Eastern Airlines (1934-1991)

Eastern Air Lines (later Eastern Airlines) was born on April 30, 1934 when Eastern Air Transport (EAT) was renamed Eastern Air Lines (EAL). Previously the company started in 1925 as Pitcairn Aviation as a flying school. Pitcairn started flying mail routes on May 1, 1928. On January 17, 1930 Pitcairn was named Eastern Air Transport to better reflect its geographical area. Over the years Eastern would grow into a large network domestic and international flag carrier mostly on the U.S. East Coast with a Miami headquarters. EA would also have a major hub presence at both Atlanta and New York. However the 63-year old airline failed to find additional investors and failed to operate at midnight on January 18, 1991.

AirlinersGallery.com Copyright Photo: The "hockey stick" livery was introduced in 1965 and was extended to the piston fleet including Lockheed 1049C-55-83 Super Constellation N6216C (msn 4524). N6216C is parked at the old Newark terminal. (Bruce Drum)

Video: An airline advertisement from the later years via YouTube:

Video: This second video from YouTube is really a now faded home movie taken in 1951 from the open air boarding area at the old 1928 36th Street Terminal on the north side of Miami International Airport.



Video: This is the first part of a fascinating movie produced by pilot and entertainer Arthur Godfrey in 1953 to extoll of the safety of commerical transportation. Courtesy of YouTube:



Video: Here is part 2 of the invaluable "time capsule" from Arthur Godfrey via YouTube: