Pacific Air Lines
Pacific Air Lines was an airline on the West Coast of the United States that began scheduled passenger flights in the mid 1940s under the name Southwest Airways. The company linked small cities in California with larger cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. Flights operated to Portland and reached Las Vegas and Reno in Nevada. Founded with money from investors from the Hollywood motion picture industry, the airline was noted for innovative safety practices and cost-saving procedures; the name Pacific Air Lines passed into history in 1968 in a merger with Bonanza Air Lines and West Coast Airlines, forming Air West, which became Hughes Airwest following the acquisition of Air West by Howard Hughes. In early 1941 Air Service veteran John Howard "Jack" Connelly and noted Hollywood agent/producer Leland Hayward formed a business partnership that five years evolved into a scheduled airline. Neither was a stranger to aviation. Hayward was an active private pilot and was on the board of directors of Transcontinental and Western Airlines.
The two men enlisted the support of commercial pilot and photographer John Swope to oversee the training of aviation cadets. Together, they founded a maintenance depot for overhauling training aircraft, a wartime air cargo line, a military pilot training complex consisting of Thunderbird Field No. 1, Thunderbird Field No. 2, Falcon Field in Arizona. By the end of World War II, Southwest Airways was the largest training contractor in the United States, trained more than 20,000 pilots from over 24 countries. After the war and Hayward raised $2,000,000 from investors including James Stewart and Darryl Zanuck to expand Southwest into the airline business, pending government approval, they were awarded a three-year experimental charter from the Civil Aeronautics Board on May 22, 1946, for their feeder service. Scheduled flights began on December 2, 1946, with war-surplus C-47s, the military version of Douglas DC-3 converted for civil use; the initial route was Los Angeles to San Francisco with stops in Oxnard, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, Monterey, Santa Cruz/Watsonville, San Jose.
The north coastal route included Oakland, Vallejo/Napa, Santa Rosa, Fort Bragg, Eureka/Arcata, Crescent City, while the inland route included Oakland, Marysville/Yuba City, Chico, Red Bluff and Yreka with Medford, added later. By the late 1950s Pacific Air Lines was serving Catalina Airport on Santa Catalina Island off the coast of southern California with flights from Los Angeles, Long Beach and Burbank (BUR, now Bob Hope Airport. In 1960 a Crescent City to Portland, Oregon flight was added. In August 1953 Southwest scheduled flights to all in California except for Medford. Connelly and Hayward, board chairman, were the majority owners of the airline, as such could hold sway concerning how the company would operate. Running on slim operating margins, Southwest Airways was a no-frills airline decades before low-cost carriers became common; the airline speeded ground operations to the point where a DC-3 could load and discharge passengers and begin taxiing for takeoff 90 seconds after coming to a stop.
To save money, the airline had its own pilots do the refueling instead of paying airport personnel. Ground time was reduced by keeping one engine running while a male purser escorted passengers to and from the plane. Pacific's DC-3s were modified with a door that doubled as a staircase for passengers; the airstair eliminated waiting for a ground crew to roll a wheeled staircase up to the plane. In August 1953 a daily Southwest DC-3 was scheduled SFO to LAX in 3 hours and 45 minutes with eight stops; the airline's innovative spirit extended into air safety, as well: in December 1947, a Southwest Airways DC-3 flying into the coastal town of Arcata made the world's first blind landing by a scheduled commercial airliner using ground-controlled approach radar, instrument landing system devices, fog investigation and dispersal operation oil-burning units adjacent to the runway. By the following year, the airline had made 1,200 routine instrument landings at the fog-shrouded Arcata airport. By 1948 Southwest had a fleet of 10 planes, all Douglas DC-3s, was flying between 24 airports in California and Oregon, becoming the second-largest feeder airline in the United States.
The airline had no fatal accidents until the evening of April 6, 1951, when Southwest Airways Flight 7 crashed, killing all 19 passengers and three crew members, including 12 military personnel. The DC-3 was flying a 20-minute route between Santa Barbara; the aircraft struck a ridge in the Refugio Pass region of the Santa Ynez Mountains at an elevation of 2,740 ft, far below the minimum nighttime altitude of 4,000 ft prescribed for the route over that stretch of mountains. The Civil Aeronautics Board was unable to determine the cause. By late 1952, the airline's fleet included eight secondhand piston-engined Martin 2-0-2s, faster and larger than the DC-3. In the 1950s, the airline's literature said it reached 33 California locales and timetables in the mid-1950s boasted that Southwest Airways "serves more California cities than any other scheduled airline." The airline became Pacific Air Lines on March 6, 1958.
