A history of one of the greatest legacy airlines of all time.

From the first flights of Charles Lindbergh hauling mail from Chicago to the single largest aircraft purchase in all of aviation history, well explore the history of this airline giant to see how exactly the company runs.

Administrator

Joseph Schmidt

On December 17th, 1903, Orville Wright took to the skies in the first successful, powered heavier-thanair flight in history. From that moment on, man would continue to develop his wings to soar faster, higher, and safer into the skies. After the advent of World War I, significant improvements were made in flying. After only a decade and a half, airplanes were beginning to really take form as a reliable means of transportation. In April of 1926, a young aviator by the name of Charles Lindbergh Charles Lindbergh standing in front of his aircraft The Spirit of St. Louis after a took off from Chicago, headed for St. Louis with a single bag of successful journey across the Atlantic mail stowed away in the back of his DH-4 biplane. Lindbergh Ocean in the first non-stop flight from was the chief pilot of Robertson Aircraft Corporation of Missouri, New York to Paris. which was only the second aviation company licensed to fly U.S. Airmail. This company, along with others, would eventually join together in a consolidation to form the modern-day American Airlines. This consolidation began in 1929 and by 1930, the subsidiaries of The Aviation Corporation were incorporated into American Airways Inc. Four years later, American Airways officially became American Airlines, Inc.

By the 1930s, passenger aircraft service was not only beginning to grow, but at an alarming rate at that. On June 25th of 1936, American Airlines became the first airline to fly the Douglas DC-3 for commercial service. With the DC-3, American began calling its aircraft Flagships. The DC-3 helped American obtain access to a brand new market as well. American was the first airline to really push for service to New York City, and as a result became owner of the worlds first airline lounge at the new LaGuardia Airport in NYC.1 Valued passengers were given the right to join this exclusive Admirals Club, which is still in existence today. Reaching the end of the decade, American had become the number one domestic air carrier in terms of revenue passenger miles. Less than one year later, American Airlines announced that it had successfully carried its one-millionth passenger.

La Guardia airport (LGA) still serves as a major operation for the New York City area. It was such an important figure for the world of aviation that Douglas specifically developed its DC-10 aircraft to land and takeoff at this airport. The original hangars from the DC-3 era are still in existence at LGA.

American Airlines Major Fleet Introduction History Joseph Schmidt

Boeing 767
McDonnell Douglas MD-80

Douglas DC-6
Convair 240 Douglas DC-3 Boeing 377

Boeing 707
McDonnell Douglas DC-10 Boeing 727

Boeing 737-200
Airbus A300

737NG

Boeing MD-11

1930

1940

1950
Lockheed L-049

1960

1970

1980

1990
Boeing 747SP

2000
Boeing 777

2010

Lockheed L-188 Boeing 747-100

Douglas DC-4

BAC-111 Convair CV-990 Fokker 100 Boeing 757

Douglas DC-7

The above timeline shows the year of introduction of each of Americans major fleet additions.

1952 became a very important year for the airline when it became the first to offer nonstop transcontinental service across the United States in both directions with the Douglas DC-7. This proved to be very profitable for several years for the airline, and would become even more so with the development of the turboprop and turbojet engines. However, at the same time, the airline competed fiercely with other airlines such as Pan Am and Braniff to offer the new Boeing 707, a spectacular aircraft equipped with turbojet engines capable of providing faster travel to many passengers in a very comfortable flight. Although Pan Am would have the first 707 clipperjet, American announced that it would purchase 30 707-123 aircraft for its fleet. By the 1960s, the jet age was officially under way. With the addition of the Boeing 727 and 747 aircraft, older aircraft in the fleet were retired. The last piston engine airplane flight was a DC-6 in December of 1966. Just as the DC-6 had provided an excellent launch for the New York City market, American airlines worked with McDonnell Douglas to further the LaGuardia Airport into the jet age as well with the order of 25 DC-10 aircraft.
American wanted an efficient, wide body plane to operate as a shuttle bus between New York and Chicago. This big stipulation was that the aircraft had to be able to operate out of New Yorks LaGuardia airport, where American had invested a lot of money. LaGuardias runway was only rated to carry aircraft up to 270,000lb because it was built on top of piers out into the harbor. The aircraft was often referred to by the generic term airbus (not capitalized) since this is how airlines such as American thought they would operate this type of plane, on high traffic shuttle routes (Flight Global).

Joseph Schmidt

The 1970s was a great decade for AA. By this point, the airline had established itself as a major competitor not only within the United States, but worldwide as well. It had one of the newest fleets of jet aircraft capable of providing the best in costumer comfort. The airline was also gaining some publicity when, in the late 1960s, Mattel released a series of American Airlines stewardess Barbie dolls, signifying their commercial success. American was the airline to fly. During a time of social and political unrest in the United States, American was also able to pull another publicity stunt in announcing that Bonnie Tiburzi was hired to fly its 727 aircraft. She was the first female pilot to be hired by a major U.S. airline. In 1974, they also announced a fully automated system of check-in, allowing passengers to enjoy their time before their flight even more without having to worry necessarily about waiting in line.

Bonnie Tiburzi, the first female pilot to be hired by a major U.S. airline, at the controls of the 727 Astrojet.

