Remembering the plane-train days

You could fly from Clovis to Kansas City for $47 in those days.

If you were brave enough.

Newspaper Editor Mack Stanton and Santa Fe railroader Charles Reichart were overheard discussing safety and health factors related to air travel.

They made “a solemn agreement that each would hold the other’s head in the event air sickness overtook them.”

That’s what the Clovis News-Journal reported 90 years ago this month, just before coast-to-coast travel became a realistic option for most people.

For about 15 months anyway, Clovis was a stop on the Transcontinental Air Transport route, which (mostly) flew from Los Angeles to New York.

There were a dozen stops in all. West-bound travelers who flew into Waynoka, Oklahoma, took a train to Clovis. Eastbound travelers flew into Clovis, then took a train to Waynoka.

The Clovis airport in those days was located where Cannon Air Force Base is located today. Legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh selected the site and flew the first TAT plane from LA to Clovis in July 1929. Amelia Earhart, like Lindbergh, had financial interests in TAT; she was among the first passengers.

A one-way fare from New York to LA was $352 that first year. By 1930, the cost was down to $200 and the travel time was reduced from 48 hours to 36 hours.

But the plane-train service was not welcomed by all, at least not initially. Even before the first flight, there were rumors that it wouldn’t last long — partly because potential customers were a little hesitant to embrace the heavens.

“At first every flight was filled to capacity (17 passengers), but that didn’t mean the passengers weren’t afraid of this new mode of fast travel,” the Clovis paper reported.

When children learned that TAT was planning to fly Santa Claus into Clovis from the North Pole, airline officials felt compelled to assure them it would happen “with all the safety of an automobile.”

There were plenty of reasons to be afraid of flying 90 years ago, given that two Clovis airport employees and a pilot were killed on Aug. 11, 1929, when their plane crashed as they searched for a cockpit covering that had been lost the night before.

On Sept. 3, 1929, a westbound TAT flight crashed on Mount Taylor in New Mexico, killing all eight on board.

Cynics suggested TAT was an acronym for “Take A Train.”

In October 1930, eastern New Mexico residents had little choice but to take a train (or drive their cars) if they wanted to travel long distances. That’s when TAT decided to close its Clovis stop in favor of an Amarillo location it said would save the company money.

TAT eventually became Trans World Airlines, or TWA, before it was acquired by American Airlines in 2001.

David Stevens writes about regional history for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]