National Air Transport was a large United States airline; in 1930 it was bought by

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

. The

Air Mail Act The Air Mail scandal, also known as the Air Mail fiasco, is the name that the American news media, press gave to the political scandal resulting from a 1934 United States Congress, congressional investigation of the awarding of contracts to cert ...

of 1934 prohibited airlines and manufacturers from being under the same corporate umbrella, so Boeing split into three smaller companies, one of which is

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

, which included what had been National Air Transport.

Formation

Clement M. Keys formed North American Aviation in early 1925, for the express purpose of providing organization, finance and inspiration for the development of a large network of airlines, manufacturers and other aviation services, each nurturing the other. Keys contacted Carl B., Fritsche, general manager of the Aircraft Development Corporation of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, with the idea of creating an airline to link

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

with

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. To insure a sound base for operations, Keys proposed an initial subscribed share capital of $2 million, many times that of other early airlines. Keys raised $1 million through his New York contacts and Fritsche raised $500,000 from Detroit interests. After further fund raising, the remaining $500,000 was subscribed by the sons of several leading Chicago business men. This enabled National Air Transport Inc. (NAT) to be incorporated in the state of

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

on 21 May 1925. The total authorized issued share capital was fixed at an unprecedented $10 million.

Airmail contract bid and commencement of operations

Keys and other members of NAT's board realized that an airmail contract would be crucial to the development of the airline, and NAT bid for mail contract CAM 3 from the

United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the ...

. This covered the Chicago–Dallas route and was awarded to NAT on 7 November 1925. This was a key link in the US airmail network, connecting two important cities and regions with the transcontinental route through Chicago. Ten Carrier Pigeon biplane aircraft were built by

Curtiss Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909 – 1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in its first decade ...

, one of Key's other business interests. These were used to open the NAT airmail service on 12 May 1926 on a route Chicago-Moline-St Joseph-Kansas City-Wichita-Ponca City-Oklahoma City-Dallas. On 7 May 1930 N.A.T. was acquired by United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, a holding company that already owned several airlines that operated as independent divisions. On 12 September 1930 N.A.T. itself purchased one of these divisions, Stout Air Services, Inc. Stout had purchased Ford Air Transport Service's airmail routes in 1928, and flew

Ford Trimotor The Ford Trimotor (also called the "Tri-Motor", and nicknamed the "Tin Goose") is an American three-engined transport aircraft. Production started in 1925 by the companies of Henry Ford and ended on June 7, 1933, after 199 had been made. It w ...

New York-Chicago mail route

NAT wished to expand their network and bid for the New York-Chicago airmail route CAM 17. On 2 April 1927 the airline was awarded the contract in competition with three other bidders; the rate was to be $1.24 per pound of airmail carried. 14 pilots were taken on from the Post Office Department and the service over the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...

began 1 September, initially with Curtiss Carrier Pigeons, quickly supplemented by 18

Douglas M-2 The Douglas mailplanes were a family of 1920s American single-seat mail planes designed and built by the Douglas Aircraft Company. The aircraft were used to run the main routes of the United States Air Mail service until the introduction of th ...

s taken over from the Post Office. In early 1928 NAT added eight

Travel Air 6000 The Travel Air 6000 (later known as the Curtiss-Wright 6B when Travel Air was purchased by Curtiss-Wright) was a six-seat utility aircraft manufactured in the United States in the late 1920s. Design and development It was developed as a luxury ve ...

s. NAT passenger flights between New York (Newark) and Chicago began in December 1930, one Ford Trimotor a day each way. Until then NAT had carried occasional passengers on the mail flights to Hadley Field for a $200 one-way fare.NY Times 25 Sept 1927 p3, 24 June 1928 section 9 p17, 18 Nov 1930 p27 One-way fare Newark to Chicago in 1931 was $59.50.

Aircraft types operated

Curtiss Carrier Pigeon The Curtiss Carrier Pigeon was an American mail plane of the 1920s. A single-engined biplane designed and built to replace World War I surplus aircraft such as the DH-4, the Carrier Pigeon was one of the first aircraft designed specifically for ...

Travel Air 5000 The Travel Air 5000 was an early high-wing monoplane airliner and racing monoplane designed by Clyde Cessna and is chiefly remembered for being the winner of the disastrous Dole Air Race from California to Hawaii. Design and development Cessna ...

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * {{Portal bar, Companies, Aviation Defunct airlines of the United States Airlines established in 1925 Airlines disestablished in 1930

Formation

Airmail contract bid and commencement of operations

New York-Chicago mail route

Aircraft types operated

See also

References