From Crop Duster to Airline; the Origins of Delta Air Lines to World War II
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Roots: From Crop Duster to Airline; The Origins of Delta Air Lines to World War II by James John Hoogerwerf A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama December 13, 2010 Keywords: Delta Laboratory, Huff Daland, Delta Air Lines, B. R. Coad, Harold R. Harris, C.E. Woolman Copyright 2010 by James John Hoogerwerf Approved by William F. Trimble, Chair, Professor of History James R. Hansen, Professor of History Alan D. Meyer, Assistant Professor of History Tiffany A. Thomas, Assistant Professor of History Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of Dr. W. David Lewis Distinguished University Professor of History Auburn University (1931-2007) ii Abstract Delta Air Lines (Delta) is one of the great surviving legacy airlines of the first century of flight. In the annals of American aviation history its origins are unique. Delta’s beginning can be traced to the arrival of the boll weevil from Mexico into Texas in 1892. Unlike other national airlines that were nurtured on mail subsidies, Delta evolved from experiments using airplanes to counter the cotton weevil scourge from the air. The iconic book on the subject is Delta: The History of an Airline authored by two eminent Auburn University history professors, W. David Lewis and Wesley Phillips Newton. This dissertation explores more closely the circumstances and people involved in Delta’s early years up to World War II. It is chronologically organized and written in a narrative style. It argues Delta’s development was the result of a decades-long incremental and evolutionary process and not the calculated result of a grand design or the special insight of any one person. Various individuals, influenced by diverse cultural, political, and economic factors, interacted to frame the outcome. The socio-technological system that is Delta today originated from a complex set of seemingly unrelated circumstances. The slightest variation might have modified, sidetracked, or even terminated the process. The search for primary source material determined the methodology undertaken for this study. The investigation led to each of the cities where Delta had an early connection and to libraries and repositories across the United States and in South iii America. A variety of diverse primary source materials, including government publications, newspaper articles, interviews, library subject files, and archival repositories, was accessed. Much of this information was unavailable to historians Lewis and Newton. This study explains how in its early years a large American legacy airline evolved from a small crop dusting company chartered to help save cotton from the boll weevil infestation in the southern United States. More Broadly, it contributes to the understanding of the origins of commercial aviation in the United States and the world. iv Table of Contents Dedication...………………………………………………………………………….……ii Abstract……………………………………………………….…………………..………iii List of Illustrations…………………………………….………………………………….vi Introduction………………………………………..………………………………………1 Chapter 1 Into the Delta………………………………………………………………….14 Chapter 2 Borgias of the Air.......................................................................................…...35 Chapter 3 A Corporate Pioneer in the Delta……………………………………..………53 Chapter 4 The Eagle and the Condor.................................................................................76 Chapter 5 Insight…………………………………….…………………………………...96 Chapter 6 Airmail and the West Coast Project……………….…………………..….…118 Chapter 7 Metamorphosis………………………………………………………….…...144 Chapter 8 Delta Air Service, Inc………………………………………………………..163 Chapter 9 Southern Stars……………………………………………………………….184 Conclusion …...…………………………………………………………………………205 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………...210 v List of Illustrations Illustration 1 “Undesirable Citizens”………………………………………………….....22 Illustration 2 B. R. Coad in his office at the Delta Laboratory…………………………..26 Illustration 3 Aircraft dusting Catalpa trees at Troy, Ohio………………………………37 Illustration 4 Air suction type hopper before installation..................................................45 Illustration 5 Air suction hopper installed in aircraft…………………………………….46 Illustration 6 Assembly of ground based cotton dusting machines……………………...54 Illustration 7 Aerial view of various duster machines in action…………………………55 Illustration 8 George B. Post at demonstration event……………………………………68 Illustration 9 Collett Everman Woolman………………………………………………...83 Illustration 10 Huff Daland Duster aircraft in Peru………….……………………..……97 Illustration 11 Harold R. Harris meets Peruvian President Leguía………………………99 Illustration 12 Smoot Field………………………………………………………..