Associated Air Transport

Blair era

In 1947, Blair contracted to fly 300 construction workers from Minneapolis to Keflavik, Iceland. Blair knew of the opportunity because he regularly visited Keflavik as a pilot for American Overseas Airline (AOA). He called the new venture "Associated Air Transport" because he saw it as auxiliary to his AOA job. Blair first flew three trips with Douglas DC-4 registration number NC85021 belonging to Ocean Air Tradeways, (later known as United States Overseas Airlines), a war surplus aircraft he had helped convert to civilian configuration. But NC85021 was busy so Blair leased a Sikorsky VS-44 flying boat (a type he flew in World War II) which he named "Reykjavik" after the mission. Associated flew the aircraft from Lake Minnetonka near Minneapolis to Iceland via a refueling stop in Newfoundland.^{[5]: Chapter 5}

Blair subsequently acquired a war surplus Curtiss C-46 for $5000 (about $75,000 in 2026 dollars) and spent $45,000 to convert it to civilian configuration (including an extra gas tank for longer range). Blair leased out the aircraft for a time before flying it directly as AAT. The New York City-based^[6] airline became an irregular air carrier and for two years Blair sent the aircraft wherever there was business, including transporting migrants from Puerto Rico to New York, freshly-killed beef to market in South America, and displaced people from Europe to Israel. He sold the C-46 in early 1950, turning his attention to the P-51.^{[5]: Chapter 6}

Weesner

As Table 1 indicates, AAT operated minimally in 1950, but new owners resuscitated it in 1951 and moved it to San Antonio, building it up to two C-46s before selling it at the end of 1952 to John V. Weesner.^[18] The CAB had just removed Weesner from Lake Central Airlines (LCA). LCA was a local service carrier, a form of regional airline that depended on government subsidies; Weesner-affiliated entities overcharged LCA, increasing its subsidy.^[19] Weesner's tenure at AAT started with a high profile crash that killed 37 soldiers on a military charter (see Accidents; External links has a picture of the sistership to the one that crashed, taken in the same month). Weesner got out of AAT in 1955 in favor of the propane gas business.^[20] AAT stopped operating in July and did not resume until September 1956 with a single C-46, under new ownership and management, the president and controlling interest being Douglas T. Bell, who had a prior career at other supplemental carriers. The CAB was in the midst of a large investigation of supplemental air carriers, as part of which it approved AAT's new owners/managers; a key CAB criterion was that Weesner have no further connection.^[21]

Bell and Imperial

Bell successfully expanded AAT from 1957 thru 1960, not just in the number of aircraft, but also capability. By 1959, AAT acquired three "Super 46" aircraft^[22] (one of several upgrade programs for the C-46 that became available in the mid-1950s that made the aircraft faster, safer and able to carry more weight).^[23] The airline also added Douglas DC-4s to its fleet and in 1961, a Lockheed L-749 Constellation (see Fleet). The airline also, for the first time, developed a significant civilian charter business (see Table 1). Through 1959, at least, this was done while the airline stayed broadly break-even. In 1961 AAT significantly increased its scheduled business while reducing military charters. This occurred against a backdrop of a military charter business that had become substantially unprofitable industry-wide in the late 1950s.^[24] AAT scheduled service included routes from northern cities like Chicago, Detroit and New York to southern points like Miami and San Juan.^[25][26][27] Table 1 shows the strategy shift was not financially successful.

In November 1961, Imperial Airlines, another supplemental air carrier, suffered a military charter crash, killing 74 servicemen,^[28] focusing official attention on such airlines. AAT had suffered three crashes in the past four years, attracting specific attention.^[29] Two of those crashes occurred while engaged in military charters. While no one died,^{[30][31][32][33]} in one case the conduct of the crew caused the CAB to revoke their licenses (see Accidents). In the third crash, the captain overseeing a training flight was AAT president Bell himself, who forgot to lower the landing gear,^[34][35] for which he was fined shortly before the Imperial crash.^[36] Shortly after the Imperial crash, AAT was suspended from military work and in March 1962, the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) suspended the airline's operating license altogether. Bell disbanded the company.

However, a new group (including Hollywood actor Dale Robertson) bought the corporate shell (for $3,400, less than $40,000 in 2026 dollars), got the FAA to restore the operating license and AAT started flying again in August. But coincidentally, new legislation required the CAB to recertificate the economic authority of the supplementals that year. In October the CAB refused to recertificate AAT, noting it was essentially a new company. Further, AAT's business plan relied on once again flying for the military, the prospects for which were uncertain.^[37] The CAB shut AAT as of 23 October 1962,^[17] one of seven supplementals the CAB terminated in a similar fashion.^[38]