loading image
Happy Birthday, American Airlines! Like many airlines founded in the 1920s, American started out as a mail carrier. The airline celebrates its birthday as April 16, 1926, the date when Charles Lindbergh piloted the first Robertson Aircraft flight, carrying mail from St. Louis, Missouri, to Chicago, Illinois. American Airways was later formed from a merger of Robertson and Colonial Air Transport. In 1934, it changed its name to American Airlines, and in 1935, asked the Douglas Aircraft Company to develop a sleeper version of the DC-2, which ultimately became the DST (Douglas Sleeper Transport) and the DC-3, a plane that marked a major turning point in aviation. On June 25, 1936, American was the first commercial airline to fly the DST, on its New York to Chicago route. Image: American Airlines, Douglas DC-3 advertisement, late 1930s. Gift of Captain Jon Simmonds. 2016.080.019
This image was posted on April 15, 2017.