Mohawk Airlines

IATA ICAO Callsign MO MO MOHAWK
Founded	1945 as Robinson Airlines
Ceased operations	1972
Fleet size	See fleet About 42 aircraft in service at acquisition by Allegheny Airlines in 1972 [1]
Destinations	Albany, Buffalo, Binghamton, Erie, Glens Falls, Ithaca, New York, Newark, Hartford, Harrisburg, Montreal, Rochester, Syracuse, Toronto, Utica, Washington
Headquarters	Ithaca, New York After 1958, Utica, New York
Key people	Cecil Robinson, Robert Peach
Website	n/a

Postcard showing the 1960s BAC 1-11 livery

Postcard showing the 1970s BAC 1-11 livery

Mohawk Airlines was a regional passenger airline operating in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, mainly in New York and Pennsylvania, from the mid-1940s until its acquisition by Allegheny Airlines in 1972. At its height, it employed over 2,200 personnel and pioneered several aspects of regional airline operations,^[2] including being the first airline in the United States to hire an African American flight attendant in 1958. The airline was based at Ithaca Municipal Airport near Ithaca, New York until 1958, when it moved to Oneida County Airport in Whitestown, New York.^[3][4]

History[edit]

The airline was founded in 1945 by aerial photographer C.S. Robinson as business of Robinson Aviation, completing its first passenger flight on April 6. The operation was based out of Ithaca Municipal Airport near Ithaca, New York, flying single-engine, three-passenger Fairchild F-24s. After the end of World War II, the Fairchilds were supplemented with two Cessna T-50s, and in 1946 the entire fleet was replaced with Beechcraft Model 18s.^[1]

To keep the airline flying, Robinson secured investments from a variety of local sources, notably Ithaca Enterprises, a nonprofit organization responsible for bringing new businesses to Ithaca; the Cooperative Grange League Federation Exchange (now part of Agway), a farmers cooperative that had been organized by members of The Grange, and Cornell University. Most significant was the involvement of Edwin Albert Link, creator of the Link Trainer. Link lent the airline $75,000 to purchase three used Douglas DC-3s— but also removed control of the company from Robinson, making pilot Robert Peach its general manager.^[5] In 1948 the Civil Aeronautics Board certified the airline as a local service carrier, awarding a variety of routes in the Mohawk Valley. The airline adopted the slogan *Route of the Air Chiefs*, and painted a blue and red logo of an Indian chief on its tails.^[1]

In 1952 Robert Peach purchased a controlling share of the airline, and Robinson removed himself from its day-to-day operations. The board adopted the name Mohawk Airlines. Operations continued to grow; in 1953 the airline carried 2 million passengers between 15 airports and earned $24.3 million in revenue.^[5] The following summer it experimented briefly with helicopter service, connecting Newark, New Jersey and Grossinger's Resort in the Catskill Mountains with a Sikorsky S-55. (The July 1954 OAG shows 13 flights a week each way between Newark and Liberty Airport 41°48′N 74°42′W / 41.80°N 74.70°W / 41.80; -74.70; fare $18 one way plus tax.) More successfully, the airline introduced Convair 240s on 1 July 1955, becoming the first local service carrier with pressurized aircraft.^[1] In 1956, having outgrown its facilities in Ithaca, it moved its corporate offices to Utica.^[1]

When hired by Mohawk Airlines on 11 February 1958, Ruth Carol Taylor became the first African-American flight attendant in the United States.^[6] Six months after breaking one historic barrier, Ruth Taylor's career ended due to another discriminatory barrier: the airline's marriage ban, a common practice among airlines of the day. Airlines often dismissed flight attendants who married or became pregnant.^[7]

In 1961 Mohawk was the first airline to use a centralized computer-based reservation service, and in 1965 the first regional airline to use flight simulators.^[2] Mohawk upgraded its fleet with the BAC One-Eleven in 1965, becoming the first regional airline to fly jets.

