page_title: History of American Airlines
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: History of American Airlines / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Stinson SM-6000-B
context_page_description: This is the history of United States commercial air transportation company American Airlines.
context_section_description: American Airlines was developed from a conglomeration of 82 small airlines through acquisitions in 1930 and reorganizations: initially, American Airways was a common brand by a number of independent carriers. These included Southern Air Transport in Texas, Southern Air Fast Express (SAFE) in the western United States, Universal Aviation in the Midwest (which operated a transcontinental air/rail route in 1929), Thompson Aeronautical Services (which operated a Detroit-Cleveland route beginning in 1929), and Colonial Air Transport in the Northeast. Like many early carriers, American earned its keep carrying U.S. Mail. By 1933, American Airways operated a transcontinental route network serving 72 cities, mostly in the northeastern, midwestern, and southwestern United States.
  In 1934 American Airways Company was acquired by E. L. Cord, who renamed it "American Air Lines". Cord hired Texas businessman C. R. Smith to run the company. Smith worked with Donald Douglas to develop the DC-3, which American Airlines was first to fly, in 1936. American's DC-3 made it the first airline to be able to operate a route that could earn a profit solely by transporting passengers; other carriers could not earn a profit without U.S. Mail. With the DC-3, American began calling its aircraft "Flagships" and establishing the Admirals Club for valued passengers. The DC-3s had a four-star "admiral's pennant" outside the cockpit window while the aircraft was parked. American operated daily overnight transcontinental service between New York and Los Angeles through Dallas/Fort Worth and other intermediate stops, advertising the service as an "all-year southern route."
  American Airlines was the first to cooperate with Fiorello LaGuardia to build an airport in New York City, and became owner of the world's first airline lounge at the new LaGuardia Airport (LGA), known as the Admirals Club. Membership was initially by invitation only, later changing to an open policy that accepted members who paid dues.
  For more than eight decades, American Airlines' "signature" service has been its daily transcontinental flights between New York and Los Angeles designated as #1 (westbound) and #2 (eastbound). While the current 2,500 miles non-stop jet service between John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) averages six hours, in 1939 Flight #1 (which departed from Newark Airport in New Jersey at 7:10 a.m. Eastern Time and terminated at Glendale Airport in suburban Los Angeles at 12:29 am Pacific Time) took 20 hours and 19 minutes to complete·, made eight intermediate stops in Washington, DC, Nashville (TN), Memphis (TN), Dallas (TX), Ft. Worth (TX), El Paso (TX), Tucson (AZ), and Phoenix (AZ), and had a change of planes from a DC-2 to a DC-3 "Flagship Skysleeper" in Memphis. Although on March 1, 1962, Flight #1 being operated by a Boeing 707 (N7506A) crashed in Jamaica Bay two minutes after takeoff from Idlewild (now JFK) Airport killing all 87 passengers and 8 crew on board, American Airlines retained #1 for the flight number for the service as opposed to retiring it as is the general rule after a fatal accident.
caption: A Stinson Trimotor first operated by Century Airlines
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