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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deserving of a permanent place on the bookshelf of any serious student of aviation lore,
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This review is from: Delta: The History of an Airline (Hardcover)
In 1972 two Auburn University professors approached Delta Air Lines about writing a scholarly history of the company. Since Delta would soon be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 1979, Delta's executives were receptive to the idea. The book that W. David Lewis and Wesley Phillips Newton authored, Delta, The History of an Airline, is a scholarly history but, since it was to be distributed free to employees, one written in a narrative style. However it includes enough detail to make it worthwhile for the academic community. Delta is appropriately organized chronologically for easy reading and extensively researched and documented with footnotes and a large bibliography.
The authors hypothesize that their work is probably "the first history of an American commercial Airline to be written by professional historians having full access to the business records, correspondence, and personnel of the corporation involved." (ix) This is made particularly more meaningful because the origin of Delta Air Lines is unique in the annals of American aviation. Other airlines grew out of the federal promotion of commercial aviation through the Post Office. On the other hand, Delta's genesis was in the fight against the boll weevil. Its predecessor was Huff-Daland Dusters, Inc., a crop dusting company organized to counter the cotton scourge from the air. It was strictly a private venture without government assistance. Following WW I, Thomas H. Huff and Eliot Daland organized the Huff-Daland Company in Ogdensburg, New York to build military aircraft. Seeking a new commercial use for its aircraft, George B. Post, vice-president and a pilot for Huff-Daland, landed in Tallulah, Louisiana where B. R. Coad, at the USDA's Delta Laboratory, was conducting experiments with aircraft to apply calcium arsenate on cotton fields infested by the boll weevil. The military type aircraft being used were inadequate and Post returned to Ogdensburg where he urged his company to develop a more satisfactory aircraft. Huff-Daland redesigned one of its military types and organized a subsidiary company, Huff-Daland Dusters, which began operations at Macon, Georgia in 1924. Soon afterward its general manager, Harold R. Harris, an Army Air Corp pilot on leave from the military, moved the operation to Monroe, Louisiana. In 1925 C. E. Woolman, an agent with the agricultural extension service, was hired as a salesman. Woolman was to play an enduring and patriarchal role in Delta up through his death in 1966. About this time the army worm became a serious cotton pest in Peru and Harris and Woolman traveled to Lima in 1926 and 1927 in order to secure permits and contracts to operate there. Since the seasons were reversed, this was seen as an opportunity to work year round. Successful in this endeavor, Harris' and Woolman's attention turned to the formation of an airline back home. Mail contracts were being awarded to private companies following the Kelly Act of 1925 and, even though they did not have a Post Office contract, Woolman and others nonetheless bought out the assets of the duster company. Reorganized as a passenger airline, Delta Air Service began flying out of Monroe in 1929. Utilizing six person, single engine Travel Air 6000 aircraft, Delta flew a route that by 1930 stretched between Atlanta and Ft. Worth. The name "Delta" came from the Mississippi Delta region. Unfortunately, because of Post Master General (PMG) Walter F. Brown's desire to award contracts to heavily capitalized companies, Delta was not granted a mail contract. Despite an exemplary safety record, it was forced to cease carrying passengers and reverted to its original dusting business to survive. The next years, during the depths of the Great Depression, would be very difficult but Woolman held the company together waiting for better times. Under Franklin D. Roosevelt accusations of favoritism in the award of mail contracts under Postmaster General Brown led to a full scale investigation by Senator Hugo Black of Alabama. Woolman, speaking before the Senate committee, testified that it was impossible to make money without a mail contract and that Delta had been forced to shut down because the contract had been given to a rival airline even though Delta had pioneered the route. FDR cancelled all mail contracts and ordered the Air Corps to carry the mail with disastrous results. As an outgrowth of this situation an order was issued which let new contracts but which prohibited previous "guilty" airlines and managers from bidding. Fortunately Delta was exempt from these restrictions and in 1934 was granted Contract Air Mail route 24 along the trans-southern route from Charleston to Ft. Worth. From this point forward there would be no more interruptions in passenger service, though there would be other trials and tribulations to overcome. By the