Along the Northwest Coast

West Coast Enterