(1988-1992). This small privately owned carrier is formed at Cologne in 1988 to offer charter and air-taxi flights to regional destinations. A fleet comprised of 2 Piper PA-34 Senecas, 2 Cessna 421s, and 1 Cessna 404 Titan is assembled and revenue flights commence. During 1989, the company undertakes charters to Southend Airport in Great Britain and petitions for permission to inaugurate scheduled service over that route.
A Piper PA-31T Cheyenne is acquired in 1990 and operations continue apace in 1991. Unable to maintain either traffic or financial viability in the recessionary year of 1992, the carrier is forced to shut its doors.
COLONIAL AIR LINES (1): United States (1924-1926). Incorporated at Naugatuck, Connecticut, in 1923 as the Bee Line, this small carrier offers charter and sight-seeing flights. These activities give rise to claims that it is America’s first airline.
In May 1924, the company name is changed to Colonial Air Lines (1) . Nonscheduled and unsubsidized passenger and express flights continue. The operation now becomes more substantial and attracts backers from both Connecticut and Massachusetts, including the former state’s governor, John Trumbull.
In September 1925, the U. S. Post Office bids out Contract Air Mail Route No. 1, CAM-1, from Boston to New York. Four companies make offers and Colonial triumphs over a newly formed Eastern Air Transport (1), established largely through the efforts of 26-year old Juan T. Trippe. In October, EAT-1 is renamed Colonial Air Transport. In January 1926, the two small airlines merge under the latter name.
COLONIAL AIR LINES (2): United States (1942-1956). Canadian Colonial Airways is founded on March 6, 1928 to fly the foreign air mail route (FAM-1) between New York and Montreal; actual operations commence on October 1. In 1929, this “Colonial,” like Colonial Western Airways and Colonial Air Transport, is purchased into the holding company, The Aviation Corporation (AVCO), becoming the Colonial Division of American Airways.
From 1929 to 1939, the semiautonomous unit is allowed to retain its original name and to operate its mail and passenger route to Canada. As it falls into something approaching neglect, Sigmund Janas and a group of associate investors purchases Canadian Colonial in October 1939, pour new resources (including four Douglas DC-3s) into it, and, on May 1,1942 , rename it Colonial Air Lines.
Two of the 4 DC-3s are now handed over to the Army. Janas is able to keep the operation afloat until they are returned in late 1944. The Canadian route is maintained and a substantial interchange of traffic occurs at New York with passengers able to easily board the airliners of American Airlines, United Air Lines, and Eastern Air Lines.
Following the end of World War II, Colonial, on August 10, 1945, is awarded CAB authority for a Washington, D. C. to Montreal route via New York and Ottawa. Twenty Martin 2-0-2s are purchased on November 28. On December 3, the company adopts a 5-day, 40-hour week for all of its employees, except executives and pilots.
During the year, the company files a number of route extension applications with the CAB, including one that would allow the carrier to fly down the eastern seaboard to the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
The CAB grant is followed in May 1946 by authority to fly to Bermuda. On June 2, Watertown and Massena are added as stops on the New York to Ottawa service. Year-round service to Plattsburg, Rutland, Lake Placid, Saratoga Lake, and Glen Falls is begun on August 4 and the number of New York to Montreal frequencies is increased on October 27.
After a three-year lapse, the Newark to Montreal schedule is resumed on April 28, 1947. Wilkes-Barre and Scranton become company destinations on May 30. After being christened by Mrs. James A. Farley, the inaugural plane begins Bermuda service from New York and Washington, D. C., on August 1. Despite newly won frequencies, the carrier, equipped with DC-3s, finds rough flying weather financially. Passengers, on the other hand, must still endure a 13-point trip between New York and Washington. Flying from New York City (LGA), stops are made at Poughkeepsie, Albany, Saranac, Lake Placid, Massena, Bennington, Watertown, Syracuse, Binghamton, Allentown, Harrisburg, and Washington.
Operations continue apace in 1948-1949 and, on February 5, 1950, the carrier drops a suit, which has made it all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court, to bar Trans Canada Airlines, Ltd. from a New York to Montreal route under the United States-Canada bilateral agreement. Two DC-4s establish speed records for Montreal-New York-Montreal service on February 20.
On January 22, 1951, it is announced that the carrier is equipping its aircraft with Visual Omni-Directional-Range (VOR) equipment. On March 24, as part of an interline pact with Eastern Air Lines and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), the airline is able to begin roundtrip tours to the Bahamas and West Indies. Colonial now becomes the object of a long, confused, and involved corporate battle between National Airlines and Eastern Air Lines, both of which seek its acquisition.
The first to seek the company is George Baker of National who, in the initial year, reaches a tentative merger agreement calling for the absorption of the smaller airline in exchange for 450,000 shares of National Airlines stock. However, certain Eastern shareholders have acquired 21% interest in Colonial and are able to defeat the proposed merger.
Meanwhile, the CAB, which has long disapproved certain of President Janas’s devious methods, has successfully pressured Colonial’s board for a change. On May 31, A. B. Landa is elected a board member and he succeeds the colorful and dictatorial Janas as president. The U. S. sues Colonial and Janus on June 29 for allegedly falsifying company records and accounts and for diverting funds to Janas for his personal use; simultaneously, the government sues both over their issuance of free rides and cut rates.
Although he denies the government charges on July 3, the former president begins repaying $75,000. On July 18, Colonial pleads not guilty to cut rates, free rides, or record falsifications. The family plan, meanwhile, is resumed on most flights as of September 30. On November 28, Colonial is fined $10,000 for violating foreign exchange regulations. On December 12, the company accepts a merger offer from National Airlines on a stock trade basis.
President Landa is succeeded in early 1952 by Branch T. Dykes. Despite Colonial’s December action, Eastern Air Lines President Ricken-backer next proposes the highest proportional cost for any airline attempting to take over another and wins the board recommendation of Colonial President Dykes on March 23. Washington, D. C. to Syracuse coach service is opened on September 15.
Charging “prior control” because Eastern Air Lines shareholders have nearly a quarter of Colonial’s stock, Baker is unable to prevent the CAB’s approval of the merger. However, President Dwight Eisenhower rejects the amalgamation and sends it back to the regulatory body for further hearing in early 1953. Daily Lockheed Constellation flights to Bermuda begin on March 10.
The National and Eastern takeover battle continues throughout 1954 and 1955; however, during these years, Eastern’s shareholders quietly unload their interest and the company increases its bid. While Colonial’s 5 DC-4s and 8 DC-3s continue to fly their routes, the airline’s management is able to convince its board that Rickenbacker’s proposal is far superior to Baker’s.
Eastern Air Lines and Colonial reapproach the CAB and on January 11, 1956 the regulatory body again agrees to the merger. This time, on January 25, Eisenhower agrees. The two companies are integrated on June 1 and the 25-year-old Colonial—which is remembered today, if at all, as a passenger carrier that flew its entire life without a single fatality—disappears.
COLONIAL AIR TRANSPORT: United States (1923-1929). Having lost the September 1925 contest for Contract Air Mail Route. No. 1 (CAM-1), the New York-Boston run, to competing Colonial Air Lines (1), Eastern Air Transport (1) founder Juan T. Trippe changes the name of his concern on October 5 to Colonial Air Transport.
Trippe and his board of directors, including Lorillard Spencer, L. L. Odell, Sherman Fairchild, Robert Thach, William Rockefeller, John Hambleton, and Cornelius “Sonny” Whitney, now negotiate with CAL’s board of directors, led by Connecticut governor John Trumbull and includes Howard Coonley, Harris Whittemore Jr., and Irving Bullard. Two days later, the two companies merge under the CAT banner, effective the following January 1926.
With the 26-year-old Trippe as managing director, the 30-member joint board agrees to form a voting trust of 7 members (Trumbull, Trippe, Rockefeller, Hambleton, Bullard, Coonley, and Whittemore). Initial capitalization is $500,000. The U. S. Post Office now officially makes its award and Trippe sets about establishing, hiring, or purchasing the routes, landing fields, rosters, and flight equipment necessary for a going concern. A Curtiss Lark and 2 Fokker Model 4 Universals are acquired and prepositioned at Hadley Field at New Brusnwick, New Jersey.
