American Trans-Oceanic Company

American Trans-Oceanic Company was an airline based in the United States.

American Trans-Oceanic Company
Founded1914
HubsPort Washington, New York
Palm Beach, Florida
HeadquartersNew York City [1]
Key peopleRodman Wanamaker
Glen Curtiss
Grover Whalen

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. Wanamaker claimed that if the trans-Atlantic flight could be accomplished once, then it could be accomplished over and over with commercial transports shortly thereafter.[2]

Curtiss H-16 Big Fish overhead

Forming just prior to America's full involvement in World War I, 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 innovations 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 carried four to five thousand passengers without incident.[6]

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

In 1927, Wanamaker 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, losing to Charles Lindbergh. The team attempt was accomplished on July 1, 1927, crashing in Ver-sur-Mer.[9]

Wanamaker died in May 1928. Without Wanamaker'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 flying boats
Curtiss H-16 Long Routes 14-16 place flying boats

Incidents and accidents

In January 1917, one of the Twin engine Curtiss flying boats was destroyed when it was torn from its hangar 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.CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  2. Flying: 99. April 1916.CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  3. Flying: 354. September 1916.CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  4. "aerial age weekly". 4 December 1916. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. "High over Palm Beach". Archived from the original on 26 May 2012. 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". Archived from the original on 26 May 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2012.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.