Transocean Air Lines

Transocean Air Lines was established in 1946 as ONAT (Orvis Nelson Air Transport Company) based in Oakland, California. The airline was renamed to Transocean Air Lines the same year[1].The Transocean name was also used in 1989 by another US-based air carrier, TransOcean Airways, which previously operated as Gulf Air Transport.[2]

For the Japanese airline, see Japan Transocean Air.
Transocean Air Lines
IATA ICAO Callsign
(none) TL TALOA
Founded1946
Commenced operations1946
Ceased operations1960
Operating basesOakland, California

History

At its height, the Transocean organization included 10 companies, making it the first aviation conglomerate. The airline employed 1,500 persons. Including the personnel of their subsidiary companies, the total number exceeded 6,700. Transocean's gross annual sales climbed as high as $50 million.

By April 1958, after 12 years of business, Transocean's aircraft had flown a total of 1,290,966,900 passenger miles, 126,990,642 cargo ton-miles, and 66,828,237 aircraft miles. Transocean Air Lines became the largest supplemental air carrier in the world, employing at its peak over 6,700 workers at 57 bases around the globe.

Beginning
"Word that a new airline was in the offing spread quickly with Captain Nelson's first call, and the response was overwhelming. Looking for employment and happy that the war was over, applicants from all branches of the armed services rushed to the Oakland Airport, hoping to land a job with this fledgling airline. I remember seeing the long rag-tag line that stretched away from the International Terminal Building, out the door, down the steps, and all the way back to the airport restaurant, a distance of a hundred yards or more. Many were in civilian clothes but others, still wearing various military uniforms, were trailing duffel bags.
"Yes, indeed, those were halcyon days. We were all young and overflowing with enthusiasm for what we saw as a chance to break ground with a new airline. We wanted to have our place in the sun as pioneers and innovators. The romance and promise of commercial flying... the excitement and exuberance of this bunch of young hopefuls would provide the spirit that was soon to become Transocean Air Lines."
- Ralph Lewis, By Dead Reckoning, Paladwr Press

"We fly anything, anywhere, anytime"[3] was the motto of Nelson and Transocean. Their expertise in the mass movement of people, freight, and live cargo was developed by creative planning and by trial and error. The successful completion of the first contracts established the airline's reputation as "can do" people.

The first aviation conglomerate

Known throughout the industry as the flying airline president, Orvis Nelson was the only top executive of a major airline during the late 1940s to hold transport pilot ratings. He spent much time away from his desk in search of business or visiting Transocean's outposts, all the while keeping an eye out for profitable enterprises to add to his ever-expanding international business empire, or airplanes to add to the fleet.[4]

Soon after taking to the skies in 1946, Nelson began to expand into other areas. By the mid-1950s and after acquiring several subsidiary businesses, some of the men closest to Nelson began to express concern that perhaps Transocean had overdiversified and that the company was in danger of decline. From their inception in 1946 until as late as 1959, Transocean enjoyed success in most of their endeavors. The airline and its divisions often received commendations from both military and civilian groups for their contributions to aviation.

A crew once left Oakland, California for Taiwan in a DC-4 loaded with 12,000 pounds of gunpowder for General Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist Chinese Army, then ferried the airplane to Hong Kong to pick up a load of Chinese cedar chests and fly them west to Rome, Italy. Within hours of the delivery of the cedar chests, the airplane departed full of Italian seamen bound for New York to rendezvous with an ocean freighter.[5]

In the movies

The 1954 film "The High and the Mighty" featured a Transocean airliner, albeit thinly disguised. The Douglas DC-4 (N4665V) used to film the daylight flying sequences and the Honolulu "gate" sequence was a former C-54A-10-DC built as a military transport in 1942 at Long Beach, California, by Douglas Aircraft Company. When the exterior and flying sequences were filmed in November 1953, the airliner was being operated by Oakland, California-based non-scheduled carrier Transocean Airlines (1946–1962), the largest civil aviation operator of converted C-54s in the 1950s, and named "The African Queen". Ernest K. Gann wrote the original story while he was flying DC-4s for Transocean over the Hawaii-California routes. The film's fictional airline's name "TOPAC" was painted over the Transocean's red, white and yellow color scheme for filming.