advent of WW II, the company's management team was well established, a modern aircraft fleet acquired, which included the venerable DC-3, a new north-south route from Cincinnati to Savannah inaugurated, and a cadre of dedicated employees hired. Following the war, this foundation, combined with new opportunities, such as the 1945 award of the Chicago to Miami extension by the Civil Aeronautics Board, permitted the company to expand. However Delta was not the only carrier seeking new opportunities. Competition was stiff, particularly from its rival, Eddie Rickenbacker's Eastern Airlines. Delta's purchase of reconditioned four engine C-54s, the military version of the DC-4, demonstrated Delta's conservative fiscal management style and enabled the company to get a jump on Eastern which had ordered brand new DC-4s. But Rickenbacker leapfrogged ahead when Eastern introduced the pressurized Lockheed 049 Constellation, eclipsing the now obsolete DC-4s. Later the debacle of the turboprop Lockheed Electras redeemed Delta's management. Delta had decided to forgo the jet props and to wait for the pure jets. A design flaw, with dire consequences, resulted in the early obsolescence of the Electras and Delta was first to introduce the DC-8 jet liners in 1959. With routes controlled by the government, competition between carriers focused on service. In-flight service was a Delta hallmark - even when considering its liquor policy! The company steadfastly held back from serving liquor on its flights. Ultimately, despite strong passenger and internal employee dissent, the policy was changed with the inauguration of service between Houston and New York in the 1950s. For competitive reasons securing routes to New York (1955) and the west coast (1961) were long sought after and hard fought for objectives by the Delta team. In the regulated environment, under which airlines were operating at the time, the only way to expand was by route awards granted after a long competitive process before the CAB or through mergers. In the course of the post war years, Delta merged with Chicago & Southern (1954) and Northeast Airlines (1972). [Author's note: I was hired in 1972 just after the merger, when Delta was expanding its service following the acquisition] There is a lot of information packed into the pages of Delta, The History of an Airline but the relationship between management and employees is a major theme. In Delta, there is infused throughout the book the understanding of a sense of loyalty and commitment between managers and employees. The "Delta Family" tradition grew out of this relationship. Much of the credit belongs to the benevolent leadership style under C. E. Woolman. Delta, the company, imbued in its employees the values from its Southern heritage and was dedicated to servicing its customers accordingly. Delta's promote from within policy, open door policy, intensely cost-conscious management, practical informational advertising program, and its emphasis on quality were enduring traditions at the time of the company's fifty year mark. Perhaps the most significant event foreshadowing the future was the 1977 award of the Atlanta to London route by the CAB. International expansion became a key element of Delta's growth plan. In 1979 there was no reason not to be optimistic for the future. But, if the past was any indication of what was to come, it was not the time to rest on laurels. As a postscript, since 1979 the greatness of Delta has been tested again many times over. Fuel spikes, stagflation, recessions, the air traffic controller's strike, and the effects of deregulation have all occurred since then. Delta managed to surmount these obstacles and continue its climb to greatness. However, after 9/11, in its seventy-fifth anniversary year, Delta is being tested like never before...at least so it would seem. Each crisis in Delta's long history has threatened the company's very existence and, in that light, was as severe as the present situation. Delta survived in the past by adapting to market realities. Delta people are again making the difficult adjustments necessary for the company to survive in a very competitive world. Analysts predict only one or two of the legacy carriers will remain but, if the past is any indication of the future, Delta will be one of them. As Mr. Woolman commented about the airline industry, "the only constant is change."
3.0 out of 5 stars
Delta: history of an airline,
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This review is from: Delta: The History of an Airline (Hardcover)
I received the book quickly but the authors never gave me a narrative of many problems such as the number of times the engines on the L-1011 couldn't be started or failed, etc. I guess I'm interested more in an author such as Robert Serling who has written at least 6 books on several airlines with fascinating histories of the companies and many incidents which took place...he makes you feel like you're somehow hearing both the positive and negative sides of an issue plus a lot of humorous episodes. I found this lacking in this "so-so" history.
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