Robert English Peach (9 March 1920 – 20 April 1971) as founder-president of
Mohawk Airlines
Mohawk Airlines was a regional passenger airline operating in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, mainly in New York and Pennsylvania, from the mid-1940s until its acquisition by Allegheny Airlines in 1972. At its height, it employe ...
grew Mohawk from a tiny
air taxi service carrying 1,200 passengers between
Ithaca
Ithaca most commonly refers to:
*Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey''
*Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca
*Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College
Ithaca, Ithaka ...
and
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
in 1945 to a major
regional airline
A regional airline is a general classification of airline which typically operates scheduled passenger air service, using regional aircraft, between communities lacking sufficient demand or infrastructure to attract mainline flights. In North ...
which carried 1.7 million passengers over an extensive network in the
northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...
in 1969.
Peach was born 9 March 1920 in
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...
. He graduated from
Hamilton College
Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...
, in
Clinton, New York, in 1941. He enrolled in the
University of Chicago Law School
The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dist ...
in the fall of 1941, but withdrew to enlist in the
Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...
early in 1942. After
pilot training
Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills.
Flight training can be conducted under a str ...
he served with distinction in the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
, rising in rank to
lieutenant commander
Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank i ...
, commanding a
squadron
Squadron may refer to:
* Squadron (army), a military unit of cavalry, tanks, or equivalent subdivided into troops or tank companies
* Squadron (aviation), a military unit that consists of three or four flights with a total of 12 to 24 aircraft, de ...
of aircraft, and earning two
Distinguished Flying Crosses and other medals for valor.
In 1945 Peach resumed law studies at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, and took a part-time pilot position with fledgling
Robinson Airlines
Mohawk Airlines was a regional passenger airline operating in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, mainly in New York and Pennsylvania, from the mid-1940s until its acquisition by Allegheny Airlines in 1972. At its height, it employe ...
, then operating two
Fairchild F-24
The Fairchild Model 24, also called the Fairchild Model 24 Argus and UC-61 Forwarder, is a four-seat, single-engine monoplane light transport aircraft designed by the Fairchild Aviation Corporation in the 1930s. It was adopted by the United St ...
s and two
Cessna T-50
The Cessna AT-17 Bobcat or Cessna Crane is a twin-engine advanced trainer aircraft designed and made in the United States, and used during World War II to bridge the gap between single-engine trainers and larger multi-engine combat aircraft. The ...
s in scheduled air taxi service between Ithaca and New York. Within a few years Peach was
executive vice president
A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
and
general manager
A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...
, Robinson had grown in route structure, acquired
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 ...
aircraft to handle the increasing passenger load, and changed its name to
Mohawk Airlines
Mohawk Airlines was a regional passenger airline operating in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, mainly in New York and Pennsylvania, from the mid-1940s until its acquisition by Allegheny Airlines in 1972. At its height, it employe ...
.
Peach anticipated and drove the expansion of Mohawk, wrestling with the
Civil Aeronautics Board
The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) was an agency of the federal government of the United States, formed in 1938 and abolished in 1985, that regulated aviation services including scheduled passenger airline serviceStringer, David H."Non-Skeds: Th ...
, expanding routes, relocating to the
Oneida County Airport
Oneida County Airport was a public airport in Whitestown in Oneida County, New York, northwest of downtown Utica. The airport covered and had two runways.
Oneida County closed the airport in January 2007 and transferred operations to Grif ...
near
Utica, and hiring a consultant in 1953 to evaluate the need for newer, more capable aircraft, a search for which ultimately led to securing three
Convair 240
The Convair CV-240 is an American airliner that Convair manufactured from 1947 to 1954, initially as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization, the 240 series made some inroa ...
aircraft via
Claire Lee Chennault
Claire Lee Chennault (September 6, 1893 – July 27, 1958) was an American military aviator best known for his leadership of the "Flying Tigers" and the Chinese Air Force in World War II.
Chennault was a fierce advocate of "pursuit" or fighter ...
