Transcontinental Air Travel in 1929

[BlackDiamond]

A recent post on the golden age of air travel got me thinking about my time in the Air Force and specifically the little municipal airport in Clovis NM I used to fly out from on trips back to New England to visit family. In poking around the Internet I found this little gem of a report on one of the early transcontinental flights by Transcontinental Air Transport, one of the forerunners of what was to become TWA. This was a 48 hour trip from New York to Los Angeles that used rail for some overnight segments.

Pitstop in Clovis: An Exploration into Clovis' History with the Transcontinental Air Transport

Some excerpts:

"In 1929, Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) successfully completed the first flight of its kind: a route connecting New York City to Los Angeles. Nowadays thousands of passengers fly this route every day in a matter of six hours. In 1929, however, the journey was much more complicated. TAT's route consisted of two overnight train rides, two flights, and a total of nine landings across the United States. The total itinerary took 48 hours to complete. For the journey, TAT relied on already existing systems like the Pennsylvania Railroad and Santa Fe Railway in creating their route, and one of their central hubs was the small town of Clovis, New Mexico. Clovis' involvement in this inaugural flight, supported by both the Santa Fe Railway and what is now Cannon Air Force Base, provides the city with a rich history in aviation and a strong infrastructure for the current Air Force Base and Clovis Municipal Airport"

"Almost 100 years ago, the Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) inaugurated its legendary train/plane service between New York and Los Angeles. On July 7, 1929, roughly 50 passengers, including notable names like Amelia Earhart, boarded a train at New York City's Pennsylvania Station for an overnight trip to Columbus, Ohio. Once there, two Ford Tri-Motor airplanes flew them further west. After four en route stops, they arrived in Waynoka, Oklahoma, where the Santa Fe Railway train transported them overnight to Clovis, New Mexico. From Clovis, two other TAT Tri-Motors were boarded for a three-stop flight, terminating at the Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, California (near downtown Los Angeles)."

The airport they used was not the current Clovis Municipal Airport but one created just west of town by TAT and called Portair Field which during WW2 became an Army Air Field and later Cannon Air Force Base.

Another interesting factoid from the article:
"Starting in October 1929, passengers flying TAT were treated to the first inflight movies! When tired of map reading, you could look at a screen in front of the cabin to watch some newsreels, supplemented with the cartoon adventures of "Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit," which is believed to be Walt Disney's inspiration for Mickey Mouse"

 

[BlackDiamond]

Here is a video of a TAT Ford Trimotor flight, from Palm Springs (KPSP) Edit: Probably not an original TAT airplane but painted with the TAT logo.

 

[Willbridge]

From the beginning, a superior attitude toward "older and slower types of commercial transport" that justified a never ending stream of government funding.

 

[joelkfla]

I believe that in those days aerial navigation was by sighting landmarks on the ground. Not much could be seen at night. Utilizing overnight train segments allowed airlines to continue forward progress at night and reduce the total travel time.

 

[Willbridge]

I believe that in those days aerial navigation was by sighting landmarks on the ground. Not much could be seen at night. Utilizing overnight train segments allowed airlines to continue forward progress at night and reduce the total travel time.

North Platte is proud of having the first lighted runway for night flights. The airport manager would put out lanterns for the Air Mail flight. The leg of the transcontinental route across Nebraska could be flown at night because there was nothing to run into. The oil lanterns were an upgrade from the first flight.

 

[George Harris]

Actually, I would doubt that it was "with a road map." It was more likely to be a railroad map. My dad learned to fly in the late 1920's and at time railroad lines were called the Iron Compass by pilots. If uncertain, you simply followed the railroad going in the general direction of your destination. Remember, the best roads at that time were paved two-lane highways, and even those not always easy to follow. In the early 20's you could not even count on a paved road going toward your destination. No Interstates. In the early years of WW2 he was a basic flight instructor, using Stearman Bi-planes. For instrumentation, they had an altimeter, a compass, and a fuel gauge.

 

[BlackDiamond]

By the 1930s you had the low frequency radio ranges, the precursor to the VOR but much cruder and more work to use. An excerpt from an AOPA article on ranges:

"In 1927, the Ford Motor Company used the first of its Tri-Motors to fly auto parts between Chicago and Dearborn, Michigan. That is when a young Ford engineer, Eugene S. Donovan, developed and patented the "four-course, loop-type, low-frequency radio range." The first two ranges were installed at Chicago's Lansing Airport and the Ford Airport at Dearborn. Both proved successful in guiding pilots during inclement weather and improving the reliability of cargo operations.

After extensive testing, the Bureau of Air Commerce (FAA's original predecessor) installed the first of more than 400 radio ranges that were to crisscross the country and form the civil airways (known then as radio-beam highways). In a manner similar to the procedure for VOR, pilots flew inbound to a radio range along one of its four courses, passed over the station, proceeded outbound along another beam until receiving the next range station along the airway, and so on.

These low/medium-frequency airways were named by using four colors, a scheme still used elsewhere in the world. East-west airways were designated as Green or Red, while north-south airways were Amber or Blue. Airways also were numbered (Amber 1, Green 4, and so forth). Victor airways are so named because they are based on VHF radio aids.

The original radio range consisted of a pair of loop antennas set above the ground at right angles to one another. One antenna transmitted the Morse-code letter N (dash-dot) in a figure-eight propagation pattern (as shown in the figure), while the other radiated the letter A (dot-dash) in a figure-eight pattern that was similar and perpendicular to the first. In other words, if a pilot flew within either the north or south loop in the figure and had the receiver tuned to the proper frequency, he would hear an N repeated over and over again in Morse code. If he were within the east or west loop, he would hear an A. This is why four-course ranges were also called A-N ranges.

Note, however, that the four loops of the two figure eights overlapped in four areas to form the four beams (or legs) of the range. When flying along such a leg, the dots and dashes of an A loop are interwoven with the dashes and dots of an N loop so as to form a steady tone. In other words, the pilot knew that he was on the beam when he heard only a monotone signal; if he were not on a leg, he would hear an A or an N, depending on the loop, or quadrant, in which he was flying."

When I was stationed at Cannon AFB in the 1970s we still had a low frequency NDB that had previously been a radio range. We only kept it in operation because the T-33 trainers we had stationed at the base still had ADF as a backup instrument. Once the T-33s were decommissioned, so was our NDB and a little bit of history passed on.