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...........We Have to Earn Our Wings Everyday...........................Eastern Airlines...The Official Airline of Florida's Walt Disney World......................FLY EASTERN AIRLINES.....................The Great Silver Fleet.......................Our Hats are in The Rings........................Welcome to the Bahamas Express!!....................Come Fly With EASTERN............Welcome to the Eastern Shuttle!...............

Captain Eddie Rickenbacker Joins Eastern

Eddie Rickenbacker, a World War I (1917-18) fighter ace and a widely recognized figure in the United States, assumed the office of vice president of North American Aviation in 1933 and was named general manager of Eastern in December 1934. In 1938 Rickenbacker purchased Eastern Air Lines and became its president and general manager, a position he would hold until he stepped down in 1959.

By the 1950s, Eastern's propellers were very prominent up and down the East coast of the United States.

After the war Eastern's fortunes rose with the growing popularity of commercial air service. Rickenbacker led the way in making the transition to new, efficient postwar airplanes. He began by purchasing the Constellation, a passenger plane developed by Lockheed for the military. He added the Douglas DC-4, the Douglas DC-6, and in 1953 the most advanced four-engine plane of its day, the Douglas DC-7.

In 1956 Eastern merged with Colonial Airlines and gained new routes to Bermuda, Canada, Mexico, and various New England cities. 


The Eastern Shuttle
The shuttle offered continuous hourly service, and all passengers were guaranteed a seat without reservations.The Eastern Shuttle gained national attention quickly. The premise was wonderful. Anyone could board, without a reservation until the plane was full or departure time arrived. You purchased your ticket in the air. We called the crews, shuttle crews and they sat on standby for 8 hour shifts. If a flight filled and another person arrived in time for that departure, a new empty plane with a crew would be rolled out. Never a missed or bumped passenger.

Eastern underwent another facelift: aircraft were refurbished and a new color scheme was adopted; flight attendants and pilots received new uniforms; and such services as baggage handling, reservation services, and in-flight amenities were greatly improved through the use of computer technology. Eastern's reservations system (System One) became the model of the airline industry.


In 1975 NASA astronaut Frank Borman, became chief executive officer of Eastern.

This proud airline, the largest airline in the free world, continues to shine through former employees and thousands of passengers. This website is dedicated to those employees and passengers.

Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines began in the late 1920s as Pitcairn Aviation, a small carrier in Philadelphia that earned its income from the transport of airmail under U.S. government contract. During the 1930s the air line became a dominant carrier on the New York–Florida route via Atlanta. Eastern made a successful transition to the jet age in the 1960s.

 

Early Years

In 1927 Pitcairn Aviation, a tiny carrier owned by Harold F. Pitcairn, received government contracts to carry airmail along an "eastern route" that connected New York to Florida via Atlanta. In 1929 Clement Keys changed the carrier after purchase to Eastern Air Transport. A year later, the company added passenger service along a route that connected sixteen eastern seaboard cities, including Augusta and Savannah.

 Eastern the first national airline to turn a profit on passenger operations alone.


Eastern Air Transport
The new contracts added to the company's eastern service with the addition of a Chicago–New York route, and a New York–New Orleans, Louisiana, route via Atlanta. Eastern's route system, a product of the national airmail network subsidized by the federal government, ensured it an early place as one of the "Big Four" (with United, TWA, and American), whose dominance of the airline industry would last for almost fifty years. Eastern also helped open Florida as a prime national vacation destination, funneling passengers from the colder climes of the Northeast and Midwest to its resort cities.

 

Eastern's fortunes continued to improve when the government in 1934 awarded new airmail contracts to the company, now known as Eastern Air Lines.

Eastern Air Lines began life on April 19, 1926 as Pitcairn Aviation. Pitcairn won a government contract to fly mail and operated Mailwing single-engine aircraft to fly the US Mail between New York and Atlanta. In 1929 Clement Keys, the owner of North American Aviation, purchased Pitcairn, and in 1930 he changed the name to Eastern Air Transport, and would soon be known as Eastern Airlines. In 1938, the airline would be purchased by World War I flying ace, Eddie Rickenbacker. Rickenbacker pushed Eastern into a period of prodigious growth. Throughout the 1940s, competitors were acquired, more advanced planes were purchased and international routes were opened.

Boeing 747s were also introduced for a short time, and Eastern became the official airline of Walt Disney World. Eastern's official ride at Disney's Magic Kingdom park was If You Had Wings.

Eastern was rolling along when the 1980s started, under its new president, former astronaut Frank Borman. In 1980, a Caribbean hub was inaugurated at San Juan (then still named Isla Verde International Airport). In 1982, Eastern acquired the Braniff International 's South American route network. And while this all was going on, Eastern enjoyed splitting their fleet between their "silver colored hockey stick" livery (the lack of paint reduced weight by a hundred pounds) and their "white colored hockey stick" livery (on its Airbus-manufactured planes, whose metalurgy required paint).

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