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 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 ...

. Keys enlisted the help of Charles Lindbergh to design a transcontinental network to get government airmail contracts. Lindbergh established numerous airports across the country in this effort.

History

On July 7, 1929, transcontinental trips began. It initially offered a 48-hour coast to coast trip (trains by night, and planes by day in nine flights), with the first leg on the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

overnight from New York City to

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. There, passengers boarded a

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 ...

aircraft at what is now John Glenn Columbus International Airport, and flew to Waynoka, Oklahoma. Then, passengers caught the

Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and S ...

for an overnight trip to Clovis, New Mexico, where they would take a second Ford Trimotor flight to Los Angeles. One-way fare from New York to Los Angeles was $352. Cynics were to deride its TAT abbreviation as "Take A Train." EL-2002-00560

The

service was one of the first to offer meals en route, provided by the

Fred Harvey Company The Fred Harvey Company was the owner of the Harvey House chain of restaurants, hotels and other hospitality industry businesses alongside railroads in the Western United States. It was founded in 1876 by Fred Harvey to cater to the growing n ...

. It was also one of the first to be geared toward passenger service (while most airlines at the time were focused on transporting air mail). In its first eighteen months of operation, the company lost $2.7 million. In 1929 it merged with

Maddux Air Lines Maddux Air Lines was an airline based in Southern California that operated Ford Tri-motors in California, Arizona, and Mexico in the late 1920s. Founding In 1927 Jack L. Maddux, an owner of a Los Angeles Ford and Lincoln car dealership, f ...

and in 1930, during what was to become the Air Mail scandal, it merged with Western Air Express to form Transcontinental & Western Air (T&WA). Western became an independent company once again in 1934. However, Transcontinental opted to retain the T&WA name, and eventually evolved into

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 ...

or TWA.

First air crash

On September 3, 1929, a westbound TAT flight crashed on Mt. Taylor in New Mexico, with loss of all aboard. The Associated Press said it was the first plane crash on a regular commercial land route. The September crash was the first of three serious accidents for TAT over the next five months.

Museum

The

Western New Mexico Aviation Heritage Museum The Grants-Milan Flight Service Station, at 1116 N. Dale Carnutte Rd. in Grants, New Mexico, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. It was then part of the Western New Mexico Aviation Heritage Museum, which honors early avi ...

in Grants, New Mexico, has a restored light and arrow which was used to direct pilots along the way.

References

External links

Articles

American Heritage article
by Jay Berman. Los Angeles Downtown News April 22, 2013
Biography of Clement Melville Keys

Graphics

Atchison, Topeka, and Santa promotional brochure for Transcontinental Air Transport.
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080704172747/http://earthfriendarts.tripod.com/coastprint.html Poster for the train-plane* ttp://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/tat.htm Timetables {{Portal bar, Companies, Aviation Trans World Airlines Charles Lindbergh Defunct airlines of the United States Kansas City metropolitan area Airlines established in 1928 Airlines disestablished in 1930 American companies established in 1928 1928 establishments in the United States