1920-1930

Florida Airways pioneers Florida’s first interstate Air Mail-passenger service

Air Mail Act of 1925 spurs growth of civil aviation

When Congress passed the Air Mail Act of 1925, U.S. Air Mail was still in its infancy. Many of the first pilots hired by the Post Office to deliver mail by air had sacrificed their lives taking off and landing with obsolete equipment in airfields that were little better than cow pastures. But as equipment became more reliable, the new Air Mail Act allowed private operators to became eligible to apply for a Civil Air Mail (CAM) route. Flying the mail, for an agreed-upon rate per pound, provided fledgling commercial airlines with a guaranteed source of government subsidized income.

Florida Airways is awarded CAM-10

Following passage of the new law, the Post Office immediately invited bids from commercial aviation companies. Hundreds of inquiries poured in, including one from Florida Airways. At the time, Florida Airways, founded by Eddie Rickenbacker, Reed Chambers and Virgil Chenea, had a “fleet” comprised of one Curtiss Lark. Several other outside investors were brought in, including Henry Ford, who supplied the airline with four Ford Stout 2-AT “Air Pullmans,” built entirely of corrugated duralumin, in exchange for stock in the company.

Florida Airways was the successful bidder for CAM-10, a route extending from Miami to Fort Meyers, Tampa and Jacksonville with intermediate landing fields in-between. The agreed upon rate was $3/mile per pound of mail. The service was scheduled to begin in early 1926.

At left: “Miss Miami” arrives at Miami’s Comfort Field with Air Mail from Jacksonville, April 1, 1926. Flight time was just under 9 hours. Photo courtesy Miami-Dade Public Library, Romer Collection.

Scramble to find landing field

The announcement of the Air Mail service to be operated by Florida Airways created a rush by Miami’s civic leaders to find a landing field that the airline could use. Though seaplanes had been operating in the waters in and around Miami for over a decade, in 1926 the city still lacked a municipal or commercial landing field for an airline operating a regularly scheduled land route. Initially, a tract was cleared for Florida Airways at Comfort Field on Red Road and N. W. 7th Avenue, offered to the city by W. R. Comfort, president of the Seminole Fruit and Land Company.

A bevy of “Misses” begin service

Service started on April 1, 1926, with a one-way ticket between Miami and Jacksonville costing $60. Appropriately, the planes flying the route were named after the cities served. No. 1 was the “Miss Tampa.” “Miss Miami” was No. 2 and “Miss St. Petersburg” was No. 4.

Questions surround the “Miss Fort Meyers,” No. 3. On December 31, 1925, when the new fleet was on its way to Florida from the factory, the aircraft had plowed into her two sister ships, the “Miss Miami” and the “Miss Tampa” when attempting takeoff from Nashville. Thankfully, no one was injured but the three planes were considerably damaged, and their departure from Nashville was delayed until early February due to the need for repairs. In his autobiography, “Rickenbacker,” Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker comments that, “To protect the value of its stock, Ford had little choice but to send a crew of mechanics to Nashville. The four wrecked planes were transformed into three whole ones, and they proceeded to Florida” (see “Stories”). Nevertheless, promotional materials for the airline include a photo of the “Miss Fort Meyers,” indicating that it was flying daily between Tampa and Miami (see below).

Additional planes known to have comprised the fleet also included a Travelair, “Miss Tallahassee” (No. 5); a Curtiss Lark, “Miss Jacksonville” (No. 6); and a Stinson Detroiter.

At left: Florida Airways’ “Miss Miami” is featured on the cover of Aviation magazine, November 15, 1926.

The fleet

The Ford Stout fleet (Nos. 1-4), plus the Travelair (No. 5) and the Curtiss Lark (No. 6).

54th Street Flying Field established

On July 4, 1926, Florida Airways began flying out of a new municipal airfield leased to the city by Miami Beach real estate magnate N. B. Roney. The new airfield was located at Hialeah’s NW 54th Street. Though deemed more suitable for the airline’s operations than Comfort Field, it, too, was rudimentary at best, offering scant facilities or improvements.

Service extended to Atlanta and Macon

The airline garnered an enviable record of reliability, with an average efficiency of operation of 90%. Looking to expand, Rickenbacker was able to engage the help of Atlanta attorney William Hartsfield to use the infield of the Atlanta motorcar speedway for an airport. On September 15, Florida Airways began flying mail from Atlanta to Miami with a stop in Tampa and on September 27, Macon was added as a scheduled stop. A spokesperson for the company announced that Florida Airways expected to have 14 planes in operation over the newly expanded route.

Didn’t get the memo

However, the airline continued to struggle financially. Building up a pound of mail in those early days was a challenge and passenger service alone was not sufficient to keep the airline solvent. As Rickenbacker recounts in his autobiography, “It was a rare day when the company had one frightened customer in our wicker chairs.” Then, according to Rickenbacker, an unnamed “agent” hit upon the idea of soaking a blotter in water, which doubled its weight. Stamps could be bought for a 50% profit on each “letter.” But why stop there, when a carefully wrapped brick could increase profits to 100%? Things were going along swimmingly with brisk brick-mail deliveries until one day, one of the agents took a day off. His assistant, not having been fully briefed on the way things were done, simply tied a label with stamps on it onto a bare brick. A postal inspector spotted it and Florida Airways had to find another way to remain solvent.

Odds become insurmountable

The hurricane of September 1926 dealt Florida Airways another blow: the Miss Miami, parked at the Hialeah 54th Street field, was torn from its moorings and dashed against a telephone pole, suffering extensive damage. Unquestionably, the lack of adequate airport facilities in Miami to safely house aircraft was becoming a major problem. The lack of a municipal airport in Miami hurt the airline in other ways, too. One of the obstacles to Florida Airways’ profitability was its inability to access air connections to other points across the country which other air mail feeder lines enjoyed. This was due to the lack of lighting which would have permitted night flying. The federal government had appropriated funds for night lighting but refused to install it until all cities included on the routes had municipal airports. Miami was the only city on Florida Airways’ route system at the time that did not have definite plans to construct a municipal airport.

Florida Airways entered a downward spiral and Air Mail service from Miami was discontinued on December 31, 1926, after only nine months of operations. In February 1927, a Florida Airways plane privately chartered in Tampa to fly two passengers to Miami suffered a tragic crash minutes after take-off, with the loss of life of all on board. The airline was formally shut down in June. Two months later, Harold Pitcairn, who had acquired the CAM route between New York and Atlanta, picked up what was left for what Rickenbacker claims was “a song.”