At 6:45 a. m. on July 21, pilots Hustis I. Wells and Talbot O. Freeman, flying the Lark and a Universal, depart for East Boston Airport via Hartford where they arrive at 9:35 a. m. They are joined later in the morning by LeRoy Thompson with the second Universal. The three aircraft depart Boston after lunch and fly to Teterboro Field at Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, where they are greeted by a crowd of 5,000 upon their 8:57 p. m. landing. The company’s first day of operations is an unqualified success. Another 308 flights are scheduled during the remainder of the year, of which 242 are completed.
A total of 110 forced landings are made (42 of which result in flight cancellations); however, Trippe’s pilots complete 60,867 scheduled miles without an in-flight accident and deliver 6,632 pounds of airmail. On October 1, retired Brig. Gen. John F. O’Ryan becomes president. Vice President Trippe now begins to lobby for westward expansion to Buffalo’s new airport.
During the winter and early spring of 1927, the government makes CAM-1 its first lighted airway. Four emergency landing fields are established and two million candlepower beacons are placed every 10 miles from New York to Boston. By March, the carrier has accomplished its first 100,000 miles, all accident-free. One of the Universals and the Curtiss Lark are lost in a hangar fire at Hadley Field on March 28.
Unable to convince his cost-conscious board to expand, at odds with President O’Ryan over a bid for a new airmail contract, and unable to deliver support from his voting trust, Juan Trippe resigns on April 30. Within months, he will form new alliances, which result in the creation of Pan American Airways (PAA).
Employing a recently acquired Fokker C-2 trimotor, Colonial inaugurates New York to Boston passenger flights on April 4. The event is historic as the first experimental scheduled night passenger service. Due to limited airfield facilities at Teterboro Field, the operation cannot be continued. As a result, the Fokker is reassigned to sight-seeing flights over New York until June 18 when it is damaged in a forced landing.
Air express flights between Boston and New York are launched on September 2 when pilot E. G. “Dan” Cline departs the Massachusetts metropolis with his Fokker Universal, transporting 41 pounds of mail, 10 express packages, and one passenger. Weather forces him to land at Dudley where his passenger departs. Taking off again, he crashes into a tree near Willington, northeast of Hartford, and is killed. Late in the month, 3 new Fairchild FC-2 cabin monoplanes are acquired and employed on the New York-Boston route, as well as on sight-seeing tours from Hadley Field.
While on one of those $5 rides on October 3, Leroy H. Thompson’s FC-2 goes into a spin and crashes (four dead). In December, the two surviving Fairchild aircraft are turned over to the company’s new subsidiary, Colonial Western Airways, for the inauguration of its new service from Albany to Cleveland.
On the year, CAT has transported 4,016 passengers, 1,140 pounds of freight, and 10.4 tons of mail over 97,767 miles.
Operations continue apace in 1928. A clogged oil line forces the surviving Fokker Model 4 Universal, en route from Boston to Hasbrouck Heights on March 26, to crash New Canaan, Connecticut. During an August weekend, the company is forced to fly extra sections to transport the 512 passengers who wish passage between Boston and New York. Conversely, only 134 passengers are flown in December.
On January 5-6, 1929, Ned Carrington, en route with mail from Boston to New York in an FC-2, crashes into a mountain near Stafford Springs, Connecticut (1 dead). The new Ford Tri-Motor 5-AT-33 is delivered to the company at New York City on March 30, followed by the 5-AT-36 on April 6 and 5-AT-35 on April 12.
In early spring, the board creates the holding company Colonial Airways Corporation to operate CAT, plus its subsidiaries, Colonial Western Airways and Canadian Colonial Airways. In May, CAC and its operating airlines, by an exchange of stock, are acquired by a larger holder, The Aviation Corporation (AVCO), parent of the emerging American Airways.
COLONIAL AIRLINES: United States (1975). Colonial Airlines is founded by Novara Nichols at Cambridge, Ohio, in the summer of 1975. Employing a Volpar Beech 18, he inaugurates daily scheduled passenger roundtrips on September 10, linking his base with Akron to the north and Columbus and Dayton to the west. When traffic does not materialize, the company is shut down in December.
World History
