Piper light-planes, the company duly inaugurates daily roundtrips linking Monti-cello with New York (LGA) and with Buffalo via Scranton, Pennsylvania. Operations cannot be maintained beyond 1973.
HUFF-DALAND DUSTERS: United States (1924-1928). Thomas H. Huff and Elliott Daland form Huff, Daland & Co., Ltd. at Ogdensburg, New York, in 1921 to build light bombers and small civil aircraft, including the Model 5 Petrel, used successfully in crop-dusting experiments.
To make regular use of the agricultural aircraft, a subsidiary, Huff-Da-land Dusters is established at Macon, Georgia, in 1924. It is the world’s first aerial crop-dusting company. Huff, with authority from Maj. Gen. Mason Patrick, chief of the Army Air Service, is able to recruit Capt. Harold R. Harris (on official leave of absence) to become chief executive and pilot.
Harris joins Huff-Daland in February 1925, at which point both the parent organization and its child move. Huff, Daland and Co., Ltd. is reorganized, renamed Huff-Daland Airplanes, Inc., and shifted to Bristol, Pennsylvania, where a new plant is built for the construction of improved airplanes, including an upgraded Model 5 known as the Model 31.
Huff-Daland Dusters, meanwhile, moves to a new base at Monroe, Louisiana, where, Harris is joined by the division’s new chief entomologist Collett Everman (C. E.) Woolman, who has been loaned to the enterprise by the U. S. Department of Agriculture (DOA), who in turn has borrowed him from the State of Louisiana.
Following a moderately successful dusting season up and down the Gulf coast, it is found that there is no off-season work for the specially equipped Petrel 31s. As a result, an experimental service is operated in Mexico.
At the beginning of 1926, the acreage of the cotton planters in the South American country of Peru is under siege by plant-eating army worms. Acting on behalf of the planter community, Pedro Beltran, himself owner of a large cotton farm, travels to Washington, D. C. to consult with the DOA, which recommends dusting and sends him down to Monroe. Beltran is able to convince Huff-Daland to send Woolman down to check out the problem and, once on the scene, the entomologist finds such promise that a contract for dusting is signed.
In December, Huff-Deland sends Harris and Woolman, along with five crated dusters, by ship to Lima, Peru. There the two, having reassembled their Petrel 31s, begin what will prove a valuable seasonal service to local cotton growers.
Back in the U. S. on March 8, 1927, Huff-Daland Airplanes, Inc. is purchased by the New York City-based Hayden Stone brokerage house and reorganized, becoming the Keystone Aircraft Corporation. Later in the year, Harris presents a report on the Huff-Daland operation in Peru, which is complete with maps and notebooks containing proposed passenger and airmail routes down the west coast of South America.
Hayden Stone senior partner Richard Hoyt brings in Juan T. Trippe and Andre Priester of newly formed Pan American Airways (PAA) to review the Harris documents. Trippe and Priester, who are busily expanding into the Caribbean from south Florida, are excited
Stone and Trippe move to form a new airline for Peru on September 4, Peruvian Airways, S. A. (PAC). Trippe will be president of the new carrier, with Harris as vice president-general manager. An arrangement for joint services is quickly struck with Harris and Woolman, in their capacity as officers of the Huff-Daland Dusters Air Navigation Company, and orders are placed for Fairchild cabin monoplanes.
After two successful seasons in both the U. S. and Peru, Harris and Woolman, still in charge of Keystone’s Huff-Daland Dusters subsidiary in South America, seek additional opportunities for that organization and also for the new PAC. On May 28, 1928 they are awarded Peruvian government permission to initiate services both within the nation and to the U. S.
Supplying a Fairchild FC-2 and operating under terms of Huff-Daland’s government certificate, Peruvian Airways, S. A. inaugurates regularly scheduled weekly flights from Lima’s Santa Beatriz racetrack to Talara on September 13.
Three days after Peruvian Airways’ first revenue flight, the Aviation Corporation of the Americas, holding company of Juan Trippe’s Pan American Airways (PAA), purchases 50% shareholding in the Peruvian Airways, S. A. operation. Just over two months later, on November 28, all of the Huff-Daland operating permits are turned over to Peruvian Airways Corporation, S. A. PAC will soon be transformed into Pan American-Grace Airways (PANAGRA).
Harris and Woolman return to the U. S. in the fall after briefing president-elect Herbert Hoover when the latter visits Callao, Peru, aboard the battleship U. S.S. Maryland. At Monroe, Louisiana, the latter finds the local Huff-Daland Dusters operation in shambles, due largely to a lack of interest and leadership from Keystone Aircraft Corporation, which desires to divest itself of this southern stepchild. With $40,000 from local investors, Woolman purchases Keystone’s subsidiary on November 12 and obtains its Petrel 31s three days later. Following a preliminary reorganization, the new company is chartered as Delta Air Service on December 3. Sixty years later it would be one of America’s largest carriers, Delta Air Lines.
HUGHES AIRWEST: United States (1968-1980). Air West is created at Seattle on April 9, 1968 through the mergers of Bonanza Air Lines, Pacific Air Lines, and West Coast Airlines, which is engineered by the latter’s CEO, Nick Bez. The three bring their fleets and routes into this CAB-approved marriage with hopes that a combined operation can hold market share. As each airline component retains significant independence, resistance to the merger begins almost immediately.
The combo, unfortunately, also quickly encounters major financial difficulty increased in magnitude by the failure of the new computerized reservations system. So great do these fiscal problems become that the last option before bankruptcy must be exercised: the company’s sale. The purchaser turns out to be pioneer aviator Howard Hughes, who had seven years earlier been forced out of his longtime association with Trans World Airlines (TWA).
On August 12, Bez announces a $90-million sale. A number of Air West directors, several of whom hear of the deal over the radio for the first time, pillar Bez as a Hughes stooge and bring suit to halt the takeover. Still, sufficient boardroom support is found for Bez (who dies in the new year) and Hughes, in the entity of his Hughes Air Corporation (Summa), to sign the legal papers on December 31.
Following unsuccessful legal opposition, the CAB grants sale approval and Summa assumes control on July 21, 1969. During the next 10 months, the carrier is reorganized. Headquarters are transferred to San Mateo, California. The changeover does not have sufficient time to work before the year’s net balance sheet is revealed to have been written in $20.8 million worth of red ink.
Less than a year later, in April 1970, the concern is relabeled Hughes Airwest. At this point, the employee population numbers 3,500 (a 6.8% decline) and the fleet includes 44 aircraft: 19 DC-9-30s and 25 Fairchild F-27s and F-27As. A former Pacific Air Lines Boeing 727-193 is sold to Union of Burma Airways, Ltd. The highly visible purple and yellow colors of Hughes Aircraft are applied to all of the company’s aircraft.
Passenger boardings increase 2% to 2,898,258 and freight traffic is up by 26%. Revenues advance 15.3% to $75.9 million. Operating losses are cut to $5.7 million and the net loss is cut in half to $10.1 million.
Nonstop service from Phoenix and Tucson to Guadalajara begins in April 1971.
While climbing to 33,000 ft. on June 6, Flight 706, a DC-9-31 with 5 crew and 44 passengers en route from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, collides with a USMC F-4B Phantom II at 15,150 ft. over the San Gabriel Mountains. Both planes crash, killing all aboard the jetliner. One of the fighter-bomber’s two crew is able to successfully bail out and survives.
Aircraft mechanics, members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, walk out on strike on December 15.
Enplanements for the year total 2,917,935 and a net loss of $3.3 million is absorbed.
Dressed in cowboy boots and western clothes, former paratrooper R. C. LaPoint hijacks Flight 800, a DC-9-30 on the ground at Las Vegas as it is about to takeoff for Reno on January 20, 1972. He releases 2 stewardesses and 67 passengers in exchange for parachutes and a $50,000 ransom and then orders the Douglas to takeoff in the direction of Denver.
LaPoint, the second bandit after D. B. Cooper to escape from a jetliner by parachute, jumps from the jetliner over Akron, Colorado, but is captured by police in nearby Sterling after suffering injuries during his descent. He will be tried and given a 40-year prison sentence.
A four-month strike by mechanics ends on April 10 after an agreement is reached with management.
R. Butte is arrested by FBI agents aboard Flight 775, a DC-9-30, at Portland on July 1 after reportedly asking a stewardess for $50,000 and a parachute during a service from Seattle. Upon examination, Butte will be found mentally unfit and sent to a psychiatric facility.