Fairchild F-27
The Fairchild F-27 and Fairchild Hiller FH-227 were versions of the Fokker F27 Friendship twin-engined turboprop passenger aircraft manufactured under license by Fairchild Hiller in the United States. The Fairchild F-27 was similar to the standard Fokker F27, while the FH-227 was an independently developed stretched version; the Fokker F27 began life as a 1950 design study known as the P275, a 32-seater powered by two Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops. With the aid of Dutch government funding, the P275 evolved into the F27, which first flew on November 24, 1955; the first prototype was powered by Dart 507s and would have seated 28. To correct a slight tail-heaviness and to allow for more seats, the second prototype had a 3-foot-longer fuselage, which would allow seating for 32. By this stage Fokker had signed an agreement that would see Fairchild build Friendships in the U. S. as the F-27. The first aircraft of either manufacturer to enter service in the U. S. was in fact a Fairchild-built F-27, with West Coast Airlines in September 1958.
Other Fairchild F-27 operators in the U. S. included Air South, Air West and successor Hughes Airwest, Allegheny Airlines, Aloha Airlines, Bonanza Air Lines, Ozark Air Lines, Pacific Air Lines, Piedmont Airlines, Northern Consolidated Airlines and successor Wien Air Alaska. Fairchild subsequently manufactured a larger, stretched version of the F-27 being the Fairchild Hiller FH-227, operated by U. S. based air carriers Delta Air Lines, Mohawk Airlines, Northeast Airlines, Ozark Air Lines, Piedmont Airlines and Wien Air Alaska. Fairchild F-27s differed from the initial Fokker F27 Mk 100s in having basic seating for 40, heavier external skinning, a lengthened nose capable of housing a weather radar, additional fuel capacity, they incorporated a passenger airstair door in the rear of the aircraft, operated by a flight attendant, which eliminated the need for separate stairs on the ground. Developments were the F-27A with the F-27B Combi aircraft version; the F-27B Combi mixed passenger/freight version was operated in Alaska by Northern Consolidated Airlines and Wien Air Alaska.
Fairchild independently developed the stretched FH-227, which appeared two years earlier than Fokker's similar F27 Mk 500. The FH-227 featured a 1.83 m stretch over standard length F27/F-27s, taking standard seating to 56, with a larger cargo area between the cockpit and the passenger cabin. In addition to the 581 F27s built by Fokker, 128 F-27s and 78 FH-227s were built. In February 2010, only one Fairchild FH-227 aircraft, FH-227E serial number 501 belonging to the Myanmar Air Force, remained in active service. AlgeriaSahara Airlines ArgentinaCATA Linea Aerea BahamasBahamasair BrazilParaense Transportes Aereos TABA - Transportes Aereos da Bacia Amazonica VARIG CanadaNorcanair Nordair Quebecair FranceAir Melanesie Air Polynesie TAT European Airlines South KoreaKorean Air Lines TurkeyTHY Turkish Airlines United StatesAirlift International Air New England AirPac - Alaska-based air carrier Air South Air West - former Bonanza Air Lines, Pacific Air Lines and West Coast Airlines F-27 aircraft Allegheny Airlines Aloha Airlines Aspen Airways Bonanza Air Lines Connectair Delta Air Lines - former Northeast Airlines aircraft Empire Airlines Horizon Air Hughes Airwest - former Air West aircraft Mohawk Airlines Northeast Airlines Northern Consolidated Airlines - merged with Wien Air Alaska Oceanair Ozark Airlines Pacific Air Lines Piedmont Airlines Shawnee Airlines Southeast Airlines West Coast Airlines Wien Air Alaska - Former Northern Consolidated Airlines aircraft that were capable of mixed passenger/freight operations VenezuelaAvensa Of the 78 FH-227's built, 23 crashed.
