Airlines and Air Mail : The Post Office and the Birth of the Commercial Aviation Industry

Foundations -- The birth of an industry -- The aviation industry comes of age -- Consolidation -- 1929 : calm before the storm -- The post office takes charge -- The Watres Act -- Realignment -- Drawing a new map -- Reaction -- Cord and Congress -- The Democrats take control -- Congress assumes command.;Conventional wisdom credits only entrepreneurs with the vision to create America's commercial airline industry and contends that it was not until Roosevelt's Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 that federal airline regulation began. In Airlines and Air Mail, F. Robert van der Linden persuasively argues that Progressive republican policies of Herbert Hoover actually fostered the growth of American commercial aviation. Air mail contracts provided a critical indirect subsidy and a solid financial foundation for this nascent industry. Postmaster General Walter F. Brown used these contracts as a carrot a. "Visionary entrepreneurs are often credited with creating America's commercial airline industry, and federal airline regulation is assumed to have played no significant role until President Roosevelt signed the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938.". "In Airlines and Air Mail, F. Robert van der Linden boldly reinterprets the growth of the airline industry, persuasively arguing that it was the Progressive Republican policies of Herbert Hoover that actually put commercial aviation on the map in the United States. Led by Hoover's postmaster general, Walter Fogle Brown, the government promoted the combination of strong private financial enterprises with substantial government guidance through economic incentives to develop commercial aviation in the public interest while avoiding the problems experienced earlier during the development of the railroads. Through the use of air mail contracts, the federal government provided a critical indirect subsidy and a solid economic foundation for this nascent, industry."--BOOK JACKET.

Conventional wisdom credits only entrepreneurs with the vision to create America's commercial airline industry and contends that it was not until Roosevelt's Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 that federal airline regulation began. In Airlines and Air Mail, F. Robert van der Linden persuasively argues that Progressive republican policies of Herbert Hoover actually fostered the growth of American commercial aviation. Air mail contracts provided a critical indirect subsidy and a solid financial foundation for this nascent industry. Postmaster General Walter F. Brown used these contracts as a carrot and a stick to ensure that the industry developed in the public interest while guaranteeing the survival of the pioneering companies. Bureaucrats, entrepreneurs, and politicians of all stripes are thoughtfully portrayed in this thorough chronicle of one of America's most resounding successes, the commercial aviation industry.