A Century in the Air

This is a profile of a major airline that has been in the air for a century as of 2025.  The rise of this company parallels the advancement of airplanes during the Best Aerospace Era. 

Transcript

Paula 0:00

For the Best Aerospace Era this is mansplaining. Here is the host Anthony L. Sealey

0:10

Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome. There is a core memory that I keep in mind from my early days in the airline industry. I first worked at the largest and busiest airport in the world, Hartsville Jackson International Airport. A TLI I once drove down on a tug to the very end of concourse C on the south side of the airport. On the south side of the airport, there are four runways, which are often full with airliners lined up ready for takeoff. As they looked out, I saw multiple types of airplanes like MD eighties, Boeing seven one sevens, and Airbuses, a three twenties. Lined up representing airlines from all over the world like Air Korea, air Canada, Aeroflot, KLM, British Airways, Aero Mexico, Japan Airlines, along with a great number of domestic air carriers. This is an awesome site to see from this perspective. There is wind insignia on the tail of more aircraft. Than any other on the runways in Atlanta. This airline came from very humble beginnings and elevated itself to becoming a world class airline during the best aerospace era. And in 2025, this airline hit the 100 anniversary mark. Do you know which one I'm talking about? Yes. Let's talk about Delta Airlines. Delta Airlines is one of the top airlines in the world today. According to the website, Delta Airlines operates 5,000 flights to more than 290 destinations, to six different continents. Apparently destinations on the seventh continent, Antarctica are not a priority for Delta. I'm not sure if they have future plans to fly there. At least for now, you'll have to find another way to reach the vast frozen seventh Continent. Delta flew 200 million passengers to cities, countries, and continents that it does serve across the globe in 2024. And employees over a hundred thousand workers, they have around 990 airplanes in their fleet currently. Delta operates 10 major hubs in key metropolitan areas like Minneapolis, St. Paul, Tokyo, and Atlanta. By all accounts, Delta is a definition of a major airline today, but how did this company begin and where, as I said before. Delta just hit the century mark in business in 2025. First, let's look at what was going on 100 years ago. Let's look at 1925. Calvin Coolidge is President. The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Washington Senators in the World Series, Jack Dempsey. Was the world heavyweight boxing champion, Malcolm Campbell broke the world land speed record exceeding 150 miles per hour in a Sunbeam tiger. The deadliest tornado outbreak on record occurred known as the tri-state tornado that ravaged Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana killing 700 people in this path. The most popular car of the time was a Ford Model T. The Famous Scopes trial took place in Dayton, Tennessee, also from Tennessee. The first ever radio broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry took place in Nashville in 1925. By the way, in the 1920s, some regular American households had their own radio stations and could broadcast whatever they wanted, like music, or they could tell stories similar to how podcasts work. Today, I find this very fascinating. The top three movies that year were the Big parade, Been her A Tale of Christ and the Gold Rush. That last one was a Charlie Chaplin film. You may have heard of him. And in 1925, a crop dusting company, the Huff Daland dusters was established in Macon, Georgia. Yes. The Delta Airlines we know today began as a crop dusting business in 1925. Let's get into that. The Huff Deland Company started out crop dusting Peachtree Fields in rural Georgia in 1925. They were actually the first company of its kind to crop dust orchard crops to control insect populations in fields using airplanes. They had a fleet of 18 Huff Daland duster Petrol, 30 ones. An open cockpit biplane with a Liberty V 12 engine with 400 horsepower. It had a 33 foot wingspan and a length of 23 feet. They could be equipped either the one or two seats on the side of the fuselage was a triangular shaped insignia. Depicting Thor blowing his breath down on the ground below. Delta should bring this logo back somehow. Airplanes, peach trees. This is a very Georgia origin story, and I love it. Huff Delan dusters quickly expanded to its neighboring states, and after about a year in business. They decided to move their headquarters to Monroe, Louisiana. By 1927, they had expanded operations beyond the US into Mexico and South America. They had also expanded beyond just crop dusting and began delivering mail, and even a few passengers. Investors began to take notice of the company around this time. Colette Everman Woolman, a businessman, led a successful bid to buy Huff deland dusters in 1928. He wanted to come up with a new name for the company. As the company had diversified beyond just crop dusting on the suggestion of his assistant named Catherine Fitzgerald. She likened the name Delta as a homage to the Mississippi Delta region. This is how Huff deland Dusters became Delta Air Service Woolman said this in 1929. Aviation is the youngest big industry, but it is the fastest growing baby ever. A few years ago, it was called Impossible to fly. The day of the airplane is surely here. He was a savvy businessman and he saw the potential of aviation and it was not just in crop dusting. He looked a diversified Delta Air Service. Using the aircraft to travel air SB Sedan, which almost sounds like a name for a car. The Delta Air Service began flying mail, cargo and passengers. The travel air SB Sedan could carry five passengers along with the pilot. The first route Delta serve was Dallas, Texas to Jackson, Mississippi. From this single route, they expanded to