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This Group Inaugurated First Air Line |
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| Courtesy Pennsylvania Airlines | ||||
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courtesy of Steve Remington - CollectAir |
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This Benoist flying boat built especially for scheduled air lines operation by Tom Benoist in his St. Louis factory, was operated on the
first regular scheduled air line between St. Petersburg and tampa, Fla., in 1914. courtesy of Steve Remington - CollectAir |
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Noel Mitchell Flew From Tampa to St. Pete. (Note: The last issue of Chirp carried a story announcing the search then being conducted by Pennsylvania Airlines for the first cash passenger on a regular scheduled air line. The following story discloses the results of that search.) After a search which lasted for several months and extended through nearly every state in the union, Pennsylvania Airlines recently was sucessful in locating the first cash passenger, now living, on a regular scheduled air line. Noel Mitchell, former mayor of St. Petersburg, Fla., a passenger on the St. Petersburg-Tampa Air Line, Jan. 1, 1914, was found to be the object of the search and has been honored by a trip half-way across the continent in modern air transports as the guest of P. A. L. The Florida line was organized by P. E. Fansler, now editor of Oil Heating Journals, 167 Madison avenue, New York City, and Tom Benoist, flying boat builder of St. Louis. BENOIST BUILDS SHIP. At the instance of Mr. Fansler, Benoist built a flying boat particularly adapted for the 23-mile overwater flight, capable of carrying at least one passenger---and sometimes two light ones--in addition to the pilot. The machine was shipped from St. Louis to St. Petersburg by rail, accompanied by Tony Jannus, who had been selected as pilot for the line; his borther Roger, and J. D. Smith, mechanic. After several weeks of trial flights, service was inaugurated on Jan. 1, citizens bidding at public auction for the first flight. Abram C. Pheil, ex-mayor of St. Petersburg, then in the wholesale business, won the honor of being the first passenger by bidding $400 for the space--out-bidding Mitchell who wouldn't go higher than $375. BUSINESS BY AIR In Tampa, after 23-minute flight across the bay, he placed a several thousand dollar order for his wholesale house and returned on the afternoon plane. This transaction of business by air was widely chronicled in the contemporary press. On the second trip across the bay, the dawn's early ride to Mineola, Mitchell was the sole passenger, paying $175 for his ticket. Inasmuch as Pheil has died since that great day, Mitchell is accorded the honor of being the first pay passenger on an air line. Space on the Benoist was sold out for 16 weeks in advance when the line opened, according to Fansler. The line continued in operation for three months--without injury to a passenger and with only two forced landings--closing only because of the exodus of tourists for the north at the end of the winter season. WAR INTERVENES The advent of the war prevented renewed operation of the line, which would have been on a grander scale, using a 12-passenger flying boat on which Benoist was working at the outbreak of hostilities. Fansler considers the three-month operation of the line a success. It was underwritten by a group of St. Petersburg boosters to the extent of $25 a day for each day on which the two scheduled flights were made. Passenger fares were $5 one-way and $10 roundtrip. The first air line time table on record was printed by this company, a four-page folder on bristol board, illustrated. All attempts to interest the Postoffice Department in the transportation of mail by air failed, Fansler states. ONLY TWO SURVIVORS Following operation of this line, Fansler compiled figures showing the cost of operation per ton-mile and per passenger-mile., believed the first such ever tabulated. Smith, the mechanic, and Fansler are the only two survivors of this first air line. Tony and Roger Jannus were killed in the war, Tony in Russia. Benoist was killed in an automobile accident in Sandusky, Oh. Fansler, incidentally, was chief of the engine department, Bureau of Aircraft Production, during the war. Contemporary newspapers of that period contain complete accounts of the air line operation and Aero Digest of December, 1929, carries a lengthy article by Fansler, fully illustrated, detailing the pioneering work. courtesy of Steve Remington - CollectAir |
| Relatives of first airline passenger fete 10-billionth by Betty Jean Miller Betsy Pheil and Newt Gingrich met Thursday, along with her cousin Peter Pheil and her twin brother Bill Pheil, and about 15 airline heads, in H 137 ("That's right next to the men's room, which is 136," she says) in the House of Representatives for a celebratory reception honoring the 10-billionth commercial airline passenger. The Pheil's grandfather, Abe Pheil, was the country's first passenger of a scheduled commercial airline, flying from St. Petersburg to Tampa with pilot Tony Jannus in 1914. Abe Pheil. Collection of Betsy Pheil |
