AIRWAYS HISTORY Northeast Airlines
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Two new twin-engine Lockheed 10-A Electras were purchased in 1936 . Eventually , five more would be acquired second-hand .
The corporate structure was simplified on March 1 , 1937 , when the Boston and Maine Railroad purchased all of the stock of National Airways , which was dissolved . Now there was one company — Boston-Maine Airways — although the names Boston-Maine and Central Vermont continued to appear on timetables and advertising material .
With the 1938 Civil Aeronautics Act , which created the regulatory body that would become the Civil Aeronautics Board ( CAB ), Boston-Maine Airways was grandfathered , meaning that the airline and the territory it served were protected . New legislation prohibited the operation of an airline by a railroad , but as the Boston-Maine situation existed before the law was enacted , that relationship was allowed to continue .
Another effect of the act was the requirement that all transport-rated Pilots needed to be qualified to fly only by instruments . The Civil Aeronautics Authority set up a training school in Detroit , and Captain Milton Anderson took the course twice to become an instructor . Upon his return to Boston , he convinced Paul Collins to establish an in-house instrument training program , the first such airlineoperated school in the country .
New York was a destination for many Boston- Maine customers and these patrons had to be turned over to American Airlines in Boston for the journey south to the nation ’ s largest city . Because American could not always accommodate the demand for space , Boston-Maine decided to expand its own system to New York . Once again , the airline followed its policy of approaching the railroad operating over the route – in this case , the New Haven ( New York , New Haven & Hartford Railroad ) – for sponsorship . The New Haven had no interest in investing in air
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