Parks College Airline was an defunct

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines for ...

based in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

History

In 1927,

Oliver Parks Oliver L. "Lafe" Parks (June 10, 1899 - February 28, 1985) was a pioneer in the fields of pilot training and aviation studies in the early decades of aviation. Career Parks' career started as a Chevrolet salesman at the Gravois Motor corporation ...

founded Parks College. Parks used the umbrella name Parks Air Lines, inc. for a flight school and aircraft manufacturing operations. Parks first training aircraft in 1927 was a

Travel Air 2000 The Travel Air 2000/3000/4000 (originally, the Model A, Model B and Model BH were open-cockpit biplane aircraft produced in the United States in the late 1920s by the Travel Air Manufacturing Company. During the period from 1924–1929, Tra ...

biplane operated out of

Lambert field St. Louis Lambert International Airport is the primary commercial airport serving metropolitan St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Commonly referred to as Lambert Field or simply Lambert, it is the largest and busiest airport in the state of ...

with "Parks Air Lines Inc." painted on the side. Parks held publicity events such as the 1929 Gardner Trophy Air Races. The "airline" operations would take a few more years. St. Louis (

Cahokia, Illinois Cahokia was a village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. It was located east of the Mississippi River in the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, 15,241 people lived in the village, a decline from 16,391 in 200 ...

)-based Parks College Airlines was founded as part of Parks College in 1935. The for-profit airline used college aircraft, maintenance students, and newly trained pilots. An operations center was based at Curtiss-Stienberg Airport. Students would spend 360 hours in the dispatch center as part of their coursework. In 1944 Oliver Parks incorporated the airline service as Parks Air Transport with the issuance of $3,500,000 in stock. In 1945 Parks petitioned the Civil Aeronautics Board for a feeder route system based out of St. Louis with scheduled flights to hubs in Chicago, Indianapolis, Memphis, Kansas City, and Sioux City with up to ten intermediate stops. The service would include mail first, then passengers using

Beechcraft Model 18 The Beechcraft Model 18 (or "Twin Beech", as it is also known) is a 6- to 11-seat, twin-engined, low-wing, tailwheel light aircraft manufactured by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. Continuously produced from 1937 to November ...

aircraft. The cost for facilities was estimated at $5,500,000. Parks proposed the use of mobile terminals for low-density airports that would check in passengers, provide restrooms, serve refreshments, and drive straight to the aircraft. The airline was re-formed as Parks Air College Airlines (PACA) and was awarded the contract airmail route AM-91. The airline had not utilized the routes it was awarded, and in May 1949, Parks sold 4000 miles of its routes to

Mid-Continent Airlines Mid-Continent Airlines was an airline which operated in the central United States from the 1930s until 1952 when it was acquired by and merged with Braniff International Airways. Mid-Continent Airlines was originally founded as a flight school a ...

in a stock swap deal. On 15 September 1950, Parks operated a

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...

with a livery of "Parks Air Lines".

Ozark Air Lines Ozark Air Lines was an airline that operated in the United States from 1950 until 1986 when it was purchased by Trans World Airlines (TWA). In 2001, TWA was merged into American Airlines. A smaller regional airline that used the Ozark name ( ...

had recently lost its operating certificate from the CAB and purchased the Parks airline only days into its new service to gain its certificate and routes. Ozark would eventually merge with

Trans World Airlines Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with F ...

in 1986, which in turn would merge with

American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...

in 2001. Mid-Continent would later become part of

Braniff International Airways Braniff Airways, Inc., operated as Braniff International Airways from 1948 until 1965, and then Braniff International from 1965 until air operations ceased, was an airline in the United States that once flew air carrier operations from 1928 un ...

which ceased operations in 1982. ;United States/North America *

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

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

Fleet

The Parks College Airline fleet consisted of the following aircraft as of 1950:

Incidents and accidents

Parks College Airlines operated over 17 years without incident.

References

External links

Image of a Parks Air Lines DC-3

{{Portal bar, Companies, Aviation Defunct airlines of the United States Airlines established in 1935

History

Fleet

Incidents and accidents

See also

References

External links