Fairchild Hiller FH-227 at New York-JFK in September 1970

By 1969, Mohawk had retired all of its piston engined aircraft and mainly flew the BAC One-Eleven and the Fairchild Hiller FH-227.

Mohawk saw its golden age in the late 1950s and early 1960s, acquiring the Convair 440 in 1958, to which Martin 4-0-4s were added in 1960. Like other local service airlines, Mohawk was subsidized; in 1962, operating "revenues" totalled $23.3 million including $4.6 million "federal subsidy".^[8] By May 1968 the number of destinations had increased to 38, from Boston and Washington, D.C. to Detroit. From 1968 to 1971, labor and economic issues bled Mohawk financially. Unable to pay creditors at the end of that period, Mohawk entered merger discussions with Allegheny Airlines, and the merger was completed in 1972. In 1979 Allegheny changed its name to USAir, and later to US Airways. Following bankruptcies and a later merger with America West Airlines in 2005, US Airways purchased American Airlines in 2015 and assumed operations under the American Airlines name and logo.^[9]

Destinations[edit]

• Connecticut
  
  • 
    Hartford (Bradley International Airport)
  
  


• Illinois
  
  • 
    Chicago (Chicago Midway Airport)
  
  


• Massachusetts
  
  
  
  • 
    Bedford (Hanscom Field)*
  
  
  • 
    Boston (Logan International Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Martha's Vineyard (Martha's Vineyard Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Nantucket (Nantucket Memorial Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Worcester (Worcester Regional Airport)
  
  
  
  


• Michigan
  
  • 
    Detroit (Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport)
  
  


• Minnesota
  
  • 
    Minneapolis-St. Paul (Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport)
  
  

Convair CV-240 "Air Chief Pasquat", circa 1959

• New Hampshire
  
  
  
  • 
    Keene (Dillant-Hopkins Airport)*
  
  
  • 
    Lebanon (Lebanon Municipal Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Manchester (Grenier Field)
  
  
  
  


• New Jersey
  
  
  
  • 
    Atlantic City (Atlantic City International Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Newark (Newark Liberty International Airport)
  
  
  
  


• New York
  
  
  
  • 
    Albany (Albany International Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Alexandria Bay (Maxson Airfield)*
  
  
  • 
    Binghamton (Greater Binghamton Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Buffalo (Buffalo Niagara International Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Elmira/Corning (Elmira-Corning Regional Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Glens Falls (Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport)*
  
  
  • 
    Islip (Long Island MacArthur Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Ithaca/Cortland (Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Jamestown (Chautauqua County-Jamestown Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Massena (Massena International Airport)
  
  
  • 
    New York (John F. Kennedy International Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Oneonta/Cooperstown (Oneonta Municipal Airport)*
  
  
  • 
    Plattsburgh (Clinton County Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Poughkeepsie (Dutchess County Airport)*
  
  
  • 
    Rochester (Greater Rochester International Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Utica/Rome (Oneida County Airport)*
  
  
  • 
    Saranac Lake (Adirondack Regional Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Syracuse (Syracuse Hancock International Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Watertown (Watertown International Airport)
  
  
  • 
    White Plains (Westchester County Airport)
  
  
  
  

BAC 1-11 "Quebec", circa 1972

• Ohio
  
  • 
    Cleveland (Cleveland Hopkins International Airport)
  
  


• Ontario, Canada
  
  • Toronto (Toronto Pearson International Airport)
  
  


• Pennsylvania
  
  
  
  • 
    Erie (Erie International Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Philadelphia (Philadelphia International Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh International Airport)
  
  
  
  

FH-227B "The City of Glens Falls", circa 1970

• Quebec, Canada
  
  • 
    Montreal (Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport)
  
  


• Rhode Island
  
  • 
    Providence (T. F. Green Airport)
  
  


• Vermont
  
  
  
  • 
    Burlington (Burlington International Airport)
  
  
  • 
    Rutland (Rutland State Airport)
  
  
  
  


• Virginia
  
  • 
    Arlington (Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport)^[10]
    
  
  

Airports marked with an asterisk (*) are not now served by any scheduled airline.

