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United Airlines

Facts of the Case

Industry

The first successful flight was conducted by the Wright brothers' in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This would come to be known as the beginning of the aviation industry. In the beginning, the public was slow to embrace airplane travel due to the fact that they believed it to be too dangerous. This outlook of the industry lasted until the United States became involved in World War I. After the war, the government began to decrease funding for research and development, thus slowing the growth of the aviation industry. Even with minimum government backing, some individuals were still able to successfully continue within the industry.
On January 1, 1914, Tony Jannus conducted the United State's first scheduled commercial airline flight on his St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line. The flight, which departed from St. Petersburg, Florida and arrived in Tampa, Florida, lasted 23 minutes. Tony Jannus conducted this flight in his Benoist biplane seaplane, which flew at an altitude of 50 feet over the Tampa, Florida area. Chalk's Airlines, which is currently known as Chalk’s International Airlines, began service between Miami, Florida and Bimini, Bahamas in February 1919. Chalk’s, which is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, claims to be the oldest continuously operating airline in the United States.
Following World War I, the United States was full of aviators. Many individuals decided to take their war-surplus aircraft on what were called “barnstorming campaigns”, and performed acrobatic maneuvers for crowds. In 1918, the United States Postal Service received financial support from Congress in order to begin experimenting with air mail service. The USPS initially used an aircraft created by Curtiss Jenny for the Army. Private operators were the first to fly the mail but due to many accidents, the Army took over the duty of mail delivery. During that time, the Army was too unreliable and eventually lost their air mail...