National Airlines (1934–1980)

1930s George T. Baker and D. K. Franklin created a partnership called National Airlines Taxi System to fly an airmail route from Daytona Beach to St. Petersburg, Florida, pursuant to a contract with the Post Office dated August 2, 1934. The route was operated continuously from October 15, 1934. On January 6, 1935, Franklin signed over his rights to Baker and on March 1, 1935, Baker took over the contract as a sole proprietor, operating under the name National Airlines System until September 30, 1937. On that day, Baker's rights to the airmail contract and all property used to operate the contract were transferred to National Airlines, Inc., under a contract signed July 12, 1937. The new entity, National Airlines, was incorporated in Florida on 8 July 1937. National Airlines was founded by George T. Baker (1899–1963) in 1934. Its headquarters were in St. Petersburg, Florida and it was based at the city's Albert Whitted Airport. On October 15 of that year, revenue flights were launched, transporting passengers and mail from St. Petersburg to a few destinations within Florida using a fleet of two Ryan ST monoplanes. In 1935, the Stinson Trimotor was introduced with National Airlines, which were soon replaced by the Lockheed Model 10 Electra. In 1939, the company headquarters were moved to Jacksonville. on what it called the Buccaneer Route. • 1936: 249,799 • 1938: 653,688 • 1939: 1,340,050 • 1940: 3,465,316 • 1941: 7,264,322 • 1946: 108,760,267 In 1940 the Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar became the backbone of National's fleet. National was awarded rights from Florida to New York City and other cities along the East Coast in 1944, with flights starting in 1945. In 1946 National got approval to fly to Havana, Cuba, which coincided with the introduction of the Douglas DC-4. that started on February 14, 1946. Later that year National relocated its headquarters to Miami International Airport; a maintenance base opened at Miami in 1950. The Douglas DC-6, National's first pressurized airliner, began flights on July 1, 1947 1950s This decade saw the introduction of the Convair 340/440, the Douglas DC-7, On December 10, 1958, National became the first airline to operate domestic jet flights, using a Boeing 707 leased from Pan American World Airways between Miami and New York. At the end of the decade Houston and Boston were the ends of the network with heavy emphasis on service between Florida and the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast. (previously, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and National had together operated Douglas DC-6s and DC-7s through between Miami and California). In the early 1960s National started new service with the Lockheed Electra propjet to Las Vegas and San Diego. bought a majority share in National Airlines and replaced George T. Baker as CEO. On July 26, 1969, the Atlanta-San Francisco nonstop route was awarded to National and service began on October 1, 1969. It was National's only route out of Atlanta. 1970s A $17 million IBM electronic computer reservation system, called Res-A-Vision, was completed and put into operation in 1970. On June 16, 1970, National Airlines reintroduced international flights, when their Miami-London route opened (flights to Cuba were suspended in 1961 due to the Cuban Revolution). Following an order for ten aircraft in 1969, Seeing one of these posters in Manchester inspired Eric Stewart of 10cc to write the band's 1976 hit song "I'm Mandy Fly Me". In May 1973, the front cover of the airline's system timetable proudly proclaimed, "National has daily nonstop 747s from Miami to London". By early 1976, the airline was operating scheduled wide body DC-10 service to Houston (IAH), Las Vegas (LAS), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), New Orleans (MSY), Orlando (MCO), San Diego (SAN), San Francisco (SFO), Tampa (TPA), West Palm Beach (PBI) and all three airports in the New York City area: John F. Kennedy (JFK), LaGuardia (LGA) and Newark (EWR). With the advent of the intercontinental McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, National Airlines then expanded their European network by adding Paris (inaugurated on June 22, 1977), as well as Frankfurt, Amsterdam (both in 1978) In 1975, National was forced to shut down for several months due to a strike by flight attendants. In the late 1970s, several airlines attempted to take over National Airlines, which had become a major player in the southern transcontinental and Florida-East Coast airline markets. In 1978, Texas International Airlines (which was led by Frank Lorenzo at that time) acquired 24.6 percent of the shares, Texas International walked away from their foiled attempt with a multi-million dollar stock profit and was poised for Lorenzo's next ventures—a startup airline in the high-density East Coast corridor (New York Air), and subsequent acquisition of Continental Airlines. ==Route network==

at Los Angeles International Airport (1971) at London Heathrow Airport (1973) at Heathrow in 1974. This aircraft would later be written off in 1993 National Airlines operated scheduled flights to the following U.S. cities: National also operated scheduled flights to the following destinations in Europe and the Caribbean: ==Fleet==

in the livery of National Airlines landing at Miami International Airport (1980). The airline had already been taken over by Pan Am. When National Airlines was acquired by Pan Am in 1980, the fleet consisted of 43 Boeing 727 aircraft (19 of the original series 100 model and 24 of the stretched series 200 variant), as well as 16 McDonnell Douglas DC-10 airliners (11 of the series 10 model used in domestic service and five of the intercontinental series 30 model used for service to Europe). Over the years, National owned the following aircraft types: ==Sun King Club==

