All American First Flight Baltimore MD - Pittsburgh PA - 1949 - Airline Cachet

Description

In January 1949, the Civil Aeronautics Board authorized All American Airways (the airline changed its name from All American Aviation as part of their transition to passenger service) to operate feeder service in the Middle Atlantic area. This service was to replace the pickup service operated by this company via Air Mail Route 49, since one of the restrictions was that pickup service had to be suspended before feeder service could be inaugurated on a parallel route.
Segment 1 of Air Mail Route 97 was inaugurated on March 7, 1949, serving seven cities between Washington, DC and Pittsburgh.
All American Airways sponsored an unofficial first flight cachet which was applied to covers sent to the airline's offices.
This cover was
carried on the inaugural Air Mail Route 97 flight from Baltimore, Maryland
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 97W2.
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.