History of air cargo

History Of Air Cargo

It's hard to image today's life without those goods which are provided by the industry of air cargo. Electronic equipment and mail, fresh fruits and other products are shipped by air, forming a list of the essential goods that make life more comfortable, convenient and advanced, if compared to time when people couldn't even dream about air transportation.

Air cargo industry had started with very modest funds for a transportation industry, but nwt air cargo has a turnover of more than 46 billion dollars. 40% of air cargo is done by civil aviation" (according to Dora Kay, President of the International Air cargo association) "Speed and accessibility of air cargo provides a freedom of choice to their customers, promoting business success, economical development and employment growth."

In the era of globalization we can not imagine life without goods exchange, freight traffic and communication. Transportation and communication means guarantee the development of economics, its interaction with the rest of economical world community and simply form a part of modern civilization's infrastructure. Such progress was achieved only because of rapid technological and industrial growth which started only two centuries ago. The development of air cargo is tightly connected with the development of aviation as technology and as industry. Air cargo is one of the most popular applications of aviation achievements in modern world. That's why history of early air cargo is also related to history of aviation as moving objects by air was one of the oldest dreams of humanity.

The research will make an overview of aviation and air cargo development in past two centuries, outlining the most important and interesting events from the historical point-of-view that contribute to the modern concept of air cargo. Research will also make an overview of the development of air cargo as an economics sector in the U.S.A. And will give basic facts about the company which is associated with modern civil aviation, as it remains to be its leader for more than 50 years (Boeing). Also the research will provide recent air cargo statistics, the situation in this industry in other countries and will give some facts about the most powerful airfreights of modern time produced by the main competitor of the U.S.A.- USSR. (Unfortunately none of these air-giants had been used as a regular airfreight).

The history of air cargo can be divided into several periods, characterized by the technological advance, historical period and major tendencies in aviation and air cargo.

The most ancient period of air cargo (of course if it can be called so), goes all the way to Ancient world and was first used in Ancient Egypt. It's a doves mail, based on natural ability of doves to find their native place. This kid of "airmail" had been used for centuries in different countries. But the most impressive example of doves post use was during the French-German war in 1870. More than 400 pigeons were used for message delivering from Paris, which was in siege.

For a long time dove post remained to be the only way of air cargo, used during war time by officers, by imprisoned, etc.

Development of aviation was impossible with lack of knowledge in different branches of natural science, as people could not set the problem about aeronautics in the right way for a long time and they didn't know what makes birds and butterflies fly.

Only with development of physics and mathematics some aspects of aeronautics became relatively clear to scientists and inventors.

In 1475 Leonardo Da Vinci made first drafts of helicopter, parachute and ornitopter. Still he didn't give any explanation how to derive the force needed for the launch of these devices. But the drafts of Leonardo were pretty much similar to modern helicopters in their construction and principles.

Still for a quite a long time aviation was not considered to be a serious means of transportation and people looked on it more as on entertainment than on transportation means. Since first hot air balloons were invented, their inventors demonstrated their inventions capacities carrying different kind of weights on board. But still this means was very risky and didn't attract needed interest.

Hot air balloons were rarely used for mail delivery and this kind of services had predominantly private and commercial character. It's a well-known fact that in the year of 1785 Benjamin Franklin received mail sent via hot air balloon from England, when he stayed in France. But again it was motivated by a wide area of interests of American president.

Civilians saw no interest in using hot air balloons, but scientists and military men had a potential interest in it. Hot air balloons could be easily used by army to observe the battlefields, to investigate enemy's positions, etc. They were used sometimes for transportation, but their low capacities and a lack of control in the flight prevented from massive use.

A t's a well-known historical fact that French emperor Napoleon I was planning invasion to Britain, for which he planned to use a corpus of hot air balloons, both for transportation of troops (landing) and transportation of means.

Hot air balloons were used during lots of conflicts in the nineteenth century, for example during the Civil war both armies: Union's and Confederation's use balloon aviation for transportation and intelligent purposes. Besides during French-German war air balloons were used for mail delivering as well as doves: First Experiences in Metz

In Metz, where Marshal Bazaine had permitted himself to be entrapped with all his army, one Doctor Papillion, a surgeon in the ambulance service of the Imperial Guard, had the idea of using balloons to send ciphered or plain text messages. On 1st September 1870 he confided in Doctor Jeannel, the Pharmacist in Chief, who was later to write: "The idea of entering into communication with the rest of France by means of balloons launched above the Prussian lines caught my imagination, and I devoted some thought as to how it could be carried out." Constrained by lack of means, he manufactured his balloons from tracing paper coated in varnish. The balloons were fragile and low in capacity, but since the weight of each letter was reduced to about 10 grams, Jeannel managed to send fourteen small balloons between 5th and 15th September. The balloons carried a total of approximately three thousand items of mail between the 5th and 15th September. As in the earlier attempts at Conde sur Escaut and Valenciennes, these were unmanned free-flying balloons; but in Metz, the recorded results were much more encouraging because about half of the items sent arrived at their destinations. (from Allez, C. "History of Air cargo and Air Mail" p.12)

But in general, development of aviation could not occur. The main reason was that balloons, very often, were designed by self-educated inventors, mechanics and scientists who had a very little knowledge about laws of mechanics, dynamics and aerodynamics. Without firm theoretical basis none of serious and profitable aviation projects could be realized, because it had no scientific proof. People and businessmen interested in technology didn't risk to invest money in such kind of ventures, as history had a lot of examples of inventors' failures, especially in the field of aviation.

