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| Founded | 1948 | |||
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| Ceased operations | 1989 (integrated into USAir). | |||
| Operating bases | Winston-Salem, North Carolina | |||
| Hubs | Charlotte/Douglas International Airport Baltimore/Washington International Airport | |||
| Secondary hubs | James M. Cox Dayton International Airport Syracuse Hancock International Airport | |||
| Fleet size | 12 different types of aircraft | |||
| Destinations | 123 (April 1989) | |||
| Headquarters | Winston-Salem, North Carolina | |||
| Key people | Thomas Henry Davis - Founder
William R. Howard - CEO |
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Piedmont Airlines (IATA: PI, ICAO: PDT, Call sign: PIEDMONT) was a major airline in the United States which operated from 1948 until its operations were merged into USAir in 1989. Its headquarters were located at One Piedmont Plaza in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a building which is now part of Wake Forest University.[1][2]
As of April 1989, shortly before it was merged into USAir, Piedmont had 22,000 employees and served 123 cities in 29 states, as well as Canada, the Bahamas and the United Kingdom, from hubs in the eastern United States.[1]
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Piedmont Airlines was founded by Thomas Henry Davis (1918 – April 22, 1999)[3] in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Davis grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.[4] As a child, he loved airplanes and often used his allowance to take flying lessons. He took pre-med classes at the University of Arizona.[3][4] At the same time, he worked as a part-time flight instructor.
Davis formed Piedmont Aviation on January 1, 1948. The first flight, flight 41, was at 7:05am on February 20, 1948, bound for Wilmington, North Carolina.
Like most airlines before deregulation, Piedmont did not use a hub system. The airline was known for providing jet service 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.
At its beginning, 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.
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 starting in 1968 and through the late 1970s were operated with Japanese-built NAMC YS-11A prop-jet aircraft and Boeing 737-200 pure-jet aircraft. Boeing 727-200 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.
In 1955 their network extended from Cincinnati and Louisville east to the coast from Norfolk to Myrtle Beach. By the end of 1978, still under U.S. route regulation, Piedmont's routes reached north to New York, west to Denver, Colorado, and south to Miami, Florida.
On October 30, 1959, Piedmont suffered its first crash when Flight 349 slammed into Bucks Elbow Mountain near Charlottesville, Virginia due to a navigational error, whose cause remains in dispute. Twenty-six of the 27 people aboard died.
On July 19, 1967, Piedmont suffered another fatal 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 his aircraft 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 developed a hub-and-spoke system with a hub at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Piedmont purchased Empire Airlines, a carrier based in Utica, New York, in 1985.[1]
Later hubs included Baltimore/Washington International Airport; 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. The airline introduced first class service for the first time on its long-haul Boeing 727-200 jets in 1987.[1] Piedmont also began nonstop service from Charlotte to London Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom utilizing newly acquired Boeing 767 aircraft. Shortly before its acquisition by USAir, Piedmont was the first airline to announce adoption of the Traffic Collision Avoidance System on a fleet-wide level.[1]
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.
Piedmont Airlines still exists as a brand within US Airways, and flies out of many locations doing business as US Airways Express.
A 1942-built Douglas C-47 was purchased by Piedmont Airlines in October 1986 and was painted in the airline's colors to represent the 22 DC-3s operated by the airline between 1948 and 1963. The aircraft (N44V) was restored and flown for many years by Piedmont, and then by 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 continues to wear Piedmont colors, flies at air shows, and has been used in a number of movies.
On December 17, 2003, N44V was one of a handful of aircraft which participated in an over flight of the Wright Brothers National Monument at Kill Devil Hills on the 100th anniversary. The aircraft was piloted by Howard Miller, a retired Piedmont Airlines pilot who was in the first class of Piedmont Airlines.
On January 5, 2010 N44V made the first take off and landing at Charlotte Douglas International Airport's new 18R/36L runway. On January 12, the DC-3 made the first landing at the official dedication of the new runway, leading a procession of three airplanes (Piedmont DC-3, NC Air Guard C-130, and US Airways Airbus A320).
The last of the original 22 DC-3s, known as the Potomac Pacemaker, is located at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, North Carolina. This aircraft was placed on display outside the Science Museum in Durham NC when it was retired from Piedmont. A few years ago it was dismantled and moved to the NC Transportation Museum. It is in very poor condition, and is undergoing restoration by a group of local volunteers. The airplane currently resides in the back shop of the museum, and can be seen in its dismantled state by means of an observation area on site. When finished, the aircraft will be put on static display inside the museum.