National Airlines got its start in 1934 when Ted Baker and his associate, Don Franklin, successfully bid for AM (Air Mail) Route 31 between St. Petersburg and Daytona Beach, Florida, via Tampa, Lakeland, and Orlando. Service was inaugurated on October 15, 1934, with Ryan Monoplanes which were soon replaced with Stinson A Tri-Motors.

Don Franklin left the enterprise and thereafter National Airlines was associated with just one leader (or, some would say, despot), George Theodore “Ted” Baker.

Baker would become a thorn in the side of Eastern Air Lines’ feisty general manager, ‘Captain’ Eddie Rickenbacker, for years to come. Both men were known for their volatile tempers.

NATIONAL GROWS

In 1937, much to Rickenbacker’s consternation, the Post Office awarded National a contract to fly between Tampa and Miami, enabling customers and mail from Tampa, Sarasota, and Fort Myers to connect with Pan American’s Caribbean and Latin American flights in Miami. Of course, Rickenbacker felt that Eastern should have been selected. National now had a meandering route from Miami to Daytona Beach, via St. Petersburg and Tampa. With the new service came new aircraft, 10-passenger Lockheed L-10 Electras.

National successfully bid on the air mail contract from Jacksonville to New Orleans via intermediate points and service was inaugurated over this route on November 1, 1938. Against Rickenbacker’s objections, the CAB awarded National the authority to operate over the short segment from Daytona Beach to Jacksonville in competition with Eastern. This link joined together the two parts of National’s system: from Miami northward to Daytona and Jacksonville via Tampa, and from Jacksonville westward to New Orleans.

Ted Baker liked being thought of as a swashbuckling pirate stealing business from Rickenbacker. He christened his airline the “Route of the Buccaneers”, incorporating the image of a pirate with sword in hand as the company symbol.

LODESTARS INSTEAD OF DC-3s

Introduced to the nation’s airways in 1936, the Douglas DC-3 quickly proved itself to be an aircraft that could make a profit on revenue received solely from carrying passengers.  It became the standard airliner for major carriers around the world.

But Baker felt that the DC-3’s 21-passenger capacity was too big for his needs. He decided to buy Lockheed’s ultimate twin-engine airliner, the 14-passenger L-18 Lodestar instead.  National would hold the distinction of being the only major airline in the United States never to operate a DC-3.

The Lodestar was not a graceful looking airplane. It sat low to the ground and sported twin-tail vertical stabilizers. Unlike the DC-3, with its 2 + 1 seating arrangement (later expanded to 2 + 2 by most airlines), the Lodestar was equipped with a single row of 7 seats on each side of the aisle. The wing-spar ran across the front of the cabin requiring two steps up to enter the cockpit. Ungainly as it appeared, the Lodestar’s advantage was speed. It cruised at 220 mph, compared to the DC-3’s 170.

BAKER VS. HIS PILOTS

Behind the scenes at National, all was not peachy. The pilots wanted to unionize and Ted Baker would have none of it. It was his airline and his employees would do as he said in exchange for what he paid them, and that was that.

In the early days, Baker would fire any pilot that was a union organizer. In 1942, Baker declared that “wartime emergency” forced him to pay pilots a lump sum amount each month instead of the hourly wage they were supposed to earn based on flight time. He relented after the CAB threatened to investigate his payroll practices.

The pilot’s gained membership in the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA), but Baker’s inability to build bridges with his own employees almost brought an end to his airline.

ON TO THE BIG APPLE

In 1944, the CAB handed Ted Baker a gift that would bring him into the major leagues. Authority was granted for National Airlines to operate between New York and Miami via several important intermediate cities. Prior to this, Eastern held a monopoly in the New York to Miami market. Some say that it was Rickenbacker’s constant complaining about the Democratic presidential administration of Franklin Roosevelt that prompted the CAB to allow National onto Rickenbacker’s most valuable route but, in truth, the busy East Coast market deserved two airlines competing for traffic.

Unfortunately for Baker, since he had chosen to forego purchasing DC-3s, the only aircraft he had available to fly this prestigious new route were his little 14-passenger Lodestars. Service was inaugurated to New York on October 1, 1944. Eastern was operating DC-3s in competition.

After the war, in February 1946, Ted Baker got the upper hand on Capt. Rickenbacker when National introduced 46-passenger, 4-engine Douglas DC-4s, which had the range to offer non-stop service between New York and Miami for the first time. Still stuck with twin-engine DC-3s, Eastern would not introduce DC-4s on the route until several months later. Of course, Baker named his new non-stop service “The Buccaneer.”           

