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unusual facts about Transcontinental Air Transport, Inc.



Fort Sumner, New Mexico

In the 1920s the Transcontinental Air Transport airline built an airfield in Fort Sumner as part of its coast-to-coast air passenger network, but the site was abandoned when the airline's ambitious plans collapsed in the Great Depression.

George Newell Armsby

He was associated throughout his business life with John Cheever Cowdin, with whom he ran Universal Pictures; they were also both involved in the formation of Transcontinental Air Transport, Inc., which was later a foundation of TWA.

Transcontinental Air Transport

It initially offered a 48-hour train/plane trip with the first leg being on the Pennsylvania Railroad overnight from New York City to Columbus, Ohio, where passengers boarded a plane at Port Columbus International Airport that included stops in Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Wichita, and finally Waynoka, Oklahoma.

Keys enlisted the help of Charles Lindbergh to design a transcontinental network to get government airmail contracts.

The Western New Mexico Aviation Heritage Museum in Grants, New Mexico has a restored light and arrow which was used to direct pilots along the way.


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