Piedmont Airlines (1948-1989)

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This article is about the airline founded as Piedmont Airlines in 1948. For the airline founded as Henson Airlines in 1931, but currently called Piedmont Airlines, see Piedmont Airlines.
Piedmont Airlines Logo
Piedmont Airlines Logo

Piedmont Airlines was a regional airline based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; the airline began operations in 1948. In 1989, the airline was purchased and integrated into US Air. At its peak, its route system stretched from Wilmington, N.C., northwest to Cincinnati, Ohio, with numerous intermediate stops. Early routes were operated with Douglas DC-3 aircraft. The airline was based at Smith Reynolds Airport in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

As Piedmont grew over the years, their route system primarily served the U.S. states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. However, by the end of 1978, and while still under U.S. route regulation, Piedmont had grown to include an area stretching northward to New York City, New York, and westward as far as Denver, Colorado, and southward to Miami, Florida.

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[edit] History

Piedmont Airlines was founded by Thomas Henry Davis in Winston-Salem, NC. Prior to deregulation, Piedmont had no true hub system. The airline was known for flying large jets into relatively small airports and for connecting unlikely city pairs with jet flights. Examples of this include nonstop jet flights between Kinston, North Carolina, and Florence, South Carolina; Roanoke, Virginia, and Asheville, North Carolina; Lynchburg, Virginia, and New York City's LaGuardia Airport; Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and Bristol/Kingsport/Johnson City, Tennessee; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Lynchburg, Virginia.

Piedmont's fleet grew along with the airline. Piedmont began operations with the DC-3 but added the Fairchild F27, the Martin 4-0-4 and the Fairchild-Hiller FH 227B to their fleet by the 1960s. Routes in the late 1970s were operated with Japanese-built NAMC YS-11A prop-jet aircraft and Boeing 737-200 pure-jet aircraft. Boeing 727 aircraft were added to the fleet from 1977. Interestingly, one Boeing 727 that Piedmont purchased from Northwest Orient Airlines and placed into service was the aircraft that had been involved in the famous D.B. Cooper hijacking in the Pacific Northwest.

On July 19, 1967, Piedmont suffered its worst accident when Flight 22, a Boeing 727, collided with a Cessna 310 over Hendersonville, North Carolina. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that the pilot of the Cessna went off course, placing itself in the path of the 727. In July 2006, the NTSB reopened the investigation after a local historian filed a petition to reconsider the findings. In early 2007, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) upheld the original 1968 probable cause. In a February 2007 letter, the NTSB notified the local historian that it had voted 3-1 that his arguments were unsubstantiated.

Following airline route deregulation in the late 1970s, the airline grew rapidly and began to a develop hub and spoke system with a hub at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina. Empire Airlines (1976-1985) was purchased in 1985. Later hubs included Baltimore/Washington International Airport outside of Baltimore, Maryland; James M. Cox Dayton International Airport in Dayton, Ohio; and Syracuse Hancock International Airport in Syracuse, New York. The extent of Piedmont's route map grew as well, with nonstop flights to the west coast beginning from the Charlotte and Dayton hubs during the early 1980s. At that time, the airline introduced first class service for the first time on its long-haul Boeing 727-200 jets. Eventually, Piedmont began nonstop service from Charlotte to London Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom utilizing newly acquired Boeing 767 aircraft.

Piedmont's expanding route system, its loyal passenger following, and its profitability caused it to gain notice among other airlines for a potential buyout. In August 1989, Piedmont Airlines was absorbed by USAir (formerly Allegheny Airlines), which had previously focused its route network around the northeastern states. The combined carrier became one of the East Coast's largest airlines.

[edit] Historical fleet

[edit] Former aircraft

One Piedmont Airlines DC-3 in the airline's colors remains flyable. The aircraft was restored and flown for many years by Piedmont, and then US Air until 1996. Since then the aircraft has been owned and operated by the Carolinas Aviation Museum. Based at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, in Charlotte, North Carolina, the aircraft flies air shows and had been used in a number of movies.

[edit] External links

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