Nighthawks to CBS Eyes: Capital Airlines

Capital Airlines operated for 34 years between 1927 and 1961 and through the 1950s was the 5th biggest airline in the United States in terms of revenue passenger miles. That made it bigger than Delta, Braniff, Continental and Northwest yet today it is largely forgotten. That is despite the fact that the airline introduced coach services and pioneered turboprop operations with the superb Vickers Viscount. Sadly the Viscounts would in the end be one of the factors that brought the airline to its knees and by the 1960 it was on borrowed time.

Starting as Clifford Ball Inc by 1929 it was known as Pennsylvania Air Lines. By 1930 its route stretched from Washington to Cleveland via Pittsburgh. By 1933 13,500 passengers were carried but the cancellation of the air-mail contracts in 1934 was a severe blow. Fortunately the company was able to re-establish itself as Pennsylvania Airlines and Transport Company in April and bid for its old route, but unfortunately it was not successful and the route was lost to a new start-up Central Airlines. PALTC operated Ford Trimotors regardless and competed against Central, with some acrimony, however during 1936 a merger was affected forming Pennsylvania-Central Airlines. By 1937 the fleet stood at 11 Boeing 247Ds. In 1938 PCA was rewarded when it growing route network was certified by the CAB and PCA was grandfathered into the new regulated era as a Trunk carrier. Its routes travelled from Norfolk to Milwaukee and Chicago (via Washington, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Detroit) with off shoots to Baltimore, Buffalo and Sault St Marie.

In 1939 the first DC-3s arrived. During WW2 PCA was kept busy flying transport and ferry flight missions, training personnel and maintaining AAF equipment. In 1944 the airline ordered DC-4s and actually became the first airline in the world to fly the type when they entered service on Jan 9th 1946. As early as 1945 the airline had been known as 'The Capital Airline' and in 1948 the name change became official. During the late 40s the airline finances were in a mess and the new president J.H. Slim Carmichael cut costs and introduced the world's first Air Coach service (in 48). This was revolutionary and a major factor in improving the airline's finances.

New routes in the late 40s added Minneapolis, Toledo, Memphis, Richmond, Charlotte, New Orleans, Atlanta and Mobile to the network. In 1950 5 second-hand L-049 Constellations joined to compete against other carriers' DC-6s. Seven more (ex-KLM L-749s) examples arrived in 1951 and in 1950 another new type - the Super DC-3 entered service. The Super-DC-3 was a substantial redesign of the ordinary Dakota but wasn't successful and all 3 were sold in 1952.

By mid 52 the airline operated a fleet of 24 DC-3s, 25 DC-4s and 6 Connies. The network by then was a dense web of services across the Eastern USA including an interchange to Florida operated with National. In 1954 Capital reached a novel agreement with BOAC to swap Connies leaving Capital with an all L-049 fleet of 12 examples.

All timetable images above are from the collection of Bjorn Larson from http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/ca2.htm

1955 was to be the year that really made Capital's name when a huge 60 aircraft order for the turboprop Viscount was made. The first 3 arrived that year and provided a huge edge over the other trunks still using piston props. Capital became the first US prop-jet operator. The other 57 arrived between 55-57.

One year later the airline ordered 14 Comet 4s which if delivered would have made Capital one of the earliest true-jet operators. Then in 1958 Capital ordered 15 CV-880s. A year later the Convair order was reduced and 5 Electra's were ordered. Only the latter were ever painted into Capital's new 1960 scheme and even they were never delivered.

Unfortunately financial reality kicked in and between 1958 and 1960 Capital suffered from serious money troubles and much bad luck. In fact between 1958 and 1960 the airline suffered 5 fatal crashes - 2 on the same day - whilst in 1958 a mechanics strike grounded the carrier for 37 days. Added to this were large interest payments on the debt used to purchase the Viscounts which meant that losses were incurred for 57 and 59. These difficulties led to a foreclosure suit being filed by Vickers in May 1960.

Additionally air-coach had eroded some of Capitals market, new jets eclipsed Capitals Viscounts which having been flown at top speed were maintenance heavy. All these problems came together in 1960 to make it clear that Capital needed to merge or it would go bust.

In the event an agreement was reached with United in 1960 and in June 1961 they took over Capital to create the largest airline in the free world. Between January and June 1961 Capital leased several United 720s to compete with other airline's jets but these weren't repainted into Capital's new 1960 scheme (nicknamed the CBS Eye scheme).

It was a sad end for a great airline and one can only think what might have been if Capital had ordered a more manageable number of Viscounts. In 1:400 the airline has now had 3 releases but could really do with a DC-3 and a DC-6, Viscount and Electra in the 1960 colours.