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Cyrus Rowlett Smith



Cyrus Rowlett Smith

Cyrus Rowlett Smith
CYRUS ROWLETT SMITH
Founding President of American Airlines
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.
Elected to the International Aerospace Hall of Fame 1996