Term Paper on "Air Cargo Industry"

Term Paper 11 pages (3692 words) Sources: 10

[EXCERPT] . . . .

History Of Air Cargo Industry

The history of the air cargo industry in a very real way mirrors the history of air transportation. This paper reviews the history of air transportation and how those visionaries that pre-dated the emergence of air transport helped the industry grow and spread. Moreover, the paper will include the advancement of air transport in World War II and the way in which air transport has developed through the 20th century.

The History of Air Transportation - Balloons

Before there could be air transport, mankind first had to be able to fly. The first demonstration of a "lighter-than-air machine" occurred in Annonay, France, in 1783, six years prior to the French Revolution of 1789 (Rumerman, 2007). The brothers Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier witnessed the phenomenon of smoke pushing a paper bag upwards (due to the hot air from the fire below) and so they built a device of paper and linen, opened at the bottom, and when they witnessed the device floating upward, they were ready to test out balloons.

When those tests proved successful, the Montgolfier brothers were ready for their major test. It was with a balloon ten meters in diameter that they made a successful flight on June 4, 1783; filled with hot air, the balloon rose about 6,562 feet, according to Rumerman, with the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission. Later, on September 19, 1783, in Versailles France, the brothers flew their very first passengers in their big balloon: for the eight-minute flight, they had on board a duck, a rooster, and a sheep. Witnessing their maiden passenger flight was King Louis XVI, the whole French court and Marie Antoinette -- along with about 130,000 spectators. By October of that same year, the Montgolfier brothers had taken humans up in their hot air balloon.

Their problem was they were just using plain air, which, when heated, of course rises, but when the air cools down, the balloon sinks to the ground. Eventually hydrogen was used, albeit hydrogen is highly flammable, and the first crossing of the English Channel in a hot air balloon was accomplished on January 7, 1785. The first known casualty of balloon flight was Pilatre de Rozier, who was killed June 15, 1785, then the hydrogen in his balloon exploded (Rumerman).

The Literature -- the History of Air Transportation -- the Civil War

Hot air ballooning when through many transitions between the initial flights in France and the time of the U.S. Civil War in 1861. The very first U.S. balloon that was created specifically for military use was called the Union (built by the Union Army), according to the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission. Americans Thaddeus Lowe and John LaMountain -- after demonstrating to President Abraham Lincoln (with a tethered balloon that rose to 500 feet) that balloons could be helpful in reconnaissance -- received federal funding for the Union.

Using gas from local sources, Lowe piloted his balloon to upwards of 1,000 feet near Arlington, Virginia on September 24, 1861. Lowe crossed the Potomac River and could see the Confederate troops more than three miles away at Falls Church, Virginia. He began telegraphing that intelligence to the Union troops, and hence, when the Union guns began blazing away at the Confederate troops, it was the first time in the known history of warfare that troops fired on other troops without being able to see those enemy troops from the ground (but could see them from the air) (U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission).

Due to that successful reconnaissance, the U.S. Secretary of War Simon Cameron ordered four more balloons followed shortly by two more balloons. The success of Lowe's reports in September, 1861, was followed up by other successes, including reports that Lowe transmitted (hourly) on Confederate movements in April, 1863, the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission reported on page 2. In time, the Confederates built their own balloons for reconnaissance in 1862, albeit the Confederates used hot air because they did not have access to hydrogen in the field.

The Literature -- the History of Air Transportation -- the Wright Brothers

The Wright brothers (Orville and Wilbur) started experimenting with flight in 1896 in their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, and by 1902 they had built a glider that made "…more than 700 successful flights" (Eyewitness to History) (EH). But the real challenge was powered flight, and the initial problem was that no manufacturer of automobiles could provide them with an engine that was "light enough and powerful enough for their needs" (EH). So the only answer was to build one themselves, and they did.

On December 17, 1903, at a beach in North Carolina, the "…conditions…we perfect for flight," Orville later wrote in his diary. After they warmed up the engine and propellers, Orville took off and flew for 12 seconds. They made several other short flights, and had trouble stabilizing the craft, but the deed had been done: the Wright brothers had flown a propeller-driven craft for the first time in U.S. history. Only one local journal "made mention of the event" although several newspapers had been invited to witness the flight (EH).

The Literature -- the History of Air Freight Transportation -- Air Cargo Begins

The one-hundred year anniversary of the first commercial air cargo flight occurred on the 19th of August, 1911, according to Sylvia Gersti's article in 100 Years of Air Cargo. In the fall of 1910, seven years after the Wright brothers' first flight, businessmen approached the Wright brothers and asked to use one of their airplanes "…as a revolutionary means" to transport silk. The deal was done ($5,000) and ten bales of silk were transported from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio (a hundred miles away) in the fall of 1910. This reportedly opened the door to commercial air cargo transport in the United States.