Fleet[edit]

From top to bottom:^[11]

• 
  Douglas DC-3 (in Robinson Airlines livery)


• 
  Douglas DC-3 (in Mohawk Airlines livery)


• Convair 240


• Martin 4-0-4


• Convair 440


• 
  BAC One-Eleven (initial livery)


• 
  Fairchild Hiller FH-227B


• 
  Boeing 727-200 (ordered but never delivered or operated)


• 
  BAC One-Eleven (in final livery before Allegheny Airlines acquisition)

Accidents and incidents[edit]

2 July 1963

At Rochester, New York, Mohawk Airlines Flight 121 (a Mohawk Airlines Martin 4-0-4) attempted to take off into a thunderstorm. Its wing-tip hit the ground and the aircraft cartwheeled, killing seven.

23 June 1967

Mohawk Airlines Flight 40 (a BAC 1-11) flying from Elmira, New York to Washington, D.C., suffered a fire in the rear of the aircraft that destroyed the vertical tail, causing all loss of pitch control. The cause was a non-return valve failure in the APU unit, resulting in hydraulic fluid igniting. The aircraft crashed near Blossburg, Pennsylvania, killing all 34 people on board.

19 November 1969

Mohawk Airlines Flight 411 (a Fairchild-Hiller FH-227B) crashed into Pilot Knob on the east shore of Lake George, New York, on approach to Warren County Airport, Glens Falls, New York, killing all 14 on board.

3 March 1972

Mohawk Airlines Flight 405 (another FH-227) crashed into a house in Albany, New York on approach to Albany County Airport. The crew had difficulty getting the cruise lock to disengage in one of the engines. While the crew attempted to deal with the problem, the aircraft crashed short of the airfield, killing 16 of the 48 people in the aircraft and one person on the ground. The lone surviving crew member was a stewardess, Sandra Quinn.

In popular culture[edit]

In music[edit]

• On Chicago’s album, Chicago III (1971), the group recorded the song "Flight 602." Later that year, on the live album, Chicago at Carnegie Hall, the group announced that the title referred to a Mohawk flight from New York to Toronto.


• The photo on the back cover of the supergroup, the Traveling Wilburys', first album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 (1988), depicts five guitar cases with old-fashioned travel stickers. At the bottom of the guitar case on the right is a travel sticker that says "Fly Mohawk."

In television[edit]

• During the eighth season of Bewitched, in season 8, episode 12, "The Eight Year Itch Witch" (1971), a woman telephones Darrin's Albany hotel room posing as a Mohawk Airlines reservation agent and tells him the 11 o'clock flight is cancelled because of fog.^[12]
  


• In season 2, episode 1, "For Those Who Think Young" (2008) of the AMC series Mad Men, the fictional Sterling Cooper ad agency worked on a campaign for Mohawk Airlines. In season 2, episode 2, "Flight 1" (2008), Sterling Cooper resigns the account in order to pursue an account with American Airlines, which is considering changing agencies in the aftermath of the 1962 Flight 1 disaster. Mohawk Airlines returns to the agency in season 5, episode 3, "Tea Leaves" (2012) and in season 6/episode 7, "Man With a Plan".

In Streaming[edit]

• In F is for Family, the principal character, Frank, works for a parody of the airline, called Mohican Airways.

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• 
  "Mohawk Airlines aircraft at Airliners.net". Airliners.net. Retrieved September 19, 2009.
  


• 
  "Mohawk Airlines Records". Syracuse University. Retrieved September 19, 2009.
  


• 
  Kamienski, Richard. Mohawk Memories - A Personal Account of a Mechanic at Mohawk Airlines (online ed.). Richard Kamienski. Retrieved September 19, 2009.
  


• 
  "US Airways: A Heritage Story". US Airways. Retrieved January 21, 2010.
  

External links[edit]

• 
  Media related to Mohawk Airlines at Wikimedia Commons