Cyrus Rowlett Smith
Co-founder 1934Background
Cyrus Rowlett Smith, universally known as C.R. Smith, was a Texas-born businessman and aviation executive who served as president and chief executive of American Airlines from 1934 to 1968 and again briefly in 1973-1974. Born in Minerva, Texas in 1899, Smith initially built a career in accounting and banking before entering the aviation industry through a Texas-based carrier that was absorbed into American's predecessor. His greatest achievements included commissioning the Douglas DC-3, launching the Admirals Club lounge concept, overseeing the development of the Sabre reservation system, and building American into the largest U.S. Domestic airline of the postwar era.
Role at American Airlines Group
American Airlines does not have a single founder in the traditional sense; rather it was forged through the aggressive consolidation of dozens of small, independent aviation companies in the late 1920s. The true architect of the modern American Airlines, however, was C.R. Smith, a well-known aviation pioneer who served as CEO for over three decades and transformed commercial air travel. In 1930, the Aviation Corporation (AVCO), a holding company, consolidated over 80 small airlines into a single entity called American Airways. The early airline was a mess, flying a chaotic assortment of different aircraft on disjointed routes, relying almost entirely on federal airmail subsidies rather than passenger revenue to survive. In 1934, new federal legislation forced AVCO to divest its airline operations. The company was reorganized as American Airlines, and C.R. Smith, a pragmatic, hard-driving Texan who had been managing the Southern division, was appointed president. Smith's defining insight was recognizing that airlines could not survive on mail subsidies forever; they had to make passenger travel safe, comfortable, and economically viable. In 1935, Smith made a bet-the-company gamble. He collaborated directly with Donald Douglas, founder of the Douglas Aircraft Company, to design the DC-3. Smith famously called Douglas in the middle of the night and promised to buy 20 aircraft if Douglas could build a plane capable of flying non-stop from Chicago to New York while comfortably sleeping 14 passengers or seating 21. The DC-3 debuted in 1936 and transformed the industry; it was the first commercial airliner in history capable of making a profit purely from passenger fares, freeing American Airlines from its reliance on government mail contracts and birthing the modern commercial aviation industry. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).