On 25 February 1962 an Avensa F-27A crashed into a mountain on Margarita Island killing all 23 on board. On November 15, 1964, Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114, flying from Phoenix, Arizona, to Las Vegas, crashed into a mountain south of Las Vegas during poor weather. There were three crew on board. On March 10, 1967 West Coast Airlines Flight 720 crashed with four fatalities and no survivors near Klamath Falls, Oregon; the Fairchild F-27 was bound for Medford, Oregon from Klamath Falls, crashed due to ice accumulation on the aircraft. On 10 August 1968, Piedmont Airlines Flight 230 was on an ILS localizer-only approach to Charleston-Kanawha County Airport runway 23 when it struck trees 360 feet from the runway threshold; the aircraft struck up-sloping terrain short of the runway in a nose down attitude. The aircraft continued up the hill and onto the airport, coming to rest 6 feet beyond the threshold and 50 feet from the right edge of the runway. A layer of dense fog was obscuring about half of the approach lights.
Visual conditions existed outside the fog area. All three crew members and thirty-two of the thirty-four passengers perished; the National Transportation Safety Board blamed the accident on an "unrecognized loss of altitude orientation during the final portion of an approach into shallow, dense fog." The disorientation was caused by a rapid reduction in the ground guidance segment available to the pilot at a point beyond which a go-around could be effected. On 25 October 1968 Northeast Airlines Flight 946, an FH-227, crashed on Moose Mountain near
Allegheny Airlines
Allegheny Airlines was a U. S. airline that operated out of Pittsburgh, United States, from 1952 to 1979. It was a forerunner of US Airways, now merged into American Airlines, its headquarters were at Washington National Airport in Virginia. Allegheny Airlines began as All American Aviation Company providing mail delivery starting on 7 March 1939, it was founded by du Pont family brothers Richard C. du Pont and Alexis Felix du Pont, Jr.. In 1949 the company was renamed All American Airways as it switched from air mail to passenger service. On 1 January 1953 it was again renamed, to Allegheny Airlines. Like other local service airlines of the time, Allegheny was subsidized. In 1960, Allegheny headquarters were in Washington, D. C. Allegheny added the Convair 540 to its fleet in 1961; the aircraft proved unreliable, incurring problems with its British-made Napier Elands that had replaced the Convair's piston engines. The airline bought new Fairchild F-27Js that the company named "Vistaliner"; the F-27J was a U.
S.-built version of the Fokker F27. The airline switched to General Motors/Allison turboprops in the Convair 580 which the carrier named the "Vistacruiser"; the last DC-3 flights were in 1962 and the last piston flights were in 1967. Allegheny Airlines was the first airline with a network of affiliated regional airlines, the Allegheny Commuter System. Contributing to Allegheny’s growth were the acquisitions of Lake Central Airlines in 1968 and Mohawk Airlines in 1972. Mohawk added BAC One-Elevens to the fleet. Allegheny added other jets, notably the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 which the company named the "Vistajet". Jets included Boeing 727-100s and 727-200s; as deregulation dawned, looking to shed its regional image, changed its name to USAir on October 28, 1979. After Allegheny Airlines rebranded itself as USAir, the company retained its earlier name for its Allegheny Commuter service renamed US Airways Express. Under USAir, which renamed itself US Airways, the Allegheny name continued to be used by the parent company, keeping the trademark under US Airways' control.
Suburban Airlines was headquartered at the Reading Airport in Reading and flew a large fleet of Short 330s and Short 360s, being the launch customer for the Shorts 360. It had three Fokker F27 "Friendship" turboprops, was the last US operator of passenger F27s. After replacing much of its Shorts fleet with DeHavilland DHC-8s, retiring the F27s, it merged with another owned USAir subsidiary, Pennsylvania Airlines, headquartered at Harrisburg International Airport near Harrisburg and the combined airline retained the historic name until its own merger with another wholly owned subsidiary, Piedmont Airlines. After retiring earlier aircraft, Allegheny and after its mergers flew De Havilland Canada Dash 8 turboprop aircraft to 35 airports in the northeastern United States, Canada, from hubs at Boston and Philadelphia, its activities and Dash 8 fleet were incorporated into a regional airline, Piedmont Airlines, in 2004. As of 2016, an Airbus A319 aircraft of American Airlines is painted in Allegheny colors.
