All American Airways First Flight Lancaster Pennsylvania - Pittsburgh - 1949

Description

Segment 3 of Air Mail Route 97 was initiated on March 28, 1949, serving ten Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey cities with feeder service.
This cover was
carried on the inaugural Air Mail Route 97 flight from Lancaster, Pennsylvania
to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (where it was backstamped) and is listed in the Contract Air Mail Flights (CAM) Section of The American Air Mail Catalogue as 97W15.
The cover is from the collection of David L. Miller.  D
avid L. Miller was an aviation pioneer who was instrumental in development of the early air mail pick-up techniques that gave birth to All American Aviation.
Allegheny Airlines became the new name of All American Airways on January 1, 1953.
A Civil Aeronautics Board order, effective June 11, 1979, authorized the corporate title “Allegheny
Airlines” to be changed to “USAir, Inc.” The name change reflected the carrier’s geographic expansion
and increased airline status.
In early 1997 USAir changed its name to US Airways and introduced a new corporate identity.
On February 14, 2013, US Airways Group and AMR Corporation announced that the two companies would merge to form the largest airline in the world. The combined airline carries the American Airlines name.