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Ever wondered what was the first-ever commercial airline?
Well here is the answer:
In 1913, Percival Elliott Fansler, a Florida sales representative for a manufacturer of diesel engines for boats, became fascinated with Benoist's progress in designing aircraft that could take off and land in the water! He decided to make an airline called St Petersburg-Tampa AirBoatLines and do commercial passenger flights between St Petersburg and Tampa. In 1913, a trip between the two cities, sitting on opposite sides of Tampa Bay, took two hours by steamship or from 4 to 12 hours by rail. Traveling by automobile around the bay took about 20 hours. A flight would take about 20 minutes. After much convincing and trying to find investors, the first flight happened on 1 January 1914 and that is when the start of commercial aviation happened but it was a very short-lived fate. After 4 months, the airline stopped services due to low funds and travel demand but it paved the way for our big giants of commercial aviation today!
I hoped you enjoyed the short story!
Comment below if you have any questions 😀
Image: Space.com
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Written by: Sohail Sawlani
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