Universal Air Lines was an

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.

History

Universal Air Lines was an air-rail conglomerate competing with rival

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 ...

. Universal Air Lines was a subsidiary of the

Universal Aviation Corporation Universal Aviation Corporation was an airline holding company based in United States. History Universal Aviation Corporation was stood up to merge operations of Universal Air Lines Corporation, Robertson Aircraft Corporation and Northern Air ...

which included

Robertson Aircraft Corporation Robertson Aircraft Corporation was a post-World War I American aviation service company based at the Lambert-St. Louis Flying Field near St. Louis, Missouri, that flew passengers and U.S. Air Mail, gave flying lessons, and performed exhibition ...

and Northern Air Lines In 1929, Universal Air Lines purchased Braniff Air Lines. In 1929, The Parent company, Universal Aviation Corporation became part of the

Aviation Corporation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot ai ...

American Airlines American Airlines is a major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the largest airline in the world when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and revenue passeng ...

was formed from the merger of Universal and 90 other companies. Universal Air Lines promoted the new era of air travel with its "Sky Dinner" Fokker Trimotors, with the conveniences of a Pullman train, which amounted to an electric stove prep area, folding tables, and a lavatory. On some Cleveland to Kansas City routes, as many as three Fokker aircraft would fly in formation to the destination. Universal Air Lines ordered five Fokker F.32 aircraft. One was painted in the airlines livery, but all orders were canceled as 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 ...

set in.

Destinations

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the List of United States cities by populat ...

St.Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...

Fleet

The Universal Air Lines fleet consisted of the following aircraft as of 1929:

Incidents and accidents

Universal Air Lines shared hangar space with NorthWest Airlines at Chicago's Municipal airport. On June 25, 1930, the Universal Air Lines hangar caught fire destroying 27 aircraft, leaving only five. The fire spread to the neighboring Grey Goose Air Lines hangar.

References

External links