PENNSYLVANIA CENTRAL AIRLINES (PCA): United States (1936-1948). Following an intense competition in the skies over the northeast U. S., the rivals Central Airlines and Pennsylvania Air Lines
And Transport Company (PAL) merge into the new Pennsylvania Central Airlines (PCA) on November 1, 1936. Financier George R. Hann is chairman, with PAL’s C. Bedell Monro as president and Central’s James H. Carmichael as chief pilot. Central’s Stinson Model ATri-Motors and PAL’s Boeing 247Ds are initially employed.
Flooding during the extreme winter of early 1937 isolates Pittsburgh. Outfitted with special tires, the carrier’s Boeings are, for awhile at least, the only aircraft able to fly into or out of the city. Later in the first quarter, 4 of the PAL B-247s are sold after the crisis, as an arrangement is made with United Air Lines for the purchase of 10, later 13, B-247Ds. As the result of new U. S. Post Office bids let on June 11, the company in August receives the Contract Air Mail route 34, Washington to Buffalo via Harrisburg. Service over the 330-mile new route is inaugurated in October.
The Stinsons are replaced in 1938. Prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, this small trunk consolidates a route system west and south of the District of Columbia with slots in cities from Baltimore and Buffalo to Chicago and Birmingham.
Orders are placed for Douglas DC-3s in 1939 and Operations Manager James H. Carmichael delivers the first DC-3 to Pittsburgh from Burbank in December. Meanwhile, a “Tobacco Route” is stretched south from Norfolk, Virginia, via North Carolina to Knoxville, Tennessee, and on to Alabama. With additional Douglas transports on hand, frequencies on the Washington to Detroit via Pittsburgh and Cleveland route are increased to seven per day on January 2, 1940. Also, The Capital Lines marketing term is also applied to three daily roundtrips from Washington to Norfolk and from Detroit to Chicago. In April, Operations Manager Carmichael is promoted to vice president-operations. While en route from Washington to Pittsburgh on August 31, a DC-3 encounters a thunderstorm that forces it into the ground near Lovettsville, Virginia (25 dead). Five more DC-3s join the fleet during the year.
A B-247D, piloted by Capt. Russell Wright, loses an engine and fails its takeoff from Charleston, West Virginia, on April 16, 1941 and lands in a grove of trees near the Kanawha River. Sliding along the mountainside, the plane suffers the loss of its wings, but its fuselage remains intact; only stewardess Irene Coates is injured. During the summer, company headquarters are shifted from Pittsburgh to Washington, D. C.
The fleet now totals 18 Douglas DC-3s and 5 Boeing 247Ds. These transport a total of 342,872 passengers over a scheduled network of 19,564 unduplicated miles.
In late December, the U. S. Army takes over two-thirds of the carrier’s fleet, allowing the seven planes remaining to be employed after March 1942 in the first domestic scheduled military cargo service. This Air Transport Command contract sees Penn-Central’s planes delivering men and goods between Chicago and Washington and later between Harrisburg and San Francisco.
As part of their campaign against Midway Island in the Pacific, Japanese naval forces attack the Aleutian Islands on June 3, capturing Attu and Kiska while grasping at underdefended Dutch Harbor. In a textbook example of the mobilization foreseen and promised by ATA President Edgar Gorrell at the beginning of the year, the U. S. Army orders 11 airlines to halt their normal passenger and contract cargo activities. The aircraft are dispatched to Edmonton, Alberta, to participate in a massive contract airlift that is quickly organized for the defense of Alaska. Over 100 aircraft from this airline and 10 other carriers execute daily roundtrips between Edmonton and Dutch Harbor through mid-July, transporting troops and supplies. Over 90% of the pilots involved had never flown to or from Alaska before and few had encountered such tough weather conditions.
Beginning in mid-July, the company contributes aircraft to a 50-transport group from 6 contract carriers, including American Airlines, Braniff Airways, Chicago & Southern Air Lines, Northeast Airlines, Transcontinental and Western Air Lines, and United Airlines, which are rushed to Presque Isle. From here, the planes, joined by 110 Air Transport Command C-47s, will transport the supplies and men required to set up and man the bases at Newfoundland, Labrador, Greenland, and Iceland that will facilitate “Operation Bolero,” a mass bomber ferry from the U. S. to England.
During the remainder of the year and in 1943, the carrier undertakes special flights to Greenland and Alaska and operates navigation and radio schools for the Army at Washington and Roanoke, Virginia.
During 1944, the company is marketed as PCA-The Capital Line. Its route network now covers 3,925 unduplicated miles. On December 16, the CAB awards the company civilian access to New York from Chicago via Detroit. Passenger boardings for the year reach 433,000.
CAB certification for operations out of New York (LGA) is received on January 6, 1945. The Easter season is marred when a DC-3, with 20 aboard, crashes near Morgantown, West Virginia, on April 16; there are no survivors. Pittsburgh to New York City service is inaugurated on July 2. The first flight carries 19 local mayors and civic representatives, who are welcomed by the airport’s namesake Mayor La Guardia.
Following V-J Day, the carrier gradually rebuilds its fleet and resumes its prewar routes and services. Income is good and with orders placed for DC-4s, Skymaster flights from Chicago to New York via Detroit and Pittsburgh commence in mid-July. Twelve war-surplus C-47s converted to civil DC-3 standard by the Martin Company are received on October 5 and on November 17, the carrier is able to purchase the same C-54 flown to Casablanca by President Roosevelt. Late in the year, it is announced that pending CAB approval, the company will merge with Boston-based Northeast Airlines; the government regulators will not permit the consolidation.
On January 6, 1946, a DC-3 with four crew and seven passengers overshoots the runway and crashes into a creek at Birmingham, Alabama (three dead).
On January 15, the company enjoys the distinction of being the first to place the DC-4 into commercial service, when the former Sacred Cow, converted to civil standards, begins flying its routes. Fifteen more reconfigured C-54s will join the fleet during the year. Pittsburgh to Chicago flights begin on March 11. The CAB now allows additional nonstop authorities and route extensions, but the company is still unprofitable.
Engaged in a training mission with only its four flight crew aboard, a C-54A crashes while on final approach to Washington, D. C. on September 12; although the aircraft must be written off, there are no fatalities.
With each passenger now flying an average of 208 miles instead of the average of 500 for the air transport industry as a whole, PCA loses $3.5 million on the year.
Less than a year after the big Douglas transports begin revenue operations, the carrier loses one in a June 13, 1947 disaster. Flying low in a rainstorm, Flight 410, the C-54D Capitaliner Baltimore, piloted by Capt. Horace Stark, with 2 other crew and 47 passengers en route from Chicago to Washington, D. C., crashes into a mountain near the Appalachian Trail community of Shannondale, West Virginia, near Charles Town. When the wreckage is found the next day, there are no survivors of this second worst airline tragedy to date. It is recalled by Richard Farris in his “The Last Ridge Before Washington,” Airliners 9 (July-August 1996): 50-57, 60-61.
In late summer, the Baltimore Colts professional football team becomes the first athletic organization to fly with the airline. Two DC-3s are chartered to fly 60 players, club officials, newspapermen, trainers, and equipment people to Akron, Ohio, for an exhibition game with the Cleveland Browns.
President Monro becomes board chairman on October 1, with Vice President Carmichael becoming president. To halt the fiscal hemorrhage, the new leader institutes cost-cutting procedures, lays off 1,500 workers, and increases reliance on air freight income.
In February 1948, the airline is authorized to omit the Detroit stop from its Chicago to New York service. To give the firm a positive new image and help it shed its regional identity, the board agrees to a corporate reformation. On April 21, PCA is renamed Capital Airlines.
World History