As the year progresses, the billionaire’s carrier seems to recover and prosper. Plans are announced for the relocation of its headquarters to a new $6.1-million complex under construction in the San Francisco Bay region. Services to Mexico are increased and frequencies enhanced on the Portland to Los Angeles via San Francisco route. A new market is opened at Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
Ten DC-9-10s are purchased from Continental Airlines in November and in December Howard Hughes is indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring with Bez to force Air West’s stockholders to sell out four years earlier. The case will continue for six years.
Passenger boardings this year decline 6.3% to 2,745,000 and freight traffic is down by 13.9%. Both failures are due largely to a strike. Still, the company performs well on the economic side. Revenues are $96.7 million and expenses are $94.17 million. Consequently, profits are made: $2.52 million (operating) and $1.91 million (net).
The workforce in 1973 is 3,476. Customer bookings accelerate 33.9% to 3,675,000 and freight jumps by 38.9%. On income of $130.10 million, expenses are $123.82 million. The operating profit is $6.28 million and net income is up to $4.66 million.
A total of 285 new employees are hired in 1974. In February, HAW begins phasing out its F-27As and replacing them with four DC-9-30s purchased from Hawaiian Airlines (HAL).
Flights begin to Edmonton, Alberta, while new services are opened from Seattle and Salt Lake City to five vacation cities in Mexico. A fifth overseas management contract is signed at year’s end, with Air Mauri-tanie, S. A.
Enplanements climb 8.8% to 3,662,200 while cargo is up by 8.9%. Revenues swing upward to $164.69 million while expenses are held to $152.32 million. The operating profit is $12.36 million and the $7.94-million net profit is an all-time record.
The workforce in 1975 is 3,790. A sixth overseas management contract is signed, this one with Saudia (Saudi Arabian Airlines). Three of the withdrawn F-27As are leased to the Saudis and 33 Hughes personnel are sent to manage their operation on domestic routes.
Spokane-based Cascade Airways begins flying replacement service over the carrier’s routes to Pullman and Moscow, Idaho, and Walla Walla, Washington. Scheduled jetliner flights are inaugurated from Seattle and Portland to Edmonton and charter services are resumed.
Passenger boardings accelerate a slight 1.1% to a record 3,700,519, but cargo is down 1.7%. Expenses of $174.84 million are submerged in overall revenues of $177.6 million. The operating profit is $2.76 million and a fourth consecutive net gain ($1.7 million) is achieved.
The employee population is increased by 5.6% in 1976 to 4,004.
HAW becomes an all-jet company with the delivery and integration into the DC-9-10/30 fleet of three B-727-200s. On April 1, a DC-9-10 and a Northwest Airlines DC-10-40, carrying 181 people between them, nearly collide over Spokane. The near-miss occurs after the DC-9-10 misses its landing approach and overtakes the wide-body, which has just taken off. Chief patron Howard Hughes dies on April 5.
On July 1, flights commence from Portland and Seattle to Reno in Nevada. An interchange agreement is inked with Frontier Airlines (1) allowing flights from the Pacific Northwest to Orange County and Hollywood and Burbank Airports in southern California. Among five other nonstop segments begun are frequencies from Las Vegas to Alberta and from Alberta to Los Angeles. President Irving Tague resigns in midyear and Russell V. Stephenson is named acting president.
Customer bookings accelerate 9.1% to a record 4,038,811 while FTKs climb 8% to 8.95 million. On revenues of $210.98 million, expenses are only $204.31 million. As a result, another year of profits can be celebrated: $6.67 million (operating) and $3.64 million (net).
Acting President Stephenson is permanently confirmed in his post in January 1977. Enplanements for the year total 5,044,000. On revenues of $249.86 million, the company posts its highest profit ($9.4 million). It will not, however, be able to withstand the rigors of deregulation now under debate.
Airline employment is increased by 13.7% in 1978 to 5,029 and the fleet now includes 26 Douglas DC-9-30s, 11 DC-9-10s, 5 Fairchild F-27As, and 4 Boeing 727-200s. During the year, five more DC-9-30s arrive, along with a fifth B-727-200. Twelve DC-9-30s are reengined with Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15s and refurbishment is begun on the cabin interiors of the entire Dash-30 fleet. A new regional base is established in El Segundo and assistance agreements are renewed with seven foreign countries.
