Parks College Airline was an defunct
airline
An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...
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 territori ...
.
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)-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 Novem ...
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 in a stock swap deal. On 15 September 1950, Parks operated a
Douglas DC-3 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 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 which ceased operations in 1982.
;United States/North America
*
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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*
Indianapolis
*
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
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.
See also
*
List of defunct airlines of the United States
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
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