Domestic • Fort Lauderdale • Houston • Miami • Jacksonville • Los Angeles • New Orleans • New York (Kennedy) • New York (LaGuardia) • Newark • Orlando • San Francisco • Tampa • Washington (National) • West Palm Beach International • Amsterdam • Frankfurt • London (Heathrow) • Paris (Orly) ==Accidents and incidents==

Fatal • On October 5, 1945, National Airlines Flight 16, a Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar (registered NC18199) crashed into a lake near Lakeland, Florida at 01:05 local time. The scheduled passenger flight had originated in Tampa, when the pilots encountered technical problems during approach of Lakeland Airport, which led to a failed go-around attempt. Of the 15 people on board, two passengers died. • On January 14, 1951, 6 of the 28 passengers on board Flight 83 died when the aircraft, a Douglas DC-4 (registered N74685), overshot the runway and crashed into a ditch at Philadelphia International Airport. The pilots of the flight from New York City had tried to land the aircraft too far down the runway, instead of aborting the approach. Frankie Housley, the only stewardess, also died. She has been regarded as a hero, as she had returned to the burning wreckage to lead passengers to safety. • On February 11, 1952, Flight 101, a Douglas DC-6, crashed shortly after take-off from Newark Airport due to a failure of a propeller and subsequent loss of control. Of the 59 passengers on board, 26 died, as well as three of the four crew members. Four people on the ground were killed. • With 46 fatalities (5 crew and 41 passengers, among them Billy DeBeck's widow), the disaster of Flight 470 on February 14, 1953, marks the worst accident in the history of National Airlines. The aircraft, a DC-6 registered N90893, crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off Mobile Point en route from Tampa to New Orleans, after having encountered severe turbulence. • On November 16, 1959, at 00:55 local time, a Douglas DC-7 (registered N4891C) crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, the cause of which could not be determined. The 36 passengers and six crew aboard Flight 967 from Tampa to New Orleans died in the accident off the coast of Pilottown, Louisiana. • On January 6, 1960, a bomb exploded aboard the DC-6 registered N8225H Flight 2511 en route from New York to Miami. In the subsequent crash near Bolivia, North Carolina, all 29 passengers and five crew died. One of the passengers, who was under criminal investigation, is suspected of committing a suicide bombing. • On November 3, 1973, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 (registered N60NA) suffered an uncontained engine failure over Datil, New Mexico while operating as Flight 27 from Houston to Las Vegas. Pieces of the turbine penetrated the fuselage, breaking a window in the passenger cabin and causing subsequent decompression. One passenger was sucked out of the aircraft and died. The flight made a successful emergency landing at Albuquerque. (1978). • On May 8, 1978, at 21:20 local time, Flight 193 went down in Escambia Bay near Pensacola, in deep water. Of the 52 passengers aboard the Boeing 727 registered N4744, three died. The pilots had attempted to land the aircraft at Pensacola International Airport. Non-fatal • On September 13, 1945, a National Airlines Lockheed Lodestar (registered NC33349) overshot the runway at Peter O. Knight Airport near Tampa in rainy weather and came to a rest in the water of Hillsborough Bay. There were eleven passengers and three crew members on board the scheduled flight from Miami. • On October 11, 1945, another Lodestar (NC15555) was involved in a hull-loss accident. The pilots of Flight 23 from Jacksonville to Miami with 14 passengers aboard experienced an engine fire and attempted an emergency landing at Melbourne Airport. The approach was missed, but the pilots did not manage to pull the aircraft up, so it impacted the ground. • On October 2, 1950, a cargo-configured Curtiss C-46 Commando (registered N1661M) was substantially damaged in a belly landing at Washington National Airport. • On January 10, 1955, at 09:38, Flight 1 with ten passengers and three crew veered off the runway during a takeoff attempt at St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport. The copilot had lost control of the Lockheed Lodestar (registered N33369) that had been bound for Sarasota. • On November 15, 1961, at 17:10, National Airlines Flight 429 (a DC-6 registered N8228H) collided with Northeast Airlines Flight 120 (a Vickers Viscount) on the ground at Logan International Airport in Boston. The pilots of the National aircraft with 25 passengers aboard had commenced with the takeoff run without having been cleared to do so, hitting the landing Northeast plane. Hijackings Between 1961 and 1980, 22 (attempted) hijackings on board National Airlines occurred, which involved the aircraft being demanded to be flown to Cuba. In 1969 alone, there were nine such occurrences. These events can be partly attributed to the tense Cuba–United States relations at that time, and the many flights of National Airlines in and to the southeastern United States, near Cuba. See List of Cuba – United States aircraft hijackings for more information. There were several other criminal acts involving National Airlines aircraft: • On March 8, 1971, a hijacker on board Flight 745, a Boeing 727 with 46 occupants en route from Mobile to New Orleans, demanded the aircraft be flown to Canada instead. • On July 12, 1972, Michael Stanley Green and Ethiopian national Lulseged Tesfa hijacked National Airlines Flight 496 (a Boeing 727) while en route to New York from Philadelphia. • On March 30, 1974, following a hostage taking in Sarasota, the perpetrator tried to hijack a parked National Airlines 727 at Sarasota-Brandenton Airport, but was prevented from doing so by a flight engineer. A similar hijacking attempt happened on January 3, 1975, at Pensacola Airport. == See also ==