Mid-Continent Airlines

Mid-Continent logo

Mid-Continent Airlines operated in the central United States through the 1930s until merging with Braniff Airlines in 1952.

The company was founded in 1928 in Sioux City, Iowa as Hanford's Tri-State Airlines by Arthur Hanford, Jr., who offered charter service and scheduled flights from Sioux City to Omaha, Nebraska, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Bismarck, North Dakota.

In 1934 it was awarded mail contract for runs from Minneapolis to Kansas City, Kansas; from Sioux Falls to Bismarck; and from Chicago, Illinois to Winnipeg via Minneapolis. The fleet consisted only of four four-passenger Lockheed Vegas and three Ford Tri-Motors.

Hanford died in 1935 and his father took over the airline and it was acquired in 1936 by Thomas Fortune Ryan III, the grandchild of financier Thomas Fortune Ryan. Ryan moved the headquarters to Kansas City and renamed the airline Mid-Continent in 1938 after expanding service into the oil boom cities in the Mid-continent Oil Field out of a hub in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ten-passenger Lockheed Electras were added to the fleet.

Both Northwest Airlines and American Airlines proposed mergers with the airline in the 1940s but they were never approved.

After World War II Mid-Continent expanded to Shreveport, Louisiana, New Orleans, Louisiana and Houston, Texas.

Mid-Continent got a lucrative contract to deliver airmail in 1950 on the North Central route #106.

Mid-Continent was the only major airline offering passenger and mail service to Fairfax Airport across the Missouri River from Kansas City Municipal Airport. The airport was inundated in the Great Flood of 1951.

Kansas City, Missouri moved to build a new airport away from the river for both Mid-Continent and TWA which had its main overhaul base in a former B-25 bomber factory at Fairfax. The new airport was to be called Mid-Continent Airport which would eventually become Kansas City International Airport. However before the airport could open, Mid-Continent Airlines was taken over by Braniff in 1952.

By the time they merged in 1953, Mid-Continent operated a fleet of DC-3s and five Convair-liners. The DC-3s continued flying for only a few more years, while the Convairs continued flying for Braniff Airways until the mid to late 1960s, eventually being phased out as the airline acquired Lockheed L-188 Electras followed by Boeing 707s, 720s and BAC-111s. Then the 727-100 and then 200 series for an all-jet fleet. During their lifetime Braniff Airways also operated the Stinson Detroiter, the Ford tri-motor, Lockheed vega and Model 10 Electra, C-46, Convair 240, 340 and 440 series. The DC-2, DC-3/C-47, and DC-4/C-54. The DC-6 and the DC-7C. There were also two ex-TWA Lockheed 749 Constellations; and the DC-8 aircraft acquired during the merger with Panagra. There were also the five Boeing 707-138s acquired from Qantas in the mid 1960s. On January 15, 1971 Braniff began flying its first 747-127 on the route between DAL (Dallas Love Field) and Honolulu HNL using a single 747-127, followed in the later 70s by 747-227s and four leased 747s from Lufthansa and American Airlines two aircraft each. Rounding out the fleet for long range non-stop DFW to Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong were two 747SPs. Braniff was also the only U.S. carrier to fly Concorde (Air France and British Airways interchanges with Braniff crews flying the domestic legs to DFW).

See also

• Doolittle Raid

External links

• History of Mid-Continent Airlines at braniffinternational.org
• Mid-Continent Airlines advertising, route maps, and timetables
• Mid-Continent Airlines advertising