more cities in the south using the Lockeed 10 Electra and the Stinson model A. Throughout the 1930s, This side of the business began to overtake the crop dusting division of the company and profits. And remember, this is a great depression, not the best time to run a business. By the way, Delta continued to operate their crop, dusting business and agriculture division all the way until the year 1966. In 1941, Delta Air Service moved its headquarters to Atlanta, Georgia. Back to the very state the company began in in 1925. That same year. Delta acquired the iconic DC three and used it to service 16 different destinations. The DC three has a wingspan of 95 feet and length of 64 feet, powered by two Wright cycle and engines. With 1200 horsepower, it could carry 21 passengers and a flight crew of three. How many 1940s movies showed a DC three. Flying their main characters from one city to another. In 1945, Delta Air Service officially changed its name to Delta Airlines. In the 1950s, Delta Airlines continued to expand to more markets domestically and internationally. They implemented a hub and spoke system for connecting flights. Atlanta was the central hub for this system, and this is what made a TL the largest and busiest airport in the world. Delta used a DC seven prop airliner in the 1950s. The 1950s was a zenith of propeller airliners. The jet age was on the horizon. Delta purchased the DC eight Jet Airliner in the last years of the decade. The jet age had arrived and Delta fully embraced it. By the 1970s Delta's passenger fleet was all jet airliners. You may have seen the large fly Delta jet sign. When flying in and out of a TL. I will get to the kind of jet airliners that Delta operated at the end of the best aerospace era momentarily entirely. First, let's look at some of the airline acquisitions and mergers that Delta has been involved with in its history. The Chicago Southern Airlines. Have you heard of that one? It was originally the Pacific Seaboard Airlines before changing its name. In 1935, Delta merged with Chicago and Southern Airlines. In 1953, this merger opened up routes to the Caribbean and Venezuela. Then there was Northeast Airlines. They were actually a subsidiary of the Boston Main Railroad. Their planes were referred to as Yellow Birds because of their livery. On their planes, this airline was actually the first airline to operate the very popular Boeing 7 27. After in Financial trouble in the early 1970s, Northeast Airlines officially merged with Delta Airlines in 1972. This opened up routes to Canada and made Delta the fifth largest airline. Does anyone remember Western Airlines? They began in the 1920s and by the 1930s they had the largest network in the world. Interestingly, Western Airlines was the first airline to use conveyor belts to load and unload bags and cargo. I'm sure the Western Ramp agents appreciated this implementation back in the 1950s. Delta and Western officially merged in 1987. Now when people imagine the golden age of air transportation, they usually think of Pan Am, Pan-American World Airlines was a major airline whose airplanes could be seen all over the world. There was even a show about Pan Am not that long ago. Pan Am began to fall into financial trouble in the 1980s. And Delta acquired Pan AM's International Routes to Europe in 1991. Routes into Europe, were a major moneymaker now, for one that most will remember because it happened not that long ago. Northwest Airlines, another major airlines that started all the way back in the 1920s, delivering sacks of mail with biplanes. They were the first to acquire the Boeing. 7, 4, 7, 400 aircraft By the two thousands Northwest carried more passengers across the Pacific from the continental US than any other airline. After more than 80 years in Service Northwest merged with Delta. In 2008, I remember seeing their airplanes in Atlanta, and I know a few people that once worked for Northwest Airlines. These were all major airlines in their day that Delta competed against and later required to further its growth and its reach across the earth and take its passengers further. I could have included the many regional carriers, but that would make this episode much longer, and I knew your time is valuable. So I'll leave the list at that with their history and accomplishments. I can make an episode on any of these airlines I just mentioned, and I may in the future. So standby for that. By the way, I've been using the word merger here as an insight from someone who has been through an acquisition. Sometimes when you hear the news about an airline buying another in practice, it kind of plays out more like a merger, at least in my experience. I recently visited the Delta Flight Museum. It is located on the north side of Hartsville Jackson International Airport. Really, it's not far from the boundary of the airport itself. And if you remember the first episode of Mansplaneing, then you remember that Hartsville Jackson International Airport is also celebrating its 100th anniversary. It was founded in 1925. It was built on a former raceway. The museum is in a hangar that was originally built in 1941 to provide maintenance to the DC threes that Delta acquired that same year. It is crazy to think about, but that hangar itself will be a hundred years old in just 16 years from now. Inside you'll see a full scale model of the Huff Daland duster nickname Puffer, along with a travel air SB sedan, and a DC three. These are the airplanes that the people of Delta used to start this story I mentioned before, the old Huff deland duster, triangle shaped insignia depicting Thor, blowing his breath down on the ground below. That was just the first. There's an interesting information placard that shows the many awesome logos delta has used throughout its history. I love old airline insignias. They also have a 7 5 7, a 7 6 7, a 7 4 7, a DC seven, and a DC nine on display. I see airplanes every day at work, and I still enjoy looking at these amazing works