. He continued to drive and expand Mohawk, acquiring new routes and new aircraft, and by the early 1960s Mohawk, having begun as Robinson Airlines with a single four-seat Fairchild F-24, operated a fleet of five
Convair 440
The Convair CV-240 is an American airliner that Convair manufactured from 1947 to 1954, initially as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization, the 240 series made some inroa ...
s, fourteen
Martin 404
The Martin 4-0-4 was an American pressurized passenger airliner built by the Glenn L. Martin Company. In addition to airline use initially in the United States, it was used by the United States Coast Guard and United States Navy as the RM-1G ( ...
s acquired from
Eastern Airlines
Eastern Air Lines, also colloquially known as Eastern, was a major United States airline from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida.
Ea ...
when Peach took over the
Colonial Airlines
Colonial Airlines was a United States airline from 1942 to 1956 with bases at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in New York City and at Montréal/St-Hubert Airport in Montreal, Canada.
History
It was founded as Canadian Colonial Airways on 6 March 1928 to ...
routes Eastern had acquired in 1956, fourteen Convair 240s, and four DC-3s.
Early in the 1960s Peach advanced toward the acquisition of
BAC-111
The BAC One-Eleven (or BAC-111/BAC 1-11) was an early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Originally conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-se ...
and
FH-227 aircraft to serve Mohawk's routes, as well as corporate, headquarters, maintenance, and training expansions, all of which entailed the necessity of taking on considerable corporate debt for expansion. By 1966 Mohawk had 432 million
passenger-mile
The units of measurement in transportation describes the unit of measurement used to express various transportation quantities, as used in statistics, planning, and their related applications.
Transportation quantity
The currently popular units ...
s, reduced federal subsidies from the CAB, and an operating profit of $10.6 million. Peach had led Mohawk to a leadership role amongst regional airlines, and his accomplishment was recognized – in 1964 he was invited to address the
Newcomen Society in North America on the history of Mohawk, and in 1965
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
awarded him the prestigiou
Salzberg Memorial Medal
In 1968, however, an economic and financial perfect storm began to form for Mohawk and Peach: On 3 July 1968
PATCO, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers union went on a 'by-the-rule-book'
slow-down strike which threw air traffic in the northeast into chaos for months, thus reducing passenger traffic while at the same time sharply increasing Mohawk's costs for fuel, labor, and overtime, and which further combined with a general economic slowdown and airline traffic slowdown for all carriers precisely at the point at which Mohawk was vulnerable from having leveraged to finance expansion and the purchase of new equipment. Financing burdens were now increasing as a percentage of operations, and Peach was eased to the side as the financial storm continued to grow. By 1970 the national economy was in a full-blown recession and the situation at Mohawk, with Peach on the sidelines, was becoming desperate, at which point, feeling threatened by the shifting of less-travelled routes to
commuter airline
A regional airline is a general classification of airline which typically operates scheduled passenger air service, using regional aircraft, between communities lacking sufficient demand or infrastructure to attract mainline flights. In North ...
s, Mohawk's pilots began a long and ultimately destructive strike, demanding the right to veto the shifting of routes, which management refused. Within weeks Mohawk was forced to inform creditors it was unable to meet payments, and efforts to restructure financial arrangements began. The pilots' dispute was finally settled after 154 days, with Mohawk facing losses announced 19 March 1971 of a staggering $11.9 million. Management, which had forced Peach to the sidelines, announced a merger with
Allegheny Airlines
Allegheny Airlines was a regional airline that operated out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1952 to 1979 with routes primarily located in the eastern U.S. It was the forerunner of USAir that was subsequently renamed US Airways, which itself me ...
.
On 20 April 1971 Robert Peach was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, at his home in Clinton, New York, aged fifty-one.
Robert E Peach and Mohawk Airlines: A Study in Entrepreneurship
/ref>
References
Sources
* ''Airline Executives and Federal Regulation: Case Studies in American Enterprise from the Airmail Era to the Dawn of the Jet Age,'' W David Lewis, ed. 2000, Ohio State University Press. .
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peach, Robert
1920 births
1971 deaths
Businesspeople from Syracuse, New York
Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)
20th-century American businesspeople
United States Navy personnel of World War II
Suicides by firearm in New York (state)