American Airlines is marking its centennial on April 15, recalling a first flight in 1926 when a DH-4 biplane carried mail between Chicago and St. Louis under Robertson Aircraft Corporation, one of the companies that would later form the airline.
The current company emerged in 1930 from the consolidation of dozens of small carriers operating under the American Airways name. At the time, the U.S. aviation sector was largely built around mail contracts, and the network that became American linked cities across the Northeast, Midwest and Southwest.
In 1934, the business was reorganized and renamed American Air Lines under the leadership of C.R. Smith, who would later help introduce the Douglas DC-3 into service in 1936, a step that made passenger air travel more viable on a large scale.
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