October 9
joint venture of american airlines and hindenberg zepplin?
when and who authorized the joint venture of american airlines inc. and the nazi hindenberg zepplin. were some of the people allumni of the Yale fraternnity Skull and Bones aviation club before the ourbreat of WW II.?????
I’ve researched this all day. There is no such venture I can find between The Zeppelin Co. Or American. Nor was the president of American Airlines a Yale grad. CR Smith is a grad of the Univ. of Texas at Austin.
American Airlines contracted with Zepplin to provide connecting service and probably set-up a separate corporate entity from the parent companies. No FAA existed in 1937, but it’s predecessor, the Bureau of Air Commerce was the responsibility of the Secretary of Commerce; Daniel Calhoun Roper (1933-1938) appointed by and serving under Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Since this happened before the war between the US and Germany was formally declared in 1941, it was OK, just as Wall Street funding of the Nazi party and various related companies was also legal before Germany was sanctioned in 1937. The Hindenburg disaster was a direct result of these economic sanctions, because the US companies supplying Helium were prohibited from selling it to Germany, so Zepplin had to use the flammable Hydrogen instead.
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_%28airship%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Calhoun_Roper
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3255.htm
I’ve researched this all day. There is no such venture I can find between The Zeppelin Co. Or American. Nor was the president of American Airlines a Yale grad. CR Smith is a grad of the Univ. of Texas at Austin.
References :
http://www.crsmithmuseum.org
http://www.zeppelin-museum.de