Only the development of applied physics, applied mechanics and mathematics which studied the properties of motion and the properties of dynamic processes, could give a theoretical ground and explanation to most of aerodynamic problems. At the same time it gave a lot of background to scientists and inventors who didn't have to do a lot of useless work and calculations starting from that time. If to compare the rate of development of aviation during the era of no knowledge about the laws of motion and its development during the era of science and mathematics they would differ greatly. In some 50 years after first essential discoveries in the field of theory of aerodynamics aviation mad a tremendous progress which could be even imagined by Leonardo and Montgolfier.

For some 30 years the use of zeppelins (airships of an ellipsoid shape, named after German scientists Zeppelin) could demonstrate an equal competition to airplanes and could be an alternative to them, as they were not really expensive in construction, didn't use fuel, had a bigger lift-weighting capacity. But after the tragic crash of zeppelin Hindenburg in 1937, most of aviation world leaders refused from its production. Besides crash of Hindenburg in the U.S.A., there were lots of similar examples worldwide, as zeppelins were often filled with hydrogen, a very explosive gas.

May be the most prominent event in the history of air cargo remains to be December,17 1903, a day when Orwell and Wilbur Wrights made a first flight on flying device that had an engine. Brothers Wrights would not believe what was the meaning of their flight for their ancestors, as it opened the age of air transportation and in some dozen years made it universal and affordable.

Boeing. When talking about air cargo, it's important to mention a company which is one of the leaders in aviation industry nowadays. It's Boeing. Starting from their first aircraft models Boeing B&W and Douglas DT/C-1 and up to the modern airfreight Boeing 747-400, company Boeing and Boeing-related enterprises had been always on the frontier of air cargo industry, and nowadays Boeing airfreights stand for 90% of commercial air cargo companies.

Everything started with mail delivery. Today lots of us associate aircrafts with people transportation, but primary Boeing was responsible only for cargo.

The company was started in 1916, when Bill Boeing and his partner George Westervelt made a first model of future civil aviation's world leader- jet B&W. B&W had later become the first plane that was delivering cargo and mail to New Zealand. Three years later Bill Boeing and Eddie Hubbard delivered 60 letters from Vancouver, Canada to Seattle, which became the first event in the history of international air shipping.

Nearly at the same time, company Douglas Aircraft had signed a contract with U.S. Navy and designed its second plane DT 1. On the base of DT there were produced 59 postal jets, including a well-known Douglas M-2, which became one the first commercial planes, that was delivering commercial mail in the U.S.A.

Already in 1923, Boeing Company had designed a plane for delivering mail (Model 40), and two years later Model A, which had Model 40 in its basis. In 1927 Model 40A was equipped with a lighter engine with air cooling, and it was chosen by postal service for mail delivery on a route San Francisco - Chicago.

The period of 1940 is called a transition period in the history of the company. "According to public opinion, Douglas DC-3 is the best jet of its time. Only because of him air traveling became popular and avia companies started to prosper" says Jim Edgar, marketing director of Boeing, "Its stable body brought public transportation and air cargo to a new level."

DC-3 became popular among army and navy, as it could carry up to 54000 lbs on board and were quite spacious for transportation of land means of transportation. In 1940-1945 the production of DC-3 achieved the level of 10-000 planes, and various air companies had been using DCs for a long time.

In 1957 DC-3 of Lufthansa made its firtst cargo flight from Germany to New York, giving a start to successful cooperation of Boeing Company with North Atlantic air companies.

Jet planes era.

In some next years companies Douglas and Boeing had adopted jet engine for planes. The first model of jet airfreight was Boeing Dash 80, which was a very successful plane later used as refueller in the modification KC-135.

Up to 1970 ies new jets designed by Boeing and Douglas companies took the leading place in public air transportation and air cargo. 1960 ies were a very successful period, when air industry really boosted, as the demand for the transportation was growing. The efficiency of airfreights grew in four times in some 10-year period. Moreover, models introduced by Boeing and Douglas in sixties are still used nowadays. The tendency of reequipping airplanes from public to airfreights allows giving new life to a plane, making it a very effective airfreight from an airliner.

With a growing demand on jet airfreights there were designed special cargo modifications of jets used before only for public transportation: DC-9,DC-10, Boeing 767, Boeing 757, Boeing 737 and MD-11.

