Piedmont Airlines (1948–89)

History

The company that would become Piedmont Airlines was founded by Thomas Henry Davis (1918 – April 22, 1999) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1940, when Davis purchased Camel City Flying Service and changed the name to Piedmont Aviation. Piedmont originally operated as an airplane repair service and a training school for pilots in the War Department Civilian Pilot Training Program. In 1944, Davis filed an application to run a passenger flight service in the southeast. After several years of lobbying government agencies and fighting legal challenges from other airlines, Piedmont received authorization on January 1, 1948. The first flight, from Wilmington, North Carolina to Cincinnati, was on February 20, 1948.

Davis grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As a child, he loved airplanes and often used his allowance to take flying lessons. He took pre-med classes at the University of Arizona. At the same time, he worked as a part-time flight instructor.

Foundation

Like most airlines before deregulation, Piedmont did not have hubs. Jets connected unlikely airport pairs: Kinston, North Carolina, and Florence, South Carolina; Roanoke, Virginia, and Asheville, North Carolina; Lynchburg, Virginia, and New York City's LaGuardia Airport; Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and Bristol/Kingsport/Johnson City, Tennessee; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Lynchburg, Virginia.

Early routes stretched from Wilmington, North Carolina, northwest to Cincinnati, Ohio, with stops, flown by Douglas DC-3s.

Growth

Piedmont started with Douglas DC-3s and later added the Fairchild F-27 and Martin 4-0-4; Fairchild Hiller FH-227B flights started in 1967 and NAMC YS-11A flights in May 1969. In August 1953 it scheduled flights to 26 airports and in May 1968 to 47.

Like other Local Service airlines, Piedmont was subsidized; in 1962 its operating "revenues" of $18.2 million included $4.8 million "Pub. serv. rev."

The jet age

Piedmont jet flights began in March 1967, 92-seat Boeing 727-100s flying such routes as Atlanta - Asheville - Winston-Salem - Roanoke - New York LaGuardia Airport. Boeing 737-200s arrived in 1968 and larger Boeing 727-200s were added from 1977. (A 727 that Piedmont bought from Northwest Orient Airlines was the one that was hijacked by D. B. Cooper.) Fokker F28 Fellowships were added to the fleet as well as Boeing 737-300s, 737-400s and 767-200ERs.

Route expansion

In 1955 the network extended from Cincinnati and Louisville east to the coast from Norfolk to Myrtle Beach. At the end of 1978, still under U.S. regulation, Piedmont routes reached north to New York, west to Denver, and south to Miami. Flights to Dallas/Ft. Worth began in 1979 followed by Houston in 1980 and New Orleans in 1982. In 1984 Los Angeles and San Francisco were added, followed by Minneapolis/St. Paul in 1985, Montreal and Ottawa in Canada in 1986 and Seattle in 1987. By 1988 the airline was serving Phoenix and San Diego and a new international destination, Nassau, Bahamas; in 1989 Piedmont flew to Bermuda as well as nonstop between Los Angeles and Baltimore, Charlotte, Dayton and Tampa; nonstop between San Francisco and Charlotte, Dayton and Kansas City; nonstop between Phoenix and Baltimore and Charlotte; and nonstop between Seattle and Charlotte Shortly before the merger with USAir in 1989, Piedmont had passenger hubs at Baltimore, Charlotte, Dayton and Syracuse. The Syracuse operation was the smallest hub in the system and was an Empire Airlines hub before its acquisition by Piedmont.

Deregulation

Following deregulation in the late 1970s the airline grew rapidly and developed a hub at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina. Piedmont bought Empire Airlines, based in Utica, New York, in 1985 which brought more Fokker F28 Fellowships to the fleet. Passenger-miles for the merged airline in 1987 were almost nine times Piedmont's RPMs in 1977.

Later hubs included Baltimore/Washington International Airport; James M. Cox Dayton International Airport in Dayton, Ohio; and Syracuse Hancock International Airport in Syracuse, New York. Nonstops from Charlotte to the west coast started in 1984 on Boeing 727-200s that were Piedmont's first jets with a first class section. New Boeing 767-200ERs (ER for "Extended Range"), the airline's only wide body jets, flew nonstop Charlotte to London Gatwick Airport beginning in 1987. The 767 also flew nonstop Charlotte to Los Angeles.Shortly before it was acquired by USAir, Piedmont was the first airline to announce fleet-wide adoption of the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS).

Commuter and regional airline affiliates

Several commuter and regional airline affiliates provided passenger feed for Piedmont via code sharing agreements including Britt Airways, Brockway Air, CCAir, Henson Airlines and Jetstream International Airlines. These operations were identified by several names including Piedmont Commuter System, Piedmont Shuttle Link and The Piedmont Regional Airline; their aircraft included the Beechcraft 99, Beechcraft 1900C, BAe Jetstream 31, de Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7, de Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8, Fokker F-27-600, Saab 340, Short 330 and Short 360.

Absorption into USAir

Piedmont's expanding route system, its loyal passenger following, and its profitability caused it to gain notice for a potential buyout. In August 1989 Piedmont Airlines was absorbed by USAir (formerly Allegheny Airlines), which had previously focused its network around the northeastern states. The combined carrier became one of the East Coast's largest airlines. (Revenue passenger miles for the year ended 31 May 1989, scheduled flights only: 18674 million for USAir, 13689 million for Piedmont.)

USAir later changed its name to US Airways, which merged with America West Airlines in 2005. US Airways merged with American Airlines in late 2015 with the American name being used for the combined airline.

Piedmont Airlines (formerly Henson Airlines) still exists as a brand within American Airlines and flies out of many locations as American Eagle (airline brand).

Historical fleet

Accidents

On October 30, 1959, Piedmont suffered its first crash when Flight 349 slammed into Bucks Elbow Mountain near Charlottesville, Virginia due to a navigational error, whose cause remains in dispute. Twenty-six of the 27 people on board the Douglas DC-3 perished.

On July 19, 1967, Piedmont suffered another fatal accident when Flight 22, a Boeing 727-100, collided with a Cessna 310 over Hendersonville, North Carolina. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that the pilot of the Cessna went off course, placing his aircraft in the path of the 727. 82 perished in the mid-air collision.

On August 10, 1968, Piedmont Flight 230 was on an ILS localizer only approach to Charleston-Kanawha County Airport (CRW) runway 23 when it struck trees 360 feet from the runway threshold. The aircraft continued and struck up sloping terrain (+30 degrees) 250 feet short in a 4-5 degree nose down attitude, slightly left wing down. The Fairchild-Hiller FH-227 continued up the hill and on to the airport, coming to rest 6 feet beyond the threshold and 50 feet from the right edge of the runway. A layer of dense fog (about 150 feet thick) was obscuring the threshold and about half of the approach lights. Visual conditions existed outside the fog area. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that the probable cause was "an unrecognized loss of altitude orientation during the final portion of an approach into shallow, dense fog. The disorientation was caused by a rapid reduction in the ground guidance segment available to the pilot at a point beyond which a go-around could not be successfully effected."

35 passengers and crew out of the 37 on board were killed in this accident.