This is a list of cities Allegheny Airlines served until October 1979. It does not include most cities served before then. Allegheny flew to dozens more cities at some point, including Erie and the Wyoming Valley. Akron, Ohio -Akron Canton Airport Albany, New York - Albany County Airport Allentown, Pennsylvania - Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton International Airport Baltimore, Maryland - Baltimore/Washington International Airport Binghamton, New York - Broome County Airport Boston, Massachusetts - Logan International Airport Bradford, Pennsylvania - Bradford Regional Airport Bridgeport, Connecticut - Igor I. Sikorsky Memorial Airport Buffalo, New York - Greater Buffalo-Niagara Falls International Airport Burlington, Vermont - Burlington International Airport Chicago, Illinois - O'Hare International Airport Cincinnati, Ohio - Greater Cincinnati International Airport Cleveland, Ohio - Hopkins International Airport Columbus, Ohio - Port Columbus International Airport Dayton, Ohio - James M. Cox International Airport Denver, Colorado - Stapleton International Airport Detroit, Michigan - Metro Airport DuBois, Pennsylvania - DuBois-Jefferson County Airport Elmira, New York - Chemung County Airport Erie, Pennsylvania - Erie International Airport Evansville, Indiana - Evansville Regional Airport Glens Falls, New York - Warren County Airport Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - Harrisburg International Airport Hartford, Connecticut - Bradley International Airport Hagerstown, Maryland - Hagerstown Regional Airport Huntington, West Virginia -Tri-State Airport Indianapolis, Indiana - Weir Cook Airport Islip, New York - Islip Airport Ithaca, New York - Tompkins County Airport Jamestown, New York - Chautauqua County-Jamestown Airport Keene, New Hampshire - Dillant-Hopkins Airport Kingsport, Tennessee - Tri-Cities Regional Airport Lima, Ohio - Lima Allen County Airport Louisville, Kentucky - Standiford Field Lock Haven, Pennsylvania - William T. Piper Memorial Airport Memphis, Tennessee - Memphis International Airport Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota - Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Nashville, Tennessee - Berry Field Newark, New Jersey - Newark International Airport New Haven, Connecticut - Tweed New Haven Airport New Orleans, Louisiana - Moisant Field New York, New York - John F. Kennedy International Airport New York, New York - La Guardia Airport Norfolk, Virginia -Norfolk International Airport Omaha, Nebraska - Eppley Airfield Parkersburg, West Virginia - Wood County Airport Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Philadelphia International A
McDonnell Douglas DC-9
The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is a twin-engine, single-aisle jet airliner. It first flew and entered airline service in 1965; the DC-9 was designed for short flights. The final DC-9 was delivered in October 1982. DC-9-based airliners including the MD-80, MD-90 and Boeing 717 followed in production. With the final deliveries of the 717 in 2006, production of the DC-9/MD-80/90/717 aircraft family ceased after 41 years and 2441 units built. During the 1950s Douglas Aircraft studied a short- to medium-range airliner to complement their higher capacity, long range DC-8. A medium-range four-engine Model 2067 was studied but it did not receive enough interest from airlines and it was abandoned. In 1960, Douglas signed a two-year contract with Sud Aviation for technical cooperation. Douglas would market and support the Sud Aviation Caravelle and produce a licensed version if airlines ordered large numbers. None were ordered and Douglas returned to its design studies after the cooperation deal expired. In 1962, design studies were underway.
The first version had a gross weight of 69,000 lb. This design was changed into. Douglas gave approval to produce the DC-9 on April 8, 1963. Unlike the competing but larger Boeing 727 trijet, which used as many 707 components as possible, the DC-9 was an all-new design; the DC-9 has two rear-mounted Pratt & Whitney JT8D turbofan engines small, efficient wings, a T-tail. The DC-9's takeoff weight was limited to 80,000 lb for a two-person flight crew by Federal Aviation Agency regulations at the time. DC-9 aircraft have five seats across for economy seating; the airplane seats 80 to 135 passengers depending on seating arrangement. The DC-9 was designed for short to medium routes to smaller airports with shorter runways and less ground infrastructure than the major airports being served by larger designs like the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8. Accessibility and short field characteristics were called for. Turnarounds were simplified by built-in airstairs, including one in the tail, which shortened boarding and deplaning times.
The tail-mounted engine design facilitated a clean wing without engine pods, which had numerous advantages. For example, flaps could be longer, unimpeded by pods on the leading edge and engine blast concerns on the trailing edge; this simplified design improved airflow at low speeds and enabled lower takeoff and approach speeds, thus lowering field length requirements and keeping wing structure light. The second advantage of the tail-mounted engines was the reduction in foreign object damage from ingested debris from runways and aprons. However, with this position, the engines could ingest ice streaming off the wing roots. Third, the absence of engines in underslung pods allowed a reduction in fuselage ground clearance, making the aircraft more accessible to baggage handlers and passengers; the problem of deep stalling, revealed by the loss of the BAC One-Eleven prototype in 1963, was overcome through various changes, including the introduction of vortilons, small surfaces beneath the wing's leading edge used to control airflow and increase low speed lift.
The first DC-9, a production model, flew on February 25, 1965. The second DC-9 flew a few weeks with a test fleet of five aircraft flying by July; this allowed the initial Series 10 to gain airworthiness certification on November 23, 1965, to enter service with Delta Air Lines on December 8. The DC-9 was always intended to be available in multiple versions to suit customer requirements, The first stretched version, the Series 30, with a longer fuselage and extended wing tips, flew on August 1, 1966, entering service with Eastern Air Lines in 1967; the initial Series 10 would be followed by the improved -20, -30, -40 variants. The final DC-9 series was the -50, which first flew in 1974; the DC-9 was a commercial success with 976 built when production ended in 1982. The DC-9 is one of the longest-lasting aircraft in operation, its last successor, the Boeing 717, was produced until 2006. The DC-9 family was produced in 2441 units: 1191 MD-80s, 116 MD-90s and 155 Boeing 717s; this compares to 8,000 Airbus A320s delivered as of February 2018 and 10,000 Boeing 737s completed as of March 2018.
Studies aimed at further improving DC-9 fuel efficiency, by means of retrofitted wingtips of various types, were undertaken by McDonnell Douglas. However, these did not demonstrate significant benefits with existing fleets shrinking; the wing design makes retrofitting difficult. The DC-9 was followed by the introduction of the MD-80 series in 1980; this was called the DC-9-80 series. It was a lengthened DC-9-50 with a higher maximum takeoff weight, a larger wing, new main landing gear, higher fuel capacity; the MD-80 series features a number of variants of the Pratt & Whitney JT8D turbofan engine having higher thrust ratings than those available on the DC-9. The series includes the MD-81, MD-82, MD-83, MD-88, shorter fuselage MD-87; the MD-80 series was further developed into the McDonnell Douglas MD-90 in the early 1990s. It has yet another fuselage stretch, an electronic flight instrument system, new International Aero V2500 high-bypass turbofan engines. In comparison to the successful MD-80 few MD-90s were built.
The final variant was the MD-95, renamed the Boeing 717-200 after McDonnell Douglas's merger with Boeing in 1997 and before aircraft deliveries began. The fuselage length and wing are similar to those of the DC-9-30, but much use was made of lighter, modern materials. Power is supplied by two BMW/Rolls-Royce BR715 high-bypass turbofan en
North Central Airlines
North Central Airlines was a regional airline in the midwestern United States. Founded as Wisconsin Central Airlines in 1944 in Clintonville, the company moved to Madison in 1947; this is when the "Herman the duck" logo was born on Wisconsin Central's first Lockheed Electra 10A, NC14262, in 1948. North Central's headquarters were moved to Minneapolis–St. Paul in 1952. Following a merger with Southern Airways in 1979, North Central became Republic Airlines, which in turn was merged into Northwest Airlines in 1986. In 1939 the Four Wheel Drive Auto Company, a major manufacturer of four-wheel transmissions and heavy-duty trucks based in Clintonville, opened a flight department and traded a company truck for a Waco biplane for their company's use. In 1944 company executives decided to start an airline, service started between six Wisconsin cities in 1946; this led the company to buy two Cessna UC-78 Bobcats, soon after, three Lockheed Electra 10As. Certificated flights started with Electras to 19 airports on 25 February 1948.
