Standard Air Lines was an airline founded by

Jack Frye William John "Jack" Frye (March 18, 1904 - February 3, 1959) was an aviation pioneer in the airline industry. Frye founded Standard Air Lines which eventually took him into a merger with Trans World Airlines (TWA) where he became president. Frye ...

, Paul E. Richter and Walter A. Hamilton in 1927. The three had founded Aero Corporation of California in 1926 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and Standard was made a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

of Aero in 1927.

History

Standard Air Lines was a transport agent for

U.S. Air Mail United States airmail was a service class of the United States Post Office Department (USPOD) and its successor United States Postal Service (USPS) delivering air mail by aircraft flown within the United States and its possessions and territor ...

and also flew passengers to destinations throughout the

Southwest United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson,

Douglas, Arizona Douglas is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States that lies in the north-west to south-east running Sulpher Springs Valley. Douglas has a border crossing with Mexico at Agua Prieta and a history of mining. The population was 16,531 in ...

and

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

. On November 28, 1927, Standard Air Lines began operations as Arizona's first inter and intrastate scheduled air carrier. In 1929, it started a rail link at El Paso, Texas, to carry passengers farther east by train. This was the first regular transcontinental rail and air passenger to and from California. Standard Air Lines began business as a three-times a week passenger and express service between Los Angeles, Phoenix and Tucson. The initial fleet consisted of two Fokker airplanes (NC7713 and NC8011) and seven OX5-powered Eaglerock airplanes. Standard carried 61 passengers during its first month of operations in December 1927. Initially, aircraft left Los Angeles on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10:00 AM Pacific Time (PT), arrived in Phoenix at 3:30 PM Mountain Time (MT), and at Tucson at 5:00 PM MT. For the return trip, aircraft left Tucson at 8:00 AM MT on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, arriving at Phoenix at 9:25 AM MT and Los Angeles at 1:30 PM PT. Passenger fares were, for Los Angeles to Phoenix $47.50; Los Angeles to Tucson $60.00; Phoenix to Tucson $12.50. Express rates per pound were, for Los Angeles to Phoenix $1.30; Los Angeles to Tucson $1.60; Phoenix to Tucson $.50. Late in its life, Standard Air Lines extended its range to other cities. Its western terminus was Los Angeles, and it ultimately served Phoenix, Tucson, and Douglas, AZ, with El Paso, TX as its eastern terminus. On August 4, 1929, eight months before its ultimate sale, Standard Air Lines became the western link in an air-rail transcontinental schedule. Passengers traveled from New York to St. Louis by rail, connected with a

Southwest Air Fast Express Southwest Air Fast Express (SAFE), also known as S.A.F.E.way, was a United States airline. It was founded by Erle P. Halliburton, the founder of the New Method Oil Well Cementing Company (now known as Halliburton), and Zero Halliburton, a brief ...

Ford Trimotor to Sweetwater, TX, then took an overnight train, "The Texan," to El Paso. In El Paso, passengers connected with Standard Air Lines for Los Angeles. Under ideal conditions, the coast-to-coast voyage took 43 hours and 40 minutes, a savings of about 16 hours over the all-train routing.

The airline was described in advertising brochures as "The Fair Weather Route," with the pleasant desert terrain beneath used as a marketing point. Advertised flight duration from Los Angeles to El Paso was 8 hours and 45 minutes.

Acquisitions

Standard Air Lines remained in business for about 30 months. Frye, as well as being the founder of the company, was also an active pilot of the line. Because of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, Frye and his associates sold the airline to Western Air Express in March 1930. Concomitant with the sale, Frye joined

Western Air Express Western Airlines was a major airline based in California, operating in the Western United States including Alaska and Hawaii, and western Canada, as well as to New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami and to Mexico City, London and N ...

on the Board of Directors and as Chief of Operations. Later in 1930, Western Air Express merged with

Transcontinental Air Transport Transcontinental Air Transport (T-A-T) was an airline founded in 1928 by Clement Melville Keys that merged in 1930 with Western Air Express to form what became TWA. Keys enlisted the help of Charles Lindbergh to design a transcontinental network t ...

in 1930 to form T&WA (

TWA 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 ...

). Frye became president of T&WA in 1934 and Richter became Vice President. TWA was known as " The Airline Run by Flyers."

External links

Standard Air Lines USA Presented at the Conference of Historic Aviation Writers XI, October 17-19, 2003, Oklahoma City, OK, Business Productivity and History of Three Standard Air Lines Transport Aircraft: Davis-Monthan Aviation Field, December 11, 1927-March 4, 1930, by G.W. Hyatt
{{Airlines of the United States, state=collapsed Airlines disestablished in 1930 Airlines established in 1927 Defunct airlines of the United States 1927 establishments in California 1930 disestablishments in California American companies disestablished in 1930 American companies established in 1927 Airlines based in California

History

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Acquisitions

See also

External links