The CAB awarded National another plum in 1946, the year that Ted Baker moved the company’s headquarters from Jacksonville to Miami. This award infringed on the territory of another airline pioneer, Juan Trippe of Pan American. National gained authority to serve Havana, Cuba, non-stop from both Miami and Tampa, and from New York via intermediate points.

In 1947, Baker and Rickenbacker both put modern pressurized equipment into service non-stop between New York and Miami; Eastern introduced Lockheed L-649 Constellations in June, while National launched Douglas DC-6 flights in July.

LABOR RELATIONS

Unfortunately, employee relations at National had not improved. The pilots contended that Baker blatantly ignored their contract by violating seniority provisions and failing to comply with negotiated work rules. Other employee groups were similarly dissatisfied. On January 26, 1948, the airline’s reservationists and ticket agents went on strike over wage issues and working conditions.   

It was Baker’s refusal to arbitrate a case involving a pilot, Maston O’Neal, that almost brought an end to National. During a hydroplaning incident while attempting to land his Lodestar on a wet and notoriously short runway, O’Neal had saved the lives of all of his passengers and crew, but had lost his airplane in the process. Baker fired the pilot.

On February 3, 1948, National’s pilots walked out on strike over the O’Neal incident. The strike did not end until the November 1948 presidential election, which Baker was hoping that corporate-friendly Dewey would win. Labor-friendly Truman won the election and Baker settled with the pilots’ union.

THE “AIRLINE OF THE STARS”

After joining a religious movement called Moral Re-Armament, Baker claimed to have had a change of heart after immersion into the group’s teachings of “cooperation, honesty, and mutual respect” to transform relationships between opposing parties. Baker announced to his employees that he had a new attitude toward his workforce at National Airlines. From that point forward, a truce was observed between management and labor, new contracts were negotiated, and everyone’s mission was to build National Airlines into the best carrier operating along the East Coast.

NATIONAL VS. EASTERN

Baker knew that Rickenbacker’s weakness was a lack of emphasis on in-flight service. Safety and reliability were paramount to Captain Eddie, with passenger comfort somewhat of an afterthought.

Baker hired Walter Sternberg to be his new Vice President – Sales. Sternberg previously worked for Rickenbacker who reportedly fired him over their differences about the quality of Eastern’s in-flight service, which Sternberg thought was lacking.

Sternberg dumped the “Route of the Buccaneers” slogan and rechristened National the “Airline of the Stars”, implying that celebrities of stage and screen, and even famous politicians, chose to fly National instead of the competition. A new livery was created and ‘Star’ flights featured a red carpet rolled out between the gatehouse and the aircraft for boarding and deplaning.

Aircraft interiors were refurbished with plush seats and DC-6s featured recorded music playing over the public address system while the aircraft was on the ground. Two-by-two seating, an advantage over two-by-three seating in part of Eastern’s Constellations, was touted. Fresh cut flowers were placed aboard each Star flight and filet Mignon dinners were served. The DC-6’s aft lounge area was rechristened The Starlight Lounge.

In conjunction with the new ‘Star’ theme, the company photographed celebrities boarding and deplaning its aircraft – everyone from Zsa Zsa Gabor to the Shah of Iran.

BAKER’S NEW ATTITUDE

As a gesture of good will, management voluntarily awarded the pilots a bonus of 5% before taxes for the 1952 fiscal year. It certainly appeared that Ted Baker had softened, but he still kept his company under tight control. Every expenditure of $500 or more had to be personally scrutinized by the boss, and he still yelled at his managers.

Keeping pace with competitors, particularly Rickenbacker’s Eastern, Baker added modern equipment to National’s fleet throughout the 1950s: DC-6Bs, DC-7s, Convair 340s and 440s. In late 1957, he put the newest Douglas and Lockheed models into service: the DC-7B and the L-1049H “Super-H” Constellation.           

THE 707 COUP

In October 1958, Pan American became the first operator of the Boeing 707 turbojet, while BOAC introduced the Comet 4. The commercial jet age had begun.

Pan American was strictly an international carrier. 707s were not scheduled to be introduced domestically in the United States until early 1959, when American Airlines would place them in service between New York and Los Angeles.

