Born Minerva, Texas, 9 September 1899, Cyrus Rowlett
"C.R." Smith became founding president of American Airlines
in 1934. He consolidated routes into a logical network and
standardized the aircraft with a new fleet of Douglas DC-3s,
an aircraft built to his specifications. By 1936, with C.R.
at the helm, American turned it first profit and was the first
airline to serve New York's LaGuardia airport.
At the beginning of World War II, General Hap Arnold, chief of the
Army Air Corps, asked C.R. to help organize and run the Military
Air Transport Command. Rising to the rank of Major General and
serving as vice commander of the ATC, Smith was instrumental in
building an organization that, by the end of the war, with more
than 200,000 men and women in uniform, was the largest airline in
the world.
After the war, Smith worked with Douglas to develop the DC-6 and
later with Boeing to enlarge its original B-707. C.R. ordered many
of the new jet transports and brought American into the jet age. He
introduced SABRE, the world's first real time computerized reservation
system. In 1968, Smith served in President Lyndon Johnson's cabinet
as Secretary of Commerce. In 1973 he returned to American as Chairman
of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, retiring in 1974.
Died Washington, D.C., 4 April 1990.
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