I was asked to join the project and gladly did so, becoming with Vidal and Collins, a vice-president of the corporation when it was launched. I had the fun of sitting in on all the details of actual commercial air pioneering, first on paper and later in practise.
From nothing at all Vidal and Collins created the organization they wanted and administered it later. The result was something new in air transport. With the exception of an air ferry service over San Francisco Bay, it was the first really frequent service in the world. There were no frills about it. The aim was to carry passengers quickly and cheaply at regular intervals between three important centers—the railroad principle of service applied to air travelers.
The line became a real success, to the surprise of many aeronautical experts who had not believed that passenger carrying without government help in the form of mail contracts could pay its way. In the first year 66,279 passengers were carried and 1,523,400 miles flown. The daily totals exceed, by the way, the combined totals of the various lines flying from London to Paris—a distance about the same as from New York to Washington. I think most Americans don’t realize how far aviation in their own country has outstripped that of England and the continent, despite the longer period of the service abroad.
There are more passengers carried every twenty-
