Scenic sells scenery by the planeload
Dateline September 1927: Lindbergh is just back from Paris, and being “air-minded” is the thing.

Dateline September 1927: Lindbergh is just back from Paris, and being “air-minded” is the thing. Out in the Wild West, World War I Army flier, entrepreneur and promoter J. Parker Van Zandt creates a runway across a northern Arizona meadow at a place called Red Butte, begins building a hangar and prepares to launch the first commercial air tours over the Grand Canyon. His Scenic Airways is bankrolled by some of the biggest names in the nation’s largest corporations. Its first flights carried National Park Service and Fred Harvey Co. officials over the Canyon in a Stinson Detroiter.

This year the operation, now known as Grand Canyon Airlines (GCA), celebrates its 75th anniversary. It is believed to be the oldest continuously operated air-tour operator in the world, as well as the third- or fourth-oldest certified airline in the U.S.

Loading…