"Featured Aircraft" Archives...

Below you will find past "featured aircraft" from our Hangar!... Come back often and do a "cockpit check" of one of these fine old birds!

The Cleveland Skyline, with Terminal Tower clearly visible, serves as the background for this painting depicting a Loening Air Yacht flown by Thompson Aeronautical Corporation (later Transamerican Airlines) between Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio. By 1930 Thompson Aeronautical Corporation operated a daily passenger service from a small lakefront airport at East 9th Street in Cleveland to a similar landing on the Detroit River. The single-engine Keystone-Loening Air Yacht made this flight in only 55 minutes.

Thompson Aeronautical began operations in July, 1928, flying mail on the contract mail route between Bay City, Michigan and Chicago, Illinois (C.A.M. 27). Additional service was offered from Bay City to Kalamazoo, Pontiac to Kalamazoo, Muskegon to Kalamazoo and Kalamazoo to Chicago. Passenger service was introduced a year later in July, 1929, and the company's name was changed to Transamerican Airlines. In 1933, Transamerica Airlines was acquired by American Airways and helped to establish American’s presence in the Great Lakes region. TAC continued as a company on paper only, finally going bankrupt in 1934 after President F D Roosevelt cancelled all civil air mail contracts.

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A glance at the Loening "Air Yacht" reveals a strong resemblance to the later Grumman J2F Duck for which the Air Yacht was the inspiration. The later Duck design originated with designs and production aircraft made by Loening Aeronautical Engineering Corporation. When Loening was taken over by Curtiss-Wright in 1929, several key employees of the former company formed the nucleus of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation which was financed by Grover Loening.

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Many thanks to our friend, Kevin Breen, for his outstanding work at "Wings Publishing" and his undying devotion to the golden age of aviation! We also express our gratitude for his permission to include portions of his website here at "Aeromarine". Also a very special thanks to the artist of the beautiful work featured at the top of the page, Albert J. Enckler.

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