With the movement of its headquarters to Dallas Ft. Worth in 1979, the Airline changed its routing scheme to a full hub-and-spoke system by 1981. With the addition of its new chairmen and CEO Robert Crandall, American began flights from its two major hubs, Dallas Ft. Worth and Chicago. These flights would extend all the way to Europe and Japan. With fuel costs rising through the roof, the Boeing 707 was retired by 1981 as the aging aircraft was at this point extremely inefficient in terms of fuel usage. By 1988, American had received its first Airbus A300 aircraft, a wide-body equipped with only two engines, capable of providing the airline with a significant profit margin by reducing fuel consumption significantly from that of the 707. By now, most of its fleet consisted of two-engine aircraft including the Boeing 757, the larger Boeing 767, and the aforementioned Airbus A300.

Joseph Schmidt

On the morning of September 11th, 2001, American Flight 11 en-route to Los Angeles International Airport was hijacked and flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The impact killed all 92 aboard, including the hijackers. This would begin a change in the airline industry, for good, in terms of security measures as well as overall comfort with flying. Many airlines suffered greatly due to these attacks as understandably, people were terrified to fly again. On September 11 th, for the first time in aviation history, an entire closure of the United States Airspace System was put into effect. Every single plane over the United States was grounded within 4 hours of the attacks. American lost another flight that day as well, which was also part of the attacks. Unfortunately, later in the year, American suffered another aircraft incident when American 587 crashed in the Belle Harbor area of Far Rockaway in New York, shortly after takeoff. Initial reports said that it was another act of terrorism, but that was soon rectified. Extensive reports were done by the NTSB to determine the cause of the crash. It was soon noted that the vertical stabilizer (known to most as the tail) of the aircraft had actually completed separated from the fuselage of the aircraft, an Airbus A-300. There was a big controversy over the fault of the crash whether it was pilot error, a fault in the training systems and procedures of the airline, or the company who produced the airplane, Airbus Industrie Inc., and it was eventually decided that the pilots did practice correct procedure according to the training he had received, but the training was at fault. This cost American greatly, and along with the September $2,000 11th attacks, the following $1,000 years would prove to be $0 dismal in terms of the -$1,000 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Net Earnings (in companys economic millions) -$2,000 success.

The Financial Effect of 9/11 on American Airlines

Net Earnings (In millions)

-$3,000

-$4,000

Year

Joseph Schmidt

With over 1,800 flights a day between 159 cities in multiple countries including the United States and Canada, American Eagle is considered the worlds largest regional air carrier. Back in the 1980s, several third-party carriers were flying under contract with American Airlines to serve as feeders to major hubs. The first flight operated by American Eagle was operated by Metroflight Airlines on November 1st of 1984. It wasnt until 1998 did the brand name American Eagle serve as the outward appearance on the airline. This is when AMR, the parent company of American Airlines, acquired the airline as part of their corporation. Since the inception of the American Eagle name, several carriers have joined the operations to make it the largest operating regional airline in the world. However, due to changing market trends, AMR has announced that it no longer desires to claim ownership over the airline. Basically, Eagle will continue to provide regional feed to American Airlines under their nine year contract, but AMR has the right at any time to transfer their ATR and Embraer aircraft to other regional airline companies. Basically, the regional airline, even with its large size, does not provide enough profit to outweigh its cost to the AMR Corporation. It will essentially be spun-off to AMR stockholders, as opposed to being owned wholly by the corporation itself.

Pilots stand in front of an American Eagle Embraer-145 aircraft in celebration of its paint scheme, dedicated to breast cancer awareness.

Joseph Schmidt

When American purchased TWA airlines in the early part of the last decade, it had acquired a large number of its aging aircraft. When American purchased the MD-80 series aircraft to replace its 727 line, it was a huge deal. The airline purchased over 100 aircraft that were designed to be quieter, and much more fuel efficient than the previous workhorse. The MD-80 has served a great career as being the airlines major workhorse. However, these aircraft are indeed at the point that their cost to fly is no longer beneficial. On July 20th, 2011, the airline made an announcement that it would be ordering 460 new aircraft from not just one manufacturer, but from the two largest commercial aircraft manufacturers. It was simple; one manufacturer alone could not produce what American needed. With the 460 aircraft ordered, they have the option for 465 more, making it the single largest purchase in the history of aviation.

Above is the new Airbus A-320neo, featuring brand new engines as well as sharklets to increase fuel efficiency. American has agreed to purchasing 130 of this aircraft, as well as the option for 80 more.

American has had a long history in the United States, but now it is also established itself as a major world carrier. The airline is fighting through some financial troubles at the moment, but still stands as the only legacy airline to have avoided bankruptcy. Only time will tell what the future holds for American, as it now plans to resize and restructure itself through Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Joseph Schmidt

References
All historical information and research from http://www.aa.com/i18n/amrcorp/corporateInformation/facts/history.jsp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines American Airlines Logo http://travelpluswine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/american-airlines-logo.png American Airlines Tails picture http://www.flyian.net/aa/aajfktails.htm DC-10 historical research http://www.flightglobal.com/airspace/blogs/orion/archive/2010/11/19/how-the-last-star-wasborn.aspx Tiburzi picture https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/50314_59775846122_4705388_n.jpg American Airlines Financial information for excel file http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/11/117/117098/items/279645/ar2002.pdf September 11th Attacks picture http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01477/911-plane_1477774i.jpg American Eagle Picture http://www.txaa.org/main_articles/aa_ae063009/AmerEagleStaff-KRB.jpg eagle picture Airbus A320neo Picture http://flightlife.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/a320_neo.jpg Charles Lindbergh Photograph http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_CijcaA9yq58/THP1CLAZJUI/AAAAAAAAG48/m9F2romioow/s1600/c harles_lindbergh_052909.jpg