![]() The speed advantage for aviation grew with the advent of jet travel in the mid-1950s. For the first time in 1958, airlines carried more passengers than ocean liners across the Atlantic. In 1956, more people traveled on intercity routes by air than by Pullman car (sleeper) and coach class trains combined in the US. By the 1950s, air travel was becoming more widely advertised, and standardized fare structures were emerging. Boosted by such developments and the broader economic boom that followed the war, air transportation finally became the dominant mode of long-haul passenger travel in developed countries. New airports, vast numbers of trained pilots, great strides in jet aviation, and other aviation-related innovations, including radar, were among the legacies of World War II. Yet war again catalyzed the growth of air transportation since airpower became an ever more crucial element of military operations. Wright Brothers First Flight, 1903 US Post Office Airmail Routes, 1921-26 Selected Transcontinental DC-3 Routes, Late 1930s Early Intercontinental Air Routes, 1930s Only the elite or government officials could afford such early intercontinental routes. As in this example, many of the long-haul air services were to colonies and dependencies. For instance, in 1936, Pan American World Airways launched services across the Pacific with a roundtrip fare of $1,438 (about $26,100 in 2018 dollars) between San Francisco and Manila. Still, aviation remained far beyond the means of most travelers, especially for long-haul routes. In the US, for instance, the number of passengers grew fivefold from 462,000 to 1,900,000 between 19. ![]() US airmail subsidies also fostered the emergence of the first major US passenger airlines.īy the eve of World War II, air travel was quite literally taking off. Airmail was one of the earliest commercially relevant applications of air transportation because it helped to accelerate monetary transactions and helped to tie together far-flung enterprises, facilitating the emergence of continental and intercontinental enterprises. In Europe, governments established new passenger airlines, while on the other side of the Atlantic, the American government heavily subsidized airmail. Governments supported the emergence of the airline industry through ownership or subsidies. The DC-3 made its maiden commercial flight in 1936 between New York and Chicago, a vital business route highlighting the commercial significance of the fast-changing technology. By the eve of World War II, airlines worldwide were adopting the USA-built Douglas DC-3 with a capacity of 28 passengers, a speed of 310 kilometers per hour, and a range of more than 2,400 kilometers nonstop, able to fly across the US with just three stops. For instance, the 8-12 passenger Dutch-built Fokker Trimotor, the most popular airliner in the early interwar years, had a top speed of 170 kilometers per hour and a range of 1,100 kilometers, which is less than the distance between Amsterdam and Rome. The war left a legacy of thousands of unemployed pilots and surplus aircraft, along with an appreciation for the future significance of aviation.Īfter the war, civilian airliners improved rapidly. World War I, which began just months after that first flight from Tampa, provided a powerful spur to the development of commercial aviation as air power began to be used strategically, and better aircraft were quickly introduced. In its earliest years, the airline industry had a symbiotic relationship with military aviation. On January 1, 1914, the world’s inaugural scheduled flight with a paying passenger hopped across the bay separating Tampa and St. More than a decade passed before the first faltering efforts to launch scheduled passenger services. The Rise of Air TransportationĪir transportation was slow to take off after the Wright Brothers breakthrough at Kitty Hawk in 1903. Jean-Paul RodrigueĪir transportation is the movement of passengers and freight by any conveyance that can sustain controlled flight.
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