State

SI Л' CE KITTY II ДИК By SALL1E MEDLOCK Compare this airliner with Ihe plane shown on page 3. Home State of Flight Has Good Air Service Aviation pioneering in North Caro¬ lina didn't end at Kitty Hawk. The first commercial airline in America flew through North Carolina; today six lines serve the state, and air service is within a short distance of most of the population. North Carolina has air transport service unusual for a rural commonwealth. In the golden anniversary year of flight. Eastern Airlines is celebrating its silver anniversary. Just 25 years ago. a young flier. Harold F. Pitcairn, began regular scheduled flights from New York to Miami — with 792 miles of routes. 41 employes and 8 open- cockpit planes. Greensboro, proud as it could Ik, was North Carolina's only stop on this pioneer line, the first in America. But Eastern had a tough life. It was losing money steadily when Cap¬ tain F.ddie Rickenbacker. auto racing daredevil and hero of two wars, was brought in. By 1935. he had changed the deficit to a profit; in a dramatic move he out-bid powerful financial in¬ terests to keep control of his line. Today Eastern is one of the big four, with a modern and growing fleet. It serves an area from New England and the Lakes to Florida, and from Mid Texas to Puerto Rico. Greensboro, Ra- leigh-Durham, Winston-Salem, and Charlotte are served in North Caro¬ lina. Piedmont When you come right down to it. Dayton. Ohio, has most leave to be proud of the Kitty Hawk flights. But North Carolina can burst with pride over the fact that it spawned, supported and is served by the most unusual airline in this country. Piedmont is a feeder line which fairly bristles with as¬ tonishing statistics. It has given North Carolina prob¬ ably the best service any state of small towns has — serving IS towns and cit¬ ies. one of only 1.000 population (Pinehurst). It has 2.070 departures per month in N. C; flics 4.290 plane miles per day over North Carolina; 41.184 pas¬ senger miles per day over North Carolina, and in 1952 boarded and de¬ planed over 135,000 passengers at North Carolina cities. Started on a financial shoestring by young Tom Davis of Winston-Salem, Piedmont is the prodigy of the busi¬ ness. A feeder line, it serves seven southeastern states, has made its up- and-down. frequent-stop, schedule pay by strict economy and meticulous ef¬ ficiency and precision. Average on- thc-ground stop of a Piedmont airliner is only 7 minutes, and sometimes the stop is for less than 3 minutes! It is really North Carolina’s own line, too — the only one incorporated in this state, having its home office in this state, and primarily financed in North Carolina. Fifty per cent of its passengers ride no other airline, and 25 per cent of them arc regular com¬ muters. It is as homely and folksy as Down Home itself. National National Airlines first began air service within North Carolina when the Civil Aeronautics Administration awarded NAL a certificate to serve Washington, D. C. in 1946. At the present time NAL serves Wilmington and New Bern in the state with six north-south flights daily, connecting North Carolina south with all Florida, Havana, Cuba, New Orleans and north to Richmond and Norfolk, Va.. Wash- 3B THE STATE. July IS. 1953