In 1952 the airline moved their headquarters from Wisconsin to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Soon the airline ran into financial trouble when President Francis Higgins left, making Hal Carr the president. Carr got the company out of debt and made it more reliable. Over time the company expanded their fleet to 32 DC-3s. In October 1952, Wisconsin Central had scheduled flights to 28 airports, all of them west of Lake Michigan, from Chicago to Fargo and Grand Forks, it added Detroit in 1953, Omaha and the Dakotas in 1959, Denver in 1969 and nonstop flights from Milwaukee to New York LaGuardia in 1970. It added five Convair 340s from Continental Airlines to its fleet of DC-3s, the first ones entering service in 1959. In 1960, North Central hit the one million passenger mark. Convair 340s were added to the fleet as well. Like other Local Service airlines North Central was subsidized. S. government to aid troubled airlines in South America. The first of five Douglas DC-9-31s entered service in September 1967 and the Convair 340s and Convair 440s were all converted to Convair 580s.
The last DC-3 flight was early 1969. In 1969 North Central Airlines moved their headquarters to the south side of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, it is now used by Delta Air Lines after their 2008 merger with Northwest. The Civil Aeronautics Board classified North Central as a "local service carrier," flying to cities in one region and feeding passengers to larger "trunk airlines" that flew nationwide. North Central was allowed a few routes outside the Midwest: to Washington, D. C.-National, New York-LaGuardia, Boston and Tucson. After deregulation of the airline industry North Central expanded and got McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50s, its largest aircraft. North Central purchased Atlanta-based Southern Airways and the two airlines formed Republic Airlines in July 1979, the first merger following airline deregulation. Republic soon targeted San Francisco-based Hughes Airwest for acquisition, the deal was finalized in October 1980 for $38.5 million. Saddled with debt from two acquisitions and new aircraft, the airline struggled in the early 1980s, introduced a human mascot version of Herman the Duck.
Republic kept North Central's hubs at Minneapolis and Detroit, Southern's hub at Memphis. Within a few years they closed the former Hughes Airwest hub at Sky Harbor at Phoenix and largely dismantled the Hughes Airwest route network in the western U. S.. Republic quickly downsized North Central's operations to and among smaller airports in the upper Midwest, concentrating their fleet at the Minneapolis and Detroit hubs. In 1986, Republic merged with Northwest Orient Airlines, headquartered at Minneapolis and had a large operation at Detroit, which ended the legacy of Wisconsin Central and North Central. Following the merger, the new airline became Northwest Airlines, which merged into Delta Air Lines in 2008, finalized in early 2010. Northwest Airlines became part of the Delta name; when North Central Airlines started operations, the company's ICAO code was "NOR". When ICAO went from 3 to 2 characters, North Central became "NC", the same as its IATA code. Douglas DC-3 Convair CV-340 Convair CV-440 Convair CV-580 Douglas DC-9-30 Douglas DC-9-50 June 24, 1968 – A North Central Airlines plane clipped a guy wire on the 2,032-foot tower for KELO-TV.
The tower in Rowena was in service less than a year and was destroyed. Luckily, the plane landed safely with no injuries. August 4, 1968 – Flight 261, a Convair CV-580, collided with a Cessna 150 11.5 miles southwest of Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee at 2,700 feet, as the northbound Convair from Chicago descended for an approach to runway 7. The cabin section of the northwest-bound Cessna embedded in the Convair's forward baggage compartment; the Convair lost the right engine was shut down due to a damaged propeller.
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital and most populous city of Arizona, with 1,626,000 people. It is the fifth most populous city in the United States, the most populous American state capital, the only state capital with a population of more than one million residents. Phoenix is the anchor of the Phoenix metropolitan area known as the Valley of the Sun, which in turn is part of the Salt River Valley; the metropolitan area is the 11th largest by population in the United States, with 4.73 million people as of 2017. Phoenix is the seat of Maricopa County and the largest city in the state at 517.9 square miles, more than twice the size of Tucson and one of the largest cities in the United States. Phoenix was settled in 1867 as an agricultural community near the confluence of the Salt and Gila Rivers and was incorporated as a city in 1881, it became the capital of Arizona Territory in 1889. It has a hot desert climate. Despite this, its canal system led to a thriving farming community with the original settler's crops remaining important parts of the Phoenix economy for decades, such as alfalfa, cotton and hay.
