![]() ![]() On the shorter routes, new companies entered the field, but the "Big Four" kept the longer routes mainly because only they had the equipment and training to fly them.ĭevelopments in transportation regulation during the 1930s were greatly influenced by the catastrophic economic scene. In June 1934, the Black-McKellar Act was passed, giving permanence to these temporary contracts by authorizing the postmaster general to extend their life for an additional nine months, after which theyĬould be "continued in effect for an indefinite period" (Komons, 1978:266-267). Airmail service was quickly returned to civilian companies with temporary, competitive bid contracts. They proved to be ill equipped and untrained for even this more limited service and suffered a series of highly publicized accidents. Army Air Corps took over carriage of the mail, serving fewer routes on a more limited basis. Consequently, by 1933, the "Big Four"-United, American, TWA, and Eastern-collected nearly 94 percent of the $19.4 million paid to airmail contractors.īecause of some irregularities in the Post Office actions regarding airmail contracts, the successor to the Kelly Act, the Watres Act (the Air Mail Act of 1930), was nullified and existing airmail contracts were canceled for a brief period in 1934. The Post Office worked to expand the domestic route system by avoiding competition on individual routes and using its power to award routes to streamline and rationalize the industry. ![]() These route certificates initially had a 4-year limit, which was soon extended to a 10-year maximum limit. Contracts were awarded through the issuance of route certificates, which gave a company the right to carry mail on a specific route. Under the Kelly Act, the postmaster general was authorized to award airmail contracts to private airlines. civil aeronautics legislation was the Contract Mail Act of 1925, known as the Kelly Act for its principal sponsor. Thus, commercial air transportation in the United States began with a number of small passenger companies whose presence was often no more than transient and with a subsidized airmail service operated by the U.S. As an infrastructure for these transcontinental routes, the Post Office by 1925 had developed a system of landing fields and flashing beacons from New York to San Francisco capable of supporting both daytime and nighttime operations. Only with the advent of transcontinental airmail service were the real advantages of the air mode demonstrated. Early airmail, like early passenger service, was not successful because of the relatively slow speed and the range limitations of early aircraft. (For a summary of the airline industry's early development, see Meyer and Oster, 1981: Chapter 2 greater detail can be found in Davies, 1972.) As early as 1916, funds for the carriage of airmail were provided from monies appropriated for "Steamboats or Other Power Boat Service," but not until 1918 did the Post Office translate its desire for an airmail service into action. Government involvement in civilian aviation began, not with passenger airlines, but with the U.S. In an era of remarkable invention and rapid change in transportation, commerce, and world affairs, these fledgling airlines rose and fell without action or interference from the government. Other small airlines came (and sometimes went) during the 1920s. By early 1920, it, too, had ceased operations. The country's second known airline, Aero Limited, started in August 1919 to carry passengers between New York and Atlantic City, then moved to Florida and flew between Miami and Nassau. We look at licensing and certification policies for key careers and trends in worker supply and demand-all to help us understand better the pressure points that affect training and hiring practices within the industry. We describe the general structure of civilian aviation today and examine data on workforce size, wages, hiring, and composition, including available information on the diversity of aviation personnel. ![]() ![]() We review major developments in the history of civilian aviation, such as the waxing and waning of the federal regulatory role, that shaped the industry's organization and personnel practices. This chapter gives an overview of the aviation industry and its workforce, in order to provide a context for our more detailed analysis of training issues in subsequent chapters. That inaugural flight from a North Carolina dune spawned an enterprise that, by one estimate, now employs over 8 million people and annually contributes nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars to the nation's gross domestic product (Wilbur Smith Associates, 1995). Orville and Wilbur Wright first flew an aircraft in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. ![]()
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