……106 Illustration 13 Selman Field with shipping crates ready for Peru………………………108 Illustration 14 Harold R. Harris in Peru…...……………………………………………112 Illustration 15 Tobin, Woolman, and possibly Stan Webber before flying to Ecuador...139 Illustration 16 Group in front of large duster…………………………………………...150 Illustration 17 Delta Air Service personnel with Travel Air 6000……………………...170 Illustration 18 Employee group photo taken May 13, 1933……………………………175 Illustration 19 Group posing with a Lockheed Electra on March 14, 1939…………….189 vi Illustration 20 Thomas Prioleau (“ Pre”) Ball (ca. 1936)………………………..……...191 Illustration 21 Eva Parrish (ca. 1940).………………………………………………….195 Illustration 22 C. E. Woolman, Clarence E. Faulk, Pat Higgins……………………......200 vii Introduction This study began with the planting of an idea in my mind by a comment of a Delta Air Lines captain made in approximately 1973. I was serving as a junior second officer aboard a Douglas DC-8 jetliner cruising comfortably above the flatlands of the Mississippi River Delta region on the way to Atlanta, Delta’s major hub city in Georgia. Over Monroe, Louisiana, the senior captain made the comment to his fellow crewmembers, “There’s Monroe, where Delta got its start.” The statement begged the question, how could this major air carrier have originated in such a small place? The stock answer bordered on mythology--the Mississippi Delta region gave its name to the airline which evolved from a small crop dusting company called Huff Daland Dusters under the tutelage of Delta’s founder, Collett Everman (“C. E.”) Woolman. But how did that happen? A few years later, in 1979, Auburn University history professors W. David Lewis and Wesley Phillips Newton wrote Delta: The History of an Airline (Delta). The book was written under contract for the company and the authors were granted unrestricted access to the corporation’s business records, correspondence, and personnel. A complimentary copy was presented to each employee to commemorate Delta’s fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of passenger service in 1929. A book signing was held for grateful employees patiently waiting in a long snaking line at the Jet Base, Delta’s massive maintenance complex located between the runways at the Atlanta airport, where 1 Lewis and Newton graciously autographed hundreds of copies. In the annals of American aviation Delta’s beginning is unique. Unlike other national airlines promoted by federal government mail subsidies through the post office, Delta evolved from a crop dusting company organized to counter the cotton boll weevil scourge from the air. It was a private venture without government assistance. Delta is a comprehensive history of the company through 1979. Chapters one through five cover the early years to the outbreak of World War II. I found these chapters interesting but the story sketchy. Overall Delta is an excellent study of the airline’s first fifty years. It is only with those early years to the outbreak of World War II that I take issue. In fairness Lewis and Newton used what information they had available to position the airline broadly in the context of commercial aviation’s development as an industry. They do this admirably, but there had to be more to the story of Delta’s beginning. Woolman is a key figure, but to what extent is he responsible for the emergence of the airline? Harold R. Harris, George B. Post, Bert Raymond Coad, and Richard F. Hoyt are identified. Were their roles as significant as Woolman’s? An in-depth explanation of the circumstances and people involved in the development of Delta Air Lines was needed. Whereas Lewis and Newton take more of an outsider’s perspective of Delta’s early years, I take a closer insider look to address the question of Delta’s origins. This paper is not a revisionist history. Rather I suggest the two perspectives are complementary. Seldom does either conflict or overlap with the other. For example, Lewis and Newton devote an entire chapter to the period from 1931 to 1934, characterized as the “doldrums.” Delta failed to get a mail contract and reverted 2 to crop dusting in order to survive. Because I did not find new primary source material, my discussion on Delta’s survival during this time is limited. Instead, I explore an aspect of Woolman’s personality by his compassion for his friend, B. R. Coad, who was indicted for defrauding the government in 1931. Therefore, for the most complete understanding of Delta’s early history, Lewis and Newton’s book and this study should be read together. This dissertation is a narrative history of the origins of Delta Air Lines to World War II. It is organized chronologically and argues the development of Delta Air Lines was the result of a decades-long incremental and evolutionary