Robert Novells’ Third Dimension Blog

March 20, 2015

Good Morning,

I hope everyone is ready for a little time with family, and friends, and hopefully the tempo of life has not been to taxing on your soul. This week I want to talk about which airline was responsible for bringing international air travel to the U.S. and let’s start that discussion with something found in the Smithsonian archives:

“One year after Aeromarine terminated its service in 1924, aviation interest was revived when a Colombian delegation, en route to the United States to request operating authority, arrived in Havana and requested authority from the Cubans to operate in and out of their territory prior to proceeding to the US . This new air service was sponsored by the Colombian airline, SCADTA, which wished to start a trans-Caribbean air route in to Miami; however, the U.S. State Department would not grant permission. Nevertheless, the episode stimulated official U.S. interest in foreign air transport, especially for air mail, and this was to lead to the foundation of the U.S. “Chosen Instrument,” Pan American Airways.”

Now I know that Pan Am has been awarded the distinction of being the first international carrier but history shows that on November 1, 1920 Aeromarine West Indies Airways, began the first scheduled international passenger and air mail service in the United States. So, why was Aeromarine left out of the history books?

Turns out that the Secretary of State decided that the Colombian airline could not be allowed to control the market out of Central, and South, America because the Germans were involved. America was preparing for the possibility of war with Germany so three Yale Graduates got together and formed a plan. The Yale graduates, The Secretary of State, The Postmaster General, and Juan Trippe, got together and formulated a plan to stop the Germans – the plan brought Pan American Airways to life and Pan Am became the chosen instrument to compete with the Germans worldwide to control their expansion.

Aeromarine has a website that documents their history and has all of the details about their quest to be the first. Take some time to visit their site and explore the rest of the story.

Aeromarine – A Pioneer Airline in US Aviation