Baker secretly worked out a deal with Pan Am’s Juan Trippe. Since winter was Pan Am’s low season on the North Atlantic and, conversely, it was National’s busiest time of year with sun-seekers heading to Florida, Trippe agreed to lease two of his new 707s to Baker for National’s use on the New York – Miami run, starting December 10, 1958. Once the ink was dry on the contract, Baker publicized his coup over Rickenbacker by issuing ‘America’s First Jet Service Timetable’. The publication proudly advertised the 707 schedules commencing in December, and National legitimately held claim to operating the first domestic jet service in the USA.    

WESTWARD HO

By 1961, Baker’s airline was operating its own jets, DC-8s, over a network that extended west to California as a result of National’s selection by the CAB to fly the southern transcontinental route. Of course, Rickenbacker was livid and challenged the decision, but to no avail. The route award was tempered somewhat by the forced suspension of service to Havana after Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba and political relations between that country and the U.S. soured. 

CASHING IN THE CHIPS

Lewis B. “Bud” Maytag, Jr., was the heir to a washing machine manufacturing fortune, but his first love was aviation. He contacted Ted Baker to see if he was interested in selling his stake in National. Baker claimed that the company was not for sale, but he also let it be known that, for the right price, anything is for sale.

Negotiations between Maytag and Baker proceeded amicably until Maytag found out that Baker had approached Continental’s president, Bob Six, to see if he would be interested in pursuing a Continental Air Lines purchase of National. He was.

Buccaneer Baker was playing one side against the other and, in the process, managed to increase the value of his National shares and, thus, force a better offer from Maytag. A new price was agreed upon and, in 1962, Ted Baker sold out to Bud Maytag and bid farewell to the airline that he had built from scratch.

Ted Baker passed away in 1963 while on vacation with his wife in Vienna. The old pirate flew west leaving behind a storied legacy in American commercial aviation.

MAYTAG CHANGES THINGS UP

Bud Maytag had his own vision for the company that he now helmed and one of the first things to go was the “Airline of the Stars” slogan, which was replaced by the rather uninspired “National Goes Where the Nation Grows”. This was superseded a couple of years later by the more lyrical catchphrase “Coast to Coast to Coast”, which reflected National’s system that served the Atlantic seaboard, the Gulf Coast, and the shore of the Pacific.

Maytag placed more turboprop Lockheed L-188 Electras and pure-jet Douglas DC-8s into service while retiring the company’s piston-engine aircraft. He eventually settled on two basic types: the Douglas DC-8 and the new Boeing 727, which was introduced in 1964.

In 1968, the company went through yet another update of its brand. A sunburst logo was adopted along with a new livery of yellow and orange. Onboard meals featured Florida specialties such as key lime pie. Soon after the new look was introduced, another new slogan was coined: “Is This Any Way to Run an Airline? You Bet It is!”

THE SEVENTIES

Like several other domestic carriers, National ordered the new wide-body Boeing 747. Two of the type entered service with the company in 1970, assigned to the popular New York – Miami and Miami – Los Angeles routes. The jumbo jets were sold in 1976 as a more suitable type for National’s route structure had supplanted them – the Douglas DC-10.

But the biggest step forward for National in the new decade was the inauguration of transatlantic service. In 1969, the CAB awarded the airline authority to operate non-stop between Miami and London. Service commenced on June 15, 1970. Later in The Seventies, National would inaugurate service to Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Zurich.

FLY ME

National’s most memorable ad campaign was launched in October 1971. Created with the idea of naming aircraft after female employees within the company, the “Fly Me – Fly National” campaign was an instant hit. Extending the gimmick beyond employees, National’s fifth DC-10 to enter service was christened Geraldine by comedian Flip Wilson, honoring the character that he had created on his TV show.

MERGER OF NATIONAL WITH PAN AM

Before President Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act into law in October 1978, management teams from Pan American and National worked out the terms of a merger, which would be more accurately described as an acquisition of National by Pan Am. Frank Lorenzo’s Texas International Airlines (TI) had been pursuing its own acquisition of National but Pan Am stepped in and purchased the stock from TI which that company had already accumulated.

The merger became official in January 1980, and a timetable of integrated schedules was issued in February carrying the names of both carriers on its cover. In July 1980, Pan Am issued the last timetable that would acknowledge National Airlines. On its cover was a photo of flight attendants modeling the new Pan Am uniform that would be worn by the in-flight personnel formerly employed by both carriers. It was the unofficial end of the company founded by buccaneer Ted Baker that had once called itself the “Airline of the Stars”.