In August 1911, the German company, Berliner Morgenpost was apparently the first air consignment in Europe; air cargo was shipped from Berlin-Johannisthal to Frankfort; and on the 10th of July, 1912 the first air mail in Germany was flown on a biplane called "The Yellow Dog" (Gersti, p. 1). In 1917 the German Air Freight (DLR) company was launched, and shipments of daily newspapers were being shipped a short time later, Gersti explains. The DLR biplanes weren't very fast by modern standards (99.42 MPH), but they could carry a decent load of mail and newspapers and hence air cargo had its launched in Europe (Gersti, p. 1).

On June 10, 1912, the first large-scale airmail service featuring dirigible balloons was launched in Frankfort, Germany, according to the book History of Air Cargo and Airmail from the 18th Century (translated by John Skilbeck, 2005).

By the year 1926, the new airline company, German Lufthansa, was well off the ground, having already transported cargo including 926 tons. The next milestone in the history of air cargo came on February 3, 1934, as Lufthansa carried the first trans-oceanic flight from Germany and South America.

The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission points out that a converted Handley-Page bomber was used to transport 1,100 pounds of freight from Washington, D.C., to Chicago. Unfortunately a mechanical problem in the plane forced it down in Ohio, but that trip from D.C. To Ohio marked the second known cargo sent by air (the first was the silk in 1910). In the 1920s, things were really becoming positive on the air cargo front; in 1927, the year Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs, the air freight business was hitting it big as well, moving 45,859 pounds (Siddiqi, 2007, p. 1). By 1929, the air freight business was moving 257,443 pounds of goods and that number rose to more than a million pounds by 1931 (Siddiqi, p. 1).

Henry Ford is known of course as the man who used the assembly line to build automobiles more efficiently than any previous entrepreneur. But he was involved in air freight as his company carried "1 million pounds per year" starting in 1925. By the conclusion of 1929, the year the stock market crashed, Ford's express company was averaging more than 3 millions pounds a year. The National Air Transport company opened in 1926, Siddiqi writes, and began flying freight between Dallas and New York in 1927. Another early arrival into the air freight forwarding business was the American Railway Express (renamed Railway Express Agency in 1929), launching its operations in 1927, Siddiqi explains (p. 1). Shortly thereafter, General Air Express (1932) began flying freight, and in fact the two merged in 1935, due to the inability to earn good profits in competition with one another.

Other companies getting in on the business as time went by in the 20th century included: a) United Airlines (the very first "all-cargo service in U.S. airline history) used Douglas DC-4 planes to deliver mail between New York and Chicago; b) in 1941, United, TWA, American and Eastern Airlines teamed up to form a new company called Air Cargo, Inc.; c) Slick Airways; d)… READ MORE

How to Reference "Air Cargo Industry" Term Paper in a Bibliography

Related Term Papers:

History of Air Cargo Term Paper

History Of Air Cargo

It's hard to image today's life without those goods which are provided by the industry of air cargo. Electronic equipment and mail, fresh fruits and other… read more

Term Paper 12 pages (3792 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Transportation / Mass Transit

---

Air Transportation in Regards to Security Global Sourcing Shipments Term Paper

Airline Security

Air security has changed and has impacted shipments and has been impacted since increased security since 9/11 the attacks of September 11, 2001, on the United States (9/11)… read more

Term Paper 3 pages (732 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Transportation / Mass Transit

---

Westjet vs. Air Canada Why Westjet Will Win Dissertation

airline industry has become increasingly competitive in recent years due in part to the horsewhipping it experienced following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The ongoing global economic downturn… read more

Dissertation 50 pages (17068 words) Sources: 75 Topic: Transportation / Mass Transit

---

Sea Cargo Transportation Term Paper

Aeronautics

Sea Cargo Transportation

Ocean freight companies have been transporting goods across the seas, from continent to continent, as cost effectively as possible for many years. Ocean freight shipping can… read more

Term Paper 8 pages (2579 words) Sources: 3 Topic: Transportation / Mass Transit

---

Securing Commercial Air Travel Thesis

Securing Commercial Air Travel

Airline security has been compromised for years despite repeated attempts by terrorists to hijack airliners. Hijacking of aeroplanes to Cuba had become pretty common in the… read more

Thesis 7 pages (2481 words) Sources: 7 Style: APA Topic: Transportation / Mass Transit

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>