ALL-AMERICAN AVIATION: United States (1937-1953). Having invented a specialized nonstop airmail pickup and delivery system, Chicago dentist Dr. Lytle S. Adams founds All-American Aviation at Wilmington, Delaware, on March 5, 1937. Nothing more than a holding company from which to negotiate, All-American becomes an operating airline in the spring of 1938 when Adams concludes a financial agreement with former national gliding champion Richard C. DuPont, who makes an $85,000 investment and a $45,000 loan. With the DuPont as president and Adams as vice president, the company bids on and receives an experimental airmail contract from the CAB late in the year. It also acquires 5 Stinson SR-10C Reliants, which are modified for dropping and retrieving the mail sacks per the system invented by Adams.
When all is prepared and a two-month period of testing is completed, All-American, with a base at Pittsburgh, inaugurates two routes on May 12 and 14, 1939 to 52 mountainous communities in Pennsylvania and West Virginia equipped with Adams’s specialized ground release devices.
The reliable and punctual enterprise is concluded on May 13, 1940, by which time the company is the successful bidder for Air Mail Routes 1001 and 1002 operating out of Pittsburgh. On July 21, the CAB grants DuPont (Adams has since left the company) a permanent mail certificate (the first granted a carrier by that new agency) and scheduled operations are resumed under that award on August 12.
In 1941, AAA flies pick-up over 1,386 miles covering 111 destinations on five routes in six states; 46 points have no airports. The fleet grows to 12 Stinson SR-10C Reliants. Even as the unorthodox mail service is being flown on a 1,040-mile route over treacherous mountains in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, All-American Aviation undertakes cargo flights for the U. S. Army. Founder DuPont, while serving as special Army Air Forces advisor for glider operations, is killed in the crash of an Army glider on September 11, 1943.
Two Stinsons are lost in fatal crashes, one each in 1944 and 1945. Halsey R. Bazley succeeds DuPont as CEO and enters a postwar period of frustration. Without mail subsidy, with plunging mail traffic, and faced with the CAB’s refusal to allow combined passenger-mail airborne pickup, the carrier faces oblivion. Still, the company provides mail flights to Washington, D. C. and 117 communities, some only minutes apart, in Delaware, Kentucky, New York, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Its five routes cover 1,449 miles.
In 1946, Robert M. Love is named president and he moves the carrier away from the mail-pickup business towards passenger carriage. From the company’s general offices on Greenhill Avenue in Wilmington, Delaware, the new CEO applies for 66 new routes to provide frequencies to 1,156 communities east of the Mississippi River. Employing small aircraft, AAA continue to derive its 1947 revenues exclusively from mail contracts rather than freight or express. On September 20, 1948, the company name is changed to All-American Airways.
War-surplus Douglas C-47s (military DC-3s) are acquired early in 1949 and application is made to the CAB for a permanent certificate. On January 13, the CAB approves service for a three-year period in the Pittsburgh-Cincinnati-Jamestown-New York-Philadelphia region. The number of Washington-Philadelphia frequencies is increased on April 16. Having halted all mail pickup operations at the government’s request on June 30, the company receives a CAB certificate for regular passenger transport operations on November 11. Eight days later, a Douglas transport crashes into a house near Detroit Airport (three dead).
Scheduled Douglas DC-3 passenger service commences on March 7, 1950. Three months later, corporate headquarters are transferred to Washington, D. C. (DCA). On June 1, 1951, the carrier begins service from New York to Asbury Park, Atlantic City, and Washington, D. C.
On August 9, 1952, air-freshening lamps are installed in the DC-3 cabins and, on January 2, 1953, All-American Aviation is split into two concerns: All-American Engineering and Research Corporation and Allegheny Airlines (1), with Leslie O. Barnes as first president.
ALL CANADA EXPRESS, LTD.: Canada (1993-1996). All Canada is formed at Vancouver in 1993 to provide all-cargo flights to destinations in British Columbia and throughout western Canada. Service begins with 2 Convair CV-580 leased from Kelowna Flightcraft Air Charter, Ltd.
Operations continue apace throughout the remainder of the year and in late 1994 operations are enhanced when Kelowna delivers 1 Boeing B-727-27F under charter.
The fleet is further increased in 1995 by the addition of 1 each B-727-22C and B-727-92C, both chartered from Kelowna.
Although Kelowna replaces the B-727-92C with 2 B-727-260AFs in 1996, flights cease at year’s end.
ALL ISLAND AIR: United States (1973-1980). All Island Air is established at St. Croix, U. S. Virgin Islands, in 1973 to provide scheduled and charter air taxi services to regional Caribbean destinations. Employing 1 each Piper PA-23 Apache, PA-23 Aztec, and Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander, All Island duly inaugurates daily roundtrips connecting its base with St. Thomas, Tortola, Virgin Gorda, and Anegada in the British Virgin Islands.
Operations continue apace until 1980.
World History
