American Trans-Oceanic Company

American Trans-Oceanic Company
IATA
 ICAO
 Callsign
Founded 1914
Hubs Port Washington, New York, Palm Beach, Florida
Destinations
Headquarters New York City [1]
Key people Rodman Wanamaker, Grover Whalen

American Trans-Oceanic Company is an defunct airline based in America

Contents

History

Rodman Wanamaker published a letter in 1916 stating the founding of the American Trans-Oceanic Company to capitalize on the 1914 effort to fly across the Atlantic non-stop. A Curtiss H-16 aircraft was ordered for the company. Wannamaker calimed that if the trans-atlantic flight could be accomphished once, then it could be accomplished over and over with commercial transports shortly thereafter.[2]

Forming just prior to America's full involvement in WWI, American Trans-Oceanic Company became one of the earliest commercial airlines in the United States. Operations also included a full time flight school in Long Island and Palm Beach using Curtiss aircraft.[3] New innovatons were deployed, such as a Sperry autopilot[4]. Rates varied from $15 for a 15 minute flight to $250 for a 320 mile flight to Cuba. Four five-hour flights a week were flown to Bimini at night.[5] By 1918, the company had carried four to five thousand passengers without incident.[6]

The company's most distinctive aircraft was The Big Fish, A Curtiss H-16 painted as a fish that flew between Palm Beach, Havanna, Nassau, and New York.[7]

In 1927, Wannamaker sponsored Richard E. Byrd through the American Trans-Oceanic Company to make the Transatlantic attempt again in a Fokker Trimotor, The America. The company put up nearly $150,000 to fund the effort. [8] The aircraft crashed on the attempt to win the Orteig Prize, loosing to Charles Lindbergh. The team attempt was accomplished on July 1, 1927, crashing in Ver-sur-Mer.[9]

Wannamaker died in May 1928. Without Wannamaker's involvement, American Trans-Oceanic Company's sponsorships did not continue.

Destinations

Country/Continent

Fleet

The American Trans-Oceanic Company fleet consists of the following aircraft as of 1918:[10]

American Trans-Oceanic Company Fleet
Aircraft Total Routes Notes
Curtiss Model F Short Routes 5-6 Place open floatplanes
Curtiss H-16 Long Routes 14-16 Place floatplanes

Incidents and accidents

In January 1917, on of the Twin engine Curtiss flying boats was destroyed when it was torn from its hanger in a gale storm in Long Island.[11] In 1921 "The Big Fish", Curtiss H-16 was destroyed in a crash.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ Flying: 354. September 1916. 
  2. ^ Flying: 99. April 1916. 
  3. ^ Flying: 354. September 1916. 
  4. ^ . 4 December 1916. 
  5. ^ "High over Palm Beach". http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/713359. Retrieved 3 January 2012. 
  6. ^ Aerospace Industries Association of America, Manufacturers Aircraft Association, Aircraft Industries Association of America, Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America. Aircraft year book. p. 12. 
  7. ^ Lynn Lasseter Drake, Richard A. Marconi. West Palm Beach: 1893 to 1950. 
  8. ^ Richard Bak. The Big Jump: Lindbergh and the Great Atlantic Air Race. 
  9. ^ Richard Evelyn Byrd, Raimund Erhard Goerler. To the Pole: the diary and notebook of Richard E. Byrd, 1925-1927. 
  10. ^ Aerospace Industries Association of America, Manufacturers Aircraft Association, Aircraft Industries Association of America, Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America. Aircraft year book. p. 12. 
  11. ^ The Rudder, Volume 33. p. 94. 
  12. ^ "High over Palm Beach". http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/713359. Retrieved 3 January 2012. 

External links