Highlights
1926 – Western flies its first mail on April 17, and begins carrying passengers on May 23. The company owns six open-cockpit Douglas M-2 planes, has 24 employees and operates out of an old hangar that had been a former movie studio.
1926 – In June, Western carries its first woman passenger (Maude Campbell)
1927 – First U.S. airline to pay a cash dividend to stockholders.
1928 – First airline to fly a tri-motor (3-engine) plane in the United States, the Fokker F-10.
1928 – Western begins developing the basis for today's air-to-ground communications and weather forecasting. Establishes 37 weather stations along its "model" airway route (Los Angeles—San Francisco)—achieving a 99% on-time performance. Uses the first directional radio compass for air navigation in 1930, and with the Boeing Aircraft Company, develops and uses the first air-to-ground radio.
1920s
July 13, 1925: Western Air Express incorporated with Harris "Pop" Hanshue as president. The company owns six open-cockpit Douglas M-2 planes, has 24 employees and operates out of an old hangar that had been a former movie studio.
April 17, 1926: Western's first commercial flight (airmail only): Los Angeles—Salt Lake City, via Las Vegas, 651 miles. The Douglas M-2 biplane was piloted by Maury Graham.
May 23, 1926: Western begins its first passenger service: Salt Lake City—Los Angeles via Las Vegas. Piloted by Jimmie Jones, the two passengers Ben Redman and J. A. Tomlinson sat on mail sacks. The 8-hour flight cost $90 one-way.
Two more passengers flew that day in a later flight from Los Angeles—Salt Lake City.
1926
Maude Campbell is Western's first woman passenger.
1927
Western completed all 518 of its flights in 1926, safely delivering 70,230 pounds of mail and 258 passengers.
1927
Western's Los Angeles mail service accounts for 40% of the nation's airmail.
Western is the first airline to pay a cash dividend to stockholders ($72.60 per share net profit).
Air Express shipments begin on September 1.
1928
Meals are served by stewards on Western's "model" Los Angeles—Salt Lake City flights, a luxurious passenger-only (no mail) experiment financed by a grant from the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics. Western used Fokker F-10 aircraft, the first tri-motor airliner in the U.S, for this special service, which lasted about a year.
Western develops first airline on-route weather reporting service, setting up 37 weather stations between Los Angeles and San Francisco.