Cotton, citrus and copper were known locally as the "Five C's" anchoring Phoenix's economy. These remained the driving forces of the city until after World War II, when high-tech companies began to move into the valley and air conditioning made Phoenix's hot summers more bearable; the city averaged a four percent annual population growth rate over a 40-year period from the mid-1960s to the mid-2000s. This growth rate slowed during the Great Recession of 2007–09, has rebounded slowly. Phoenix is the cultural center of the state of Arizona; the Hohokam people occupied the Phoenix area for 2,000 years. They created 135 miles of irrigation canals, making the desert land arable, paths of these canals were used for the Arizona Canal, Central Arizona Project Canal, the Hayden-Rhodes Aqueduct, they carried out extensive trade with the nearby Ancient Puebloans and Sinagua, as well as with the more distant Mesoamerican civilizations. It is believed that periods of drought and severe floods between 1300 and 1450 led to the Hohokam civilization's abandonment of the area.
After the departure of the Hohokam, groups of Akimel O'odham, Tohono O'odham, Maricopa tribes began to use the area, as well as segments of the Yavapai and Apache. The O'odham were offshoots of the Sobaipuri tribe, who in turn were thought to be the descendants of the Hohokam; the Akimel O'odham were the major group in the area and lived in small villages, with well-defined irrigation systems that spread over the entire Gila River Valley, from Florence in the east to the Estrellas in the west. Their crops included corn and squash for food, while cotton and tobacco were cultivated, they banded together with the Maricopa for protection against incursions by the Yuma and Apache tribes. The Maricopa are part of the larger Yuma people; the Tohono O'odham lived in the region, as well, but their main concentration was to the south and stretched all the way to the Mexican border. The O'odham lived in small settlements as seasonal farmers who took advantage of the rains, rather than the large-scale irrigation of the Akimel.
They grew crops such as sweet corn, tapery beans, lentils, sugar cane, melons, as well as taking advantage of native plants such as saguaro fruits, cholla buds, mesquite tree beans, mesquite candy. They hunted local game such as deer and javelina for meat; the Mexican–American War ended in 1848, Mexico ceded its northern zone to the United States, residents of that region became U. S. citizens. The Phoenix area became part of the New Mexico Territory. In 1863, the mining town of Wickenburg was the first to be established in Maricopa County, to the northwest of Phoenix. Maricopa County had not yet been incorporated; the Army created Fort McDowell on the Verde River in 1865 to forestall Indian uprisings. The fort established a camp on the south side of the Salt River by 1866, the first settlement in the valley after the decline of the Hohokam. Other nearby settlements merged to become the city of Tempe; the history of the city of Phoenix begins with Jack Swilling, a Confederate veteran of the Civil War.
He saw a potential for farming. He formed a small community that same year about four miles east of the city. Lord Darrell Duppa was one of the original settlers in Swilling's party, he suggested the name "Phoenix", as it described a city born from the ruins of a former civilization; the Board of Supervisors in Yavapai County recognized the new town on May 4, 1868, the first post office was established the following month with Swilling as the postmaster. On February 12, 1871, the territorial legislature created Maricopa County by dividing Yavapai County; the first election for county office was held in 1871. He ran unopposed; the town grew during the 1870s, President Ulysses S. Grant issued a land patent for the site of Phoenix on April 10, 1874. By 1875, the town had a telegraph office
Southern Airways
Southern Airways was an airline in the United States from its founding by Frank Hulse in 1949 until 1979 when it merged with North Central Airlines to become Republic Airlines, which on October 1, 1986, became part of Northwest Airlines, which merged into Delta Air Lines in 2008. Southern corporate headquarters was in Birmingham, with operations headquartered at William B. Hartsfield Airport, near Atlanta; as a local service airline, Southern Airways covered the south-central U. S. In 1955 their network spanned from Memphis south to New Orleans and east to Charlotte and Jacksonville. In August 1953 Southern flew to 29 airports and in August 1967 to 50. Like other Local Service airlines Southern was subsidized. In May 1968 Southern's routes extended from Tri-Cities in Tennessee south to New Orleans and Jacksonville, east from Baton Rouge and Monroe, Louisiana to the coast at Myrtle Beach and Charleston. In 1968 a route sprouted northward: three weekday Douglas DC-9-10s from Columbus GA nonstop to Washington Dulles and on to New York LaGuardia.