of aviation, engineering. They even have a very old tug that was used to tow baggage carts around the Atlanta airport many decades ago. Now, has anyone flown Delta recently? If you have, then you've seen their new safety video. In the video, flight attendants give passengers the same safety instructions. You have heard many times before. The video is divided into sections representing a decade, and the flight crew and passengers are dressed through the occasion from the 1920s all the way until they reach the two thousands. I bring this up because Delta Flight Museum has many of the flight crew uniforms on display along with the uniforms from other departments, particularly the ramp. Now most patrons at the museum, particularly kids are going to gravitate towards the airplanes on display, but airplanes don't make an airline nor do airports or jet bridges or runways. People make an airline. And it's not just me that says that. Here's another quote from Woolman airplanes are more or less standard fares or uniform. Competitive services are often available. The quality of Delta service, the attitude of its people will determine who gets the business. These uniforms on display represent the thousands of workers that have made Delta an airline staple for a century. In fact, the Delta Flight Museum exists thanks to maintenance workers who stored and preserved many of the exhibits on display in the same hangar that became the Delta Flight Museum. Also the 7 6 7 on display there is named the spirit of Delta. The purchase of this very airliner was funded by project 7 6 7. A project led by and funded by Delta employees in 1982. Delta story represents one of the main themes I talk about here on Mansplaneing. I like to profile the advancement of airplanes during the best aerospace era. As I like to say, we went from flying around in flying machines made of wood wire and fabric to flying around the world on jet airliners. The company that would become Delta started out flying the Huff deland Duster Petrol 31. As I said before, it was an open cockpit biplane with a Liberty V 12 engine with 400 horsepower. It had a wingspan of 33 feet and a length of 23 feet, and they could be equipped with one or two seats by 1975. Delta Airlines operated much more advanced. And safer airplanes that dominated the sky like the Boeing 7, 4 7 often called the queen of the skies. And some regard it as the greatest technological marvel of the 20th century tree. Here are some numbers for you to compare to the Huff Daland and Duster. The Boeing 7, 4, 7. 1 32 series was a mono jet airliner with four Pratt and Whitney, JT 90 D one Jet Engines with a wingspan of 195 feet and a length of 231 feet. It could achieve a top speed of 625 miles per hour in a range of 6,000 miles while accommodating 370 passengers, Delta marketed the top section as a private penthouse. Passengers would take just 14 steps up a spiral staircase to the penthouse. It had six luxurious seats. That could be booked as its own unit, like a luxury box at a sporting event. It even had its own dedicated flight attendant just for the penthouse passengers. It was flying first class, and then there was this, this had to be one of those. We have arrived moments for those who lived during the best aerospace era, like this was a pinnacle of flight. The seven four seven was not alone. Delta also flew two other giant airliners in its fleet by 1975. The Douglas DC 10 and the Lockheed L 10 11. In Delta's history, they have operated airplanes from many manufacturers like Boeing, Airbus Convair, Lockheed Douglas, McDonald, Douglas, Fairchild, Hiller, travel Air, and Stinson. If you made a good airliner. Then Delta was interested operating various aircraft from different manufacturers, presents logistical and staff training challenges, but Delta seems to have figured this out long ago. Delta Airlines and airplanes have come a long way during the best aerospace era. I believe the first time I flew on a commercial airline flight was on Delta. I can't say that this was the moment as a kid that I said I wanna work for an airline one day when I grew up. But I do remember being fascinated by the whole experience. I also still have a Delta coin from the early nineties, if you remember those. Now, think about it, a century in the air. Many things have changed in the world in that time span. As I said before, in 1925, the Ford Model T was the most popular vehicle on the road. Today in 2025, it's probably some hybrid electric crossover. Delta has navigated more than just the globe. They have navigated the airline business through the Great Depression, a World war, a civil rights movement, and oil crisis. Airline deregulation nine 11, multiple economic downturns and ever changing government policies. And changing passenger markets and buying habits. Through all this, Delta has endured and is still flying strong. Today this airline can take you yes, you to see far off places that you saw on TV or wrote about in grade school or college. I do want to recommend the Delta Flight Museum, and by the way, the Delta Flight Museum website is awesome. It is very informative and easy to navigate from timelines to aircraft profiles. I recommend you check it out. Does anyone else stay up until oh 200 in the morning looking up the origins of airline companies? On the internet, tell me I'm not the only one. There are worse things you can be looking up on the internet at oh 200 in the morning. And I should also mention that I was not contacted by or sponsored by Delta Airlines to make this episode. Now, what was Delta's competition? During the best aerospace era, there were many great airlines that elevated themselves their prominence during the best aerospace era, only to falter to competition the following decades. Can you think of a few that are no longer around today? Thank you so much for listening, and remember, there's always a light at the end of the runway.

Paula 28:30

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