Established at Buenos Aires in 1959, TAT inaugurates both passenger and cargo domestic charters with a fleet of four Curtiss C-46 Commandos.
A C-46F with 10 crew is lost at El Sosaedo on May 18, 1960; there are no survivors.
Unable to achieve economic viability after the disaster, the concern closes down.
TRANSAMERICAN AIRLINES CORPORATION: United States (1931-1934). On January 1, 1931, Thompson Aeronautical Corporation is reorganized into a holding company. The Airline subsidiary that emerges is named Transamerican Airlines Corporation, only a slight change in moniker. Tex Marshall continues on as president, with Charles Rheinstrom as traffic manager and future American Airways marketing guru Charles Speers as a manager in Detroit.
Previous airmail, passenger, and express routes operated to 17 cities in Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana are maintained. Employing newly purchased Stinson SM-6000B Tri-Motors, TAC opens direct and fast services between Chicago and Detroit on April 1. The same day, trans-Lake Erie flights, suspended for the winter, are resumed between Cleveland and Detroit.
During the spring and early summer, Manager Speer wins permission from Vice President/Treasurer Thomas Dunnion to begin at Detroit the experimental use of discounted coupon books. With a 15% markdown, a $250 block of 10 tickets could be purchased for $212.50. Although at first reluctant, Speer and Rheinstrom are able to win President Marshall’s approval, over the objection of Vice President Dunnion, to sell the “script” systemwide. In 1936, the plan will be adopted industry-wide as the Universal Air Travel Credit Plan.
Sponsored by the company, a Bellanca Pacemaker, piloted by Parker Cramer and Oliver Paquette, departs Detroit on August 5 for a flight to Copenhagen over the North Pole. The aircraft will fly over Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroes and Shetland Islands north of Scotland before disappearing on its final leg into Denmark. Wreckage of the Bellanca will be found in September, but there is no trace of the airmen.
En route from Kalamazoo to Chicago on February 2-3, 1932, a Stear-man C3MB crashes near Marcellus, Michigan, in a blizzard; pilot Francis
Rust is found 17 hours later and dies of his injuries. In March, TAC obtains a 75-year exclusive landing concession from the government of Iceland.
Whether the rights are purchased for some planned international service or for later sale is not known; however, on April 15 and again in July, Pan American Airways (PAA) pays a combined $60,000 for the Icelandic privileges. Meanwhile, pilot George Hill is killed when his Stear-man C3MB crashes while landing at Fort Wayne on April 21.
American Airways purchases TAC in late January 1933 in order to operate its AM-27 mail route. Twenty-three aircraft are also turned over, 10 of which are repainted and retained in AA service. Conforming to then existing law, Thompson’s survives as a phantom subsidiary with miniscule stock until 1934.
TRANSAMERICAN AIRWAYS: United States (1976-1977). This small regional is set up at Denver during the U. S. bicentennial year of 1976 to offer scheduled passenger and cargo services. Employing Cessna 402s, the new company inaugurates flights linking its base with Santa Fe in New Mexico and the Colorado destinations of Cheyenne, Douglas, Casper, Sheridan, and Gillette.
Unable to achieve viability, the company goes out of business in June 1977.
World History