These originated at Eglin Air Force Base, FL. Like most local service airlines Southern flew only Douglas DC-3s for the first few years. In 1961 they began adding 22 40-passenger secondhand Martin 4-0-4s acquired from Eastern Air Lines, newer aircraft that were pressurised and had a rear ventral stairway; the last DC-3 flight was in 1967. Southern's first 65-75 passenger Douglas DC-9 series 10s arrived in 1967 followed by 85-95 passenger McDonnell Douglas DC-9 series 30s in 1969; the last scheduled flight by a Martin was on 20 April 1978 from Atlanta to Gadsden and back. Some DC-9s were bought new and some used. Both airlines had purchased these aircraft new from Douglas. Unlike other local service airlines Southern did not operate turboprops during the 1960s and 1970s, but by the time of the merger with North Central, Southern had replaced their Martin 4-0-4s with several 19-passenger Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner "Metro II"s. By 1971 Southern was flying south to Orlando and Miami. U. S. government regulation didn't allow Southern to fly nonstop from New York or Washington, D.
C. to Atlanta, so Southern had nonstops to Columbus, Georgia on to Dothan, Alabama. Many flights made six intermediate stops en route. With more DC-9s, many routes once served with prop aircraft were served with jets that linked small cities to Atlanta and Memphis: Columbus, Georgia to Washington, DC continuing to New York City. Meridian, Mississippi to Birmingham, Alabama. Tuscaloosa, Alabama to Atlanta and Columbus, Mississippi. Muscle Shoals/Florence, Alabama to Memphis and Huntsville/Decatur, Alabama with continuing eastbound service to Atlanta. Greenville, Mississippi to Memphis and Monroe, Louisiana with continuing southbound service to Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Columbia, South Carolina to Greenville/Spartanburg and Charleston, South Carolina. Albany, Georgia to Atlanta, Georgia. One DC-9-14 aircraft operated a "milk run" multi-stop routing from Miami to Orlando, Panama City, Eglin AFB, Gulfport, New Orleans, Atlanta, Memphis, St Louis and Chicago Midway. Time en route was 32 minutes. By the mid-1970s Southern's system had expanded to St. Louis, Detroit, Ft. Lauderdale and Grand Cayman in the Caribbean, Southern's only international destination.
Southern Airways called itself the "Route of the Aristocrats" and they used the slogan "Nobody's Second Class on Southern" in their television commercials. They were famous for their promotional shot glasses: for a time, differently designed shot glasses were issued each year. Original Southern shot. During the early 1970s before strict airport security was implemented across the United States, several airlines experienced hijackings. Southern Airways Flight 49, a DC-9 en route from Memphis to Miami was hijacked on November 10, 1972 during a stop in Birmingham, Alabama; the three hijackers boarded the plane armed with handguns and hand grenades. At gunpoint, the hijackers took the airplane, the plane’s crew of four, 27 passengers to nine American cities, to Havana, Cuba. During the long flight the hijackers threatened to crash the plane into the Oak Ridge, nuclear facilities, insisted on talking with President Richard Nixon, demanded a ransom of $10 million. Southern Airways was only able to come up with $2 million.
The pilot talked the hijackers into settling for the $2 million when the plane landed in Chattanooga for refueling. Upon landing in Havana the Cuban authorities arrested the hijackers and, after a brief delay, sent the plane and crew back to the United States; the hijackers and $2 million stayed in Cuba. Southern Airways accounted for the $2 million by debiting it to an account entitled "Hijacking Payment." This account was reported as a type of receivable under "other assets" on Southern's balance sheet. The company maintained that they would be able to collect the cash from the Cuban government and that, therefore, a receivable existed. Southern Airways was repaid $2 million by the Cuban government, attemptin