Boeing 747 had opened a new era in air cargo. When this model was first introduced, specialists already knew that it would serve as an excellent airfreight for years. Boeing 747 has all technical characteristics that allow it to be used as airfreight after serving for regular public air transportation.

The fact that Boeing 747 forms 50% of all airfreights worldwide tells that this plane has become an excellent solution for air cargo. With appearance of Boeing 747 air cargo grew rapidly forming an integral part of modern international economics infrastructure.

The basics of such successlies in universality of Boeing 747 model. Boeing 747-400F is able to carry up to 230-000 pounds for a distance of 5700 miles without stops. It's one of the few models of modern airfreights that has hatches on sides and in the bow, which provides additional features for commercial exploitation. Such construction allows air cargo operators to make from 4 to 6 million dollars more a year from evbery plane, compared to other airfreights.

Most of air cargo experts are sure that Boeing 747 will remain to be a reliable cargo means for a long time, and recent cargo statistics proves it. Most of companies report that nearly 90% of their income depends on Boeing 747 airfreights.

Only rapid development of aviation in the first part of the twentieth century, when the usage of aviation was expanding the limits of an innovative entertainment and luxury and was wider used in military purposes, most of world's industry leaders began to think about aviation as an alternative way of transportation and freight traffic.

As writer Camellie Allaz states: "From 1925 onwards, major American capital interests began to look at commercial aviation, which seemed to be developing into a profitable activity. Considerable investments were made in the aviation industry and air transport.

Two men, different as chalk and cheese, played a decisive role in the metamorphosis of civil aviation in the United States. One of them became a worldwide celebrity and legendary hero, and the other, a lawyer and politician, became the omnipotent Postmaster General. The former was Charles A. Lindbergh, and the latter Walter F. Brown. They had one thing in common:their faith in aviation.

Today, it is difficult to imagine the demonstrations of enthusiasm which swept through American and European public opinion when Lindbergh crossed the North Atlantic from Long Island to Le Bourget on the 20th to 21st May 1927 at the controls of his little single-engined Ryan, christened "Spirit of St. Louis." In the United States, his exploit dramatically fired the growth of air passenger transport."(from History of Air cargo and Airmail p.61)

Still at the begging of air cargo era, freight traffic was a minimal part from the whole goods traffic. Aviation was predominantly used for mail delivery and for the delivery of emergent products, but not for the delivery of common goods as it's used now.

In some two years there was set up an airmail network countrywide, connecting such major cities as Washington, New York, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco and others by air mail delivery services provided by Contract Airmail. CAM (Contract airmail) was considered to be a very profitable project that attracted a lot of investors.

The growth of demand in transportation industry boosted the development of cargo aviation. In some two decades of constant growth this branch of aviation turned into an independent industry. Already in early 1940 ies its potential was really high for being used for greater cargo amounts, so on an experimental basis, United Airlines launched a daily cargo service from New York to Chicago on 23rd December 1940, exclusively reserved for express freight and mail. It was operated with DC-3 passenger aircraft, and remained traditional in its commercial approach. It closed down on 31st May 1941."(from History of Air cargo and Airmail p.176)

WW2 slowed the development of civilian air cargo for 4-year time period, substituting it by military cargo. Still the development of new industry had a high potential, as airplane producers got more and more orders and increased the production of airplanes. In 1945-1946 the U.S.A. came with a new product that had changed the life style of millions forever: it was air freight, a developed and effectively functioning sector of economics, one of the most profitable and dynamically developing transportation business in history.

By the opinion of top manager of American Airlines, airfreight had become even a new philosophy:

Airfreight is designed to move merchandise at air speed in a regular flow on a volume basis... A new fleet of air-freighters is coming - with large capacity for Air Age distribution needs. But it is not too early to investigate possibilities now, so you'll be ready when war restrictions end. We invite you to take advantage of the services of our sales engineering staff now, because it sometimes takes months to engineer for airfreight, to determine its potential benefits for any particular commodity." (from History of Air cargo and Airmail)

Their enthusiasm about the development of industry was unlimited, and iit could not even be limited by technological limits of existing planes and fuel problems that had always existed in this industry. May be they were encouraged by the growing demand of air cargo in the U.S.A. And in after-war Europe, which was rapidly restoring its economics and integrating into the system of world trade with the U.S.A. Some of them even proposed the following:

Most of the nations of the world will become America's nextdoor neighbours in the post-war air ag e, when vast fleets of sky giants make regular ports of call, bearing processed goods, raw materials and passengers...

A of the 'Air Ocean' for transportation makes every community in the world a port. There is no shoreline in this air ocean, the harbor is any space large enough to land a plane. For example, rubber from South America need not be carried to Ne wYork, then sent by surface transportation to a tyre factory in Ohio. In the future it can be carried by air from South America and unloaded alongside the tyre plant. "(from History of Air cargo and Airmail p.177)