New Meaning to the Roaring 20s
Nothing tells a better story about the 1920s more than the rise of air travel. There is nothing like the sound of a WW1-era rotary engine roaring through the skies. I know we did not talk about air travel during this module, but I have a personal connection to this. After WW1, the abundance of airplanes and people who could fly made starting airmail services and commercial air travel easy. Combine that with the slow travel by train from the east coast to the new and booming west coast created a market for fast travel between the two places.
Keep in mind the planes that people were flying after WW1 were slow wood-and-fabric biplanes like the Fokker D-1. The same plane that Manfred von Richthofen flew also called “The Red Barron”. (I know this is American history but I finally get a place to use my obscure knowledge somewhere so bear with me) After the war ended many of the airmen wanted to keep flying and the best way to do so to buy there own plane and either barnstorm or fly airmail around the country. By the mid-1920s the postal service had developed an airmail network route that was transcontinental spanning over 3,000 miles of the country from New York to San Francisco. Most of the time the only things that this airmail network would be flying cross country were bags of mail. A burlap sack filled with envelopes was all the planes at the time could “safely” handle. The postal service offered twelve contracts to help privatize. Some of the carriers that won these routes would, through time and mergers, evolve into Pan Am, Delta Air Lines, Braniff Airways, American Airlines, United Airlines, Trans World Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and Eastern Air Lines.
In 1925 the ford motor company bought the Stout Metal Airplane Company, where their engineers started developing a revolutionary plane called the Ford Trimotor. This plane in my opinion is the pinnacle of early 20th-century engineering. The Trimotor as the name implies had three Pratt and Whitney Wasps a technologically advanced engine that was the biggest and best. Having two of the engines on the wings and one in the nose let the Trimotor cruise at a mind-boggling(for the 1920s) 90 mph carrying 12 passengers, with a range of 575 miles. Nicknamed the “Tin Goose” the exterior was a corrugated aluminum sheet-metal that gives it the instantly recognizable bright silver exterior. There were only 199 Tin Geese produced and sadly only around 8 are still air-worthy in 2021. This plane was the catalyst for the surge of air travel for the masses in the 20th century. With how easily the Trimotor could transport passengers it became the main airframe that the big airlines used. Transporting thousands of passengers around the country effortlessly in just 10 years after Richthofen shot down 80 people over France during WW1. The world used that same tool the Red Barron did to revolutions the ease of travel forever.
The rise of airlines in the 20s and 30s helped the rapid expansion of materialism in the country. By giving way to mass transport of people and goods. Flying became the way the high and middle class got around the country. I think that the rise of airlines in the 20s had more of an impact on the country and the world than anything else did at the time. I couldn't imagine a world without the ease of travel the airplane brings with it. Maybe the roaring 20s was the sound of a Pratt and Whitney airplane engine overhead.
