Feature of the Month, June 2007

October 1935 Schedule Central Airlines

In 1926 Clifford Ball won the airmail contract route #11 between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. In August of 1928 he became the first airline to serve Washington DC from the west, with service from Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

In 1930 the airline was sold and operated as Pennsylvania Airlines. Central Airlines started competing service in 1934. They used Stinson Tri-Motors. Pennsylvania Airlines used Boeing 247 aircraft.

In November of 1936 the two airlines merged into Pennsylvania Central Airlines. In 1938 Chicago was added to the route system and in 1939 the DC-3 was added to the fleet. In 1941 the company moved their headquarters to the new Washington National Airport and in 1948 they changed their name to Capital Airlines. In 1960 facing possible bankruptcy, Capital Airlines was meged with rival United Airlines.

I flew the routes using both a DC-3 and a Boeing 247-D and was able to maintain the schedule. Sometime I was late arriving, but still had time to leave on time for the next segment. Keep in mind that in 1935 there were not any no-fly zones or restricted airspace.

Airports

Washington DC Hoover Field. It was across the Potomac River and may have been the site for the current Ronald Regan Intl KDCA

Pittsburgh PA Allegheny County Airport KAGC

Akron Akron Municipal Airport Believed to be the current site of KAKR Akron Fulton Intl.

Cleveland OH Cleveland Municipal. Current site of KCLE Cleveland Hopkins Intl.

Detroit MI City Airport Believed to be the current KDET Coleman A. Young Municipal

Navigation

From	To	Hdg	Distance
KDCA-Washington DC	MRB VOR 112.10	319°	49 NM
MRB VOR 112.10	IHD VOR 108.20	306°	78 NM
IHD VOR 108.20	MKP NDB 287.0	327°	30 NM
MKP NDB 287.0	KAGC-Pittsburgh PA	277°	6 NM
KAGC-Pittsburgh PA	ACO VOR 114.40	315°	74 NM
ACO VOR 114.40	AK NDB 362.0	262°	9 NM
AK NDB 362.0	KAKR-Akron OH	249º	4 NM
KAKR-Akron OH	CL NDB 344.0	314°	29 NM
CL NDB 344.0	KCLE-Cleveland OH	56°	6 NM
KCLE-Cleveland OH	YQG VOR 113.80	326°	67 NM
YQG VOR 113.80	KDET-Detroit MI	326°	12 NM

Flight Simulator Aircraft

The Boeing 247 for FS2004 and FSX by Jens Kristensen is available from www.avsim.com  and www.flightsim.com  sites as b247d_11.zip. 

The Boeing 247 for FS2002 by Dee Waldron with a Bluegrass repaint by Perry Hayard is available from www.avsim.com as boeing_b_247-d_bluegrass.zip I use this aircraft in FS2004 with the panel from the bottom of the Bluegrass FS2002 hangar page.

A payware version of the Stinson A Tri-Motor is due to be released soon.