fulbright

History

Capitol Airways was typical of many companies spawned by the unprecedented impetus given aviation following World War II. Airline Captain Jesse Stallings and his associate, Richmond Mclnnis, formed the company at Nashville's Cumberland Field in 1946. Stallings, who soon became sole owner of the business, was a former barnstormer who signed on to fly with American Airlines in 1936. When the war came he was assigned to fly under contract with the Army's Air Transport Command (ATC). During the war Stallings made 125 Atlantic crossings and set a record for the first nonstop cargo flight from Prestwick, Scotland, to New York.

In the beginning Capitol operated as a flight school and aircraft sales agency. Aided by the availability of Military surplus transport aircraft and military trained pilots, Capitol soon began to expand. In 1949 Stallings quit his airline job, moved his struggling little company to Berry Field and purchased a DC-3. One of his first steady customers was the Western Kentucky State College basketball team. Before long, Grand Ole Opry performers were flying to their engagements all across the country on Capitol charter flights.

By the 1950s a small fleet of transports, including DC-3s and Lockheed Lodestars, was flying the Capitol name nationwide. The company soon qualified for military business and began hauling priority freight for the Air Force in 1954. Within a few years, Capitol was operating a fleet of over forty C-46

transports, and it became the primary civilian carrier for the military's Logistic Air Support (LOGAIR) program. At the same time, Capitol entered the international charter market, first with a DC-4 and, later, a fleet of Lockheed Constellations. By the late 1950s, the company was flying cargo and passengers to every corner of the free world and had moved all its operations to Wilmington, Delaware.

    In 1963 Capitol was among the first charter fleets to operate jet aircraft, taking
delivery of a new DC-8. The following year the same aircraft, N-4904C, set a world record in commercial aviation by flying non-stop from Tokyo to Wilmington in 12 hours, 25 minutes.

     Throughout the 1960s military and civilian cargo operations increased dramatically. Medical supplies were flown almost weekly from the U.S. to Saigon. In Europe, Capitol signed a contract to perform all cargo flights for Lufthansa and Air France. By the late 1960s Capitol added "International" to its name and was operating six "straight" DC-8s and three "stretch" versions along with its durable fleet of prop aircraft. By this time, Capitol was one of only 12 nonscheduled airlines still in business. Thus, it was granted a permanent supplemental air carrier certificate by the Civil Aeronautics Board.

     In 1971 Capitol moved back to Tennessee, becoming one of the first new tenants at the deactivated Sewart Air Force Base at Smyrna. Although the supplemental air cargo business in behalf of foreign air carriers waned, Capitol remained strong as a military contract carrier, often delivering with an on-time and reliability rate of 98 percent. While the Capitol jet fleet grew through the late 1970s, military contracts did not. After almost 40 years in business, the company ceased operations in 1984.

From: Aviation in Tennessee by Jim Fulbright, copyright 1998.

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