On March 2-3, 1919, carrying 60 letters and airplane designer William “Bill” Boeing as passenger, pilot Edward “Eddie” Hubbard undertakes an international mail route survey flight from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Seattle, Washington. Flying a Boeing CL-4S, the pair run into a snowstorm, which requires an overnight stop at Anacortes.
Together with Vancouver postmaster R. G. Macpherson, this first transport of airmail across an international boundary in North America is the product of an idea by a prominent Vancouver druggist, E. S. Knowlton, who earlier at the Vancouver Exhibition had spoken to Boeing and Hubbard about the feat. This exercise in Canadian-U. S. cooperation requires 2 hrs. 10 min. flying time.
After leaving Boeing’s employ, Hubbard resumes these trials on July 1, 1920. After obtaining a U. S. Post Office mail subsidy for Foreign Air Route (FAM) 2, Hubbard departs Seattle for Victoria on October 15. As the head of newly created Hubbard Air Transport, with a Boeing B-1 purchased from his former boss, Hubbard connects at Victoria with the Japanese ship S. S. Africa-Maru, which will take the post on to the Orient.
A small group witnesses the Seattle liftoff; however, thousands are on hand to see the Vancouver arrival. In accordance with the terms of his contract, Hubbard undertakes, beginning on October 20, the prescribed 12-plus, monthly roundtrips necessary to transport a quota of 7,200 pounds of mail. The FAM contract pays $200 for each flight and makes Hubbard the first company to exercise a U. S. Post Office FAM agreement.
Averaging 25,000 to 50,000 pounds of mail annually in larger B-1s and B-1Ds, Hubbard continues his service for seven years, although other pilots will take a more active hand toward the end. He and Boeing remain close and Hubbard actually serves as a Boeing test pilot during the early to mid-1920s.
In the fall of 1926, Hubbard returns to work for Boeing, primarily to convince the manufacturer and his representatives, including chief designer Clairmont “Claire” L. Egrvedt and Philip Johnson, of the benefits to be gained by their direct involvement in the provision of air services.
HAT is left, for the most part, for others to handle while its owner seeks to engineer the birth of a larger concern. Boeing and Hubbard, who has continued to receive much support from designer Egrvedt, now busily creating the Boeing Model 40, submit an application to the Post Office for its newly available Chicago to San Francisco Contract Air Mail Route (CAM) No. 18.
The route award is granted on January 15, 1927. Boeing now names Hubbard vice president-operations of his new Boeing Air Transport, which will begin scheduled Model 40 service on July 1. Hubbard, for his part, now sells his own HAT to Vernon C. Gorst, who renames it the Seattle-Victoria Air Mail Line, a title it will keep until July 1928 when chief pilot Percy Barnes purchases half interest and it is renamed Northwest Air Service.
Although Gorst, who had begun Seattle Flying Service on June 15, will stray away to form and lose other airline projects, the two men share equally in this enterprise and keep it flying the international route until December 31, 1935.
Today’s United Airlines traces its history back to this first U. S intercontinental contract airmail service and author Jim Brown profiles its founder in his Hubbard, the Forgotten Boeing Aviator (Seattle, Wash.: Peanut Butter Publishing, 1996).
HUDSON AIR SERVICE: P. O. Box 648, Talkeetna State Airport, Talkeetna, Alaska 99676, United States; Phone (907) 733-2321; Http://www. hudsonair. com; Year Founded 1946. The oldest of six air
Taxi services in Talkeetna, Alaska, HAS is established by pioneer aviator Glen Hudson in 1946 to provide all manner of Denali-related services, from climber support to sight-seeing. Charter services are also arranged to bush destinations for fishermen, hunters, and kayakers, many of whom elect to stay in the company’s own rental cabins.
Over the next 50-plus years, Hudson will also become the largest FBO in the Talkeetna area, providing a variety of aviation support services. After the founder’s passing, the firm is taken over and operated by his brother Clifford, his wife Ollie, and their sons.
On July 23, 1997, a ski-equipped Cessna 185 with one pilot and three passengers sustains substantial damage when it impacts terrain during takeoff from the 9,500-ft. level of the Kahiltna Glacier; no injuries are reported.
Flights from the Talkeetna Airport, which is located 115 mi. N of Anchorage, are maintained in 1998-2000.
World History