Following President Carter’s signing of the deregulation law in October, the 55-point western route network is expanded by five cities as widely separated as Milwaukee, Des Moines, Houston, Denver, and Manzanillo, Mexico. Several older routes become nonstop and business-class service is introduced. New flight attendant uniforms are adopted.
Higher fuel costs, the expense of the new routes, and increased competition cause significant fiscal problems. Passenger boardings jump 21.4% to 6,417,000 and FTKs flown are up by 20.8% to 12.8 million. On income of $313.15 million, expenses are held to $300.88 million. Although a $12.17-million operating profit is made, expenses associated with deregulation cause a 43% dip in profits to $5.3 million.
Disaster strikes in 1979 and for the first time since 1972, Hughes falls out of the black. In January, Summa agrees to pay $37 million to the former Air West shareholders to end their conspiracy challenge. Four more B-727-200s are delivered and new frequencies are improved from Houston, Denver, and Los Angeles to Seattle, and Seattle to Phoenix.
A unique “sale” is launched, offering 70% discounts in several markets on tickets purchased by passengers the night before use. Technical assistance programs are renewed in Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Argentina, and Mauritania.
Ticket and reservation agents and office personnel, members of the Air Line Employees Association, strike Hughes on September 10. The walkout is resolved by mediated agreement on November 10.
Still, the lengthy job action leads to a 19.5% decline in passenger boardings to 5,166,000. Cargo is down 18% to 10.53 million FTKs and the workforce is cut by 0.06% to 5,000. Revenues shrink to $312 million and expenses rise to $326 million, leaving the airline to suffer a $13.78-million operating loss and $22.6-million net in the red.
The employee population is cut by 2% in 1980 to 4,900. On January 2, a DC-9-30 with 53 aboard must make an emergency landing at Seattle after smoke from faulty air recycling equipment enters the cabin. In the spring, the carrier’s parent company, Summa Corporation, reaches an agreement to sell the airline to Republic Airlines for $38 million plus its assumption of Hughes’s debt, including that for four more B-727-200s acquired.
The acquisition process is completed on October 1, on which date the airline, pending its integration, is relabeled Republic West and operated as a subsidiary.
Enplanements for the year, as HAW/RW, grow 6.6% to 5,504,000 while freight traffic rises 13.7% to 11.98 million FTKs.
HUISSON AVIATION (1989), LTD.: Canada (1974-1998). Huisson is established at Timmins, Ontario, in 1974 to serve the forestry and mining industries. During the next 15 years, service is expanded into passenger charters and air ambulance service and support and via provision of outsized-load lift, the construction industry.
The company is reformed in 1989 and by 1997, President Luc Pilon employs a 50-person workforce. With annual revenues of C$8.5 million, Huisson also owns a fleet that includes 1 Aerospatiale AS-350 Ecureuil, 3 Bell 205s, 7 Bell 206B JetRangers, 7 Bell 206L LongRangers, and 1 each Bell 212, Bell 222, Robinson R-44, and Sikorsky S-76A.
In 1998, Huisson becomes part of one of the largest and most diverse helicopter operations in North America, the trans-border firm Helicopter Transport Services, with corporate headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland.
HUITONG AIRWAYS (HUITONG HANGKONG GONGSI, LTD.): China (1936-1938). Backed by the Japanese Army, which is in need of air transport support for its invasion of North China, Huitong Hangkong Gongsi, also known as Huitong Airways, is established at Tanjin on November 7, 1936. Publicly, the new entrant is a subsidiary of Manchurian Air Transport Co., Ltd. and a local Chinese government. Employing several Fokker Model 8 Super Universals, Huitong begins service on November 17.
Operations are maintained on a small scale in 1937 and 1938 and the company never quite meets the need of its covert military sponsors. As a result, it is merged into Zhonghua Hangkong Gongsi (China Airways Corporation), which is established as a subsidiary of Japan Air Lines Company, Ltd. (1) on December 16 of the latter year.
HULMAN AIRLINES: United States (1959-1971). Hulman Field Aviation is set up by George Johnson at Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1959, offering charter passenger and cargo services to destinations throughout the state.
In the early summer of 1969, the decision is taken to establish a scheduled air taxi division, which is named Hulman Airlines. Outfitted with Cessna 402s, daily revenue frequencies are undertaken to Indianapolis and Chicago, beginning on November 12. With little change, operations are maintained for the next two years.
World History