Destinations

According to its October 27, 1958 system timetable, Transocean was operating scheduled passenger service with Lockheed Constellation propliners on the following routes:[6]

  • Burbank (BUR) – Honolulu (HNL) – operated three days a week round trip
  • Oakland (OAK) – Honolulu (HNL) – operated three days a week round trip
  • Oakland (OAK) – Burbank (BUR) – Chicago Midway Airport (MDW) – New York Idlewild Airport (IDL, now JFK Airport) – Hartford (BDL) – operated twice a week round trip
  • Oakland (OAK) – Honolulu (HNL) – Wake Island (AWK) – Guam (GUM) – Okinawa (OKA) – operated twice a week round trip

Bankruptcy

Transocean Air Lines went bankrupt in 1960.[7]

Former staff

A half century after the airline's demise, nearly 200 of their former employees – and now their children and grandchildren – were members of the Taloa Alumni Association. The Transocean group meets for a reunion every year.[8]

Fleet

Aircraft operated by Transocean Air Lines[9] Total: 146 aircraft, of which 68 were DC-4s.

In addition, Taloa Academy of Aeronautics had a total of 56 single-engined trainers at its peak.[10]

Transocean Air Lines Boeing 377 Stratocruiser

Accident and incidents

During almost 14 years of continuous and concentrated aviation and airline activity, totaling in excess of 70 million aircraft miles, more than a billion and a half passenger miles, and over 85 million cargo-ton miles (often in areas with few or non-existent navigational aids or ground installations), Transocean's total casualties were 90 passengers and 16 crew.[11]

  • August 15, 1949: A Transocean Air Lines Douglas C-54A (N79998) ditched 7 mi off Lurga Point, Ireland due to fuel exhaustion after the pilot overflew Shannon Airport, where they were due to refuel, and attempted to return; all 58 passengers and crew were able to escape, but seven passengers and one crew member either drowned or died of exposure. The aircraft was flying from Rome to New York.[12][13]
  • November 5, 1951: Transocean Air Lines Flight 5763, a Martin 2-0-2 (N93039), crashed in fog at Tucumcari Airport, New Mexico, killing one of 29 on board.[14][15]
  • December 30, 1951: Transocean Air Lines Flight 501, a Curtiss C-46 Commando (N68963), crashed near Fairbanks, Alaska due to spatial disorientation caused by pilot error, killing all four passengers and crew on board; the wreckage was found on January 3, 1952.[16][17]
  • March 20, 1953: Transocean Air Lines Flight 942, a Douglas C-54G (N88942, former USAAF 45-623) crashed in a field 12 mi southwest of Alvarado, California killing all 35 passengers and crew on board. The cause was an unexplained loss of control that may have resulted from wing icing.[18][19][20]
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See also

References
  1. "ONAT (Orvis Nelson Air Transport Company)". Airline History. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  2. Airlines Remembered by B.I. Hengi, Midland Publishing, 2000
  6. http://www.timetableimages.com, Oct. 27, 1958 Transocean Air Lines system timetable
  7. http://www.taloa.org/end.html
  11. Accidents by Airline
  12. Keating, James Patrick. "Miracle on Galway Bay". On-line Journal of Research on Irish Maritime History. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  13. Accident description for N79998 at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 12 August 2013.
  14. Accident Database: Accident Synopsis 11051951
  15. Accident description for N93039 at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 12 August 2013.
  16. Accident Database: Accident Synopsis 12301951
  17. Accident description for N68963 at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 12 August 2013.
  18. Accident Database: Accident Synopsis 03201953
  19. "The Crash of Transocean Flight 942". www.Check-Six.com. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  20. Accident description for N88942 at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 12 August 2013.
  21. Accident Database: Accident Synopsis 07121953
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