Ford Air Transport Service is a 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 which ...

based in

United States of America 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 territor ...

. The airline was also registered as Ford Air Freight Lines.

History

Ford in 1925 initiated Ford Air Transport Service - the world's first regularly scheduled commercial cargo airline. Ford Air Transport Service started with Stout 2-AT Pullman aircraft in 1925. Henry and Edsel Ford had an investment in Stout Engineering that became the Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company later that year in August. The first 2-AT was built at the Stout factory in

Dearborn Dearborn may refer to: People * Dearborn (surname) ** Henry Dearborn (1751–1829), U.S. Secretary of War under President Thomas Jefferson, Senior Officer of the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 Places in the United States Forts * Fort Dearborn, ...

and called the "Maiden Detroit". The other aircraft in the fleet were also 2-AT's, named "Maiden Dearbon I, II, III and IV". Initially the aircraft were for Ford's company use. The airline's first scheduled commercial flights in America were begun when The "Maiden Detroit" flew 1,000 lbs. of freight between factories in Detroit and Chicago on April 14, 1925. Ford Air Transport served routes between Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland. The airline logged over 1000 scheduled flights in its first year. The aircraft operated out of Ford Airport off of two grass runways with night lighting. The safety and predicability of the first cargo flights were used to advantage in securing the first airmail contracts under the Kelly Act. The "Madien Detroit" entered

Contract Air Mail A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

service on February 15, 1926 with Henry and Edsel Ford loading the first bag of mail. The aircraft flew from Detroit to Cleveland under fighter escort to become the first commercial transport of air mail. L.G. "Larry" Fritz piloted the aircraft with Ford and Stout as passengers for the one-hour-seventeen-minute flight. The routes would be known as CAM-6 (Detroit to Cleveland), and CAM-7 (Detroit to Chicago). In 1928 Ford sold the airmail routes to

Stout Stout is a dark, top-fermented beer with a number of variations, including dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout, and imperial stout. The first known use of the word ''stout'' for beer, in a document dated 1677 found in the Egerton Manuscri ...

who also was operating his own airline with Stout-Ford built aircraft. The last official flight was in 1932. Most of the 2-AT's eventually were sold to

Florida Airways Florida Airways was an American airline. Founded in part by Eddie Rickenbacker and based in the state of Florida, the airline served the southeastern United States during the mid-1920s. History Florida Airways was founded by Eddie Rickenb ...

, the forerunner of

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. ...

Destinations

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

( Ford Airport (Dearborn)) *

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

(

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

) * Cleveland, Ohio (

)

Fleet

The Ford Air Transport Service fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Accidents and incidents

*On May 18, 1926, a Ford Air Transport 2-AT ''Maiden Deaborn I'' was involved in the first fatal accident for a commercial US aircraft in Argo, Illinois. The Contract Air Mail pilot crashed and was killed due to flight into poor weather conditions. *On May 12, 1928, a Ford Air Freight 4-AT-01, NC 1492 crashed on takeoff from Dearborn Michigan killing the only two passengers on board the aircraft.

References

{{Airlines of the United States Airlines established in 1925 Airlines disestablished in 1932 American companies established in 1925 American companies disestablished in 1932 American Airlines Defunct companies based in Detroit Defunct airlines of the United States