June 2004 - Issue 6
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The History of Commercial Aviation
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Commercial Aviation Timeline
Pan Am inaugurates commercial service of the Boeing 747 with its New York to London flight. Later that year, TWA would become the first domestic airline to offer 747 service. The 747 would transform the airline industry, allowing more people to fly further and more economically. Over the next three decades, the 747 would fly over 2.2 billion passengers.
Congress votes to end further funding for development of an American-produced supersonic transport (SST). Public protests about noise pollution caused by sonic booms, plus concerns about the SST's enormous expense, led to its demise. The project had cost taxpayers over $1 billion and not a single plane had been built.
Herb
Kelleher and Rollin King form Southwest Airlines with service between
Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. Unencumbered by federal regulations,
regional airlines like Southwest find success by being able to offer reduced
air fares.
McDonnell Douglas' DC-10 begins commercial service with American Airlines. Closely resembling the Lockheed L-1011, the DC-10 places one engine under each wing, with the third engine mounted on the tail of the plane.
The
Lockheed L-1011 TriStar begins service with
Eastern Airlines. The L-1011 was
Lockheed's entry into the mid-range widebody commercial aircraft market.
Remarkably similar in appearance to the DC-10, the L-1011 ran into major
production delays due to delivery problems with Rolls-Royce's turbofan
engines.
Air France begins commercial airlines service with the
Airbus A300. Formed
in the late 1960s in order to compete with American airline industry,
Airbus Industrie is comprised of German, French, Spanish and British manufacturers.
Airbus reached a historic milestone in April of 1977 when it makes its first
sale to a U.S. carrier, Eastern Airlines.
The Concorde officially begins commercial service with an Air France flight from Paris to Buenos Aires and a British Airways flight from London to Bahrain. Production of the Concorde would end in 1979 when it becomes clear no other commercial airlines would purchase the supersonic jet. Only 16 are ever produced.
Congress approves the Airline Deregulation Act, which allows U. S. airlines to choose their own routes and set their own fares. From this point forward, American airlines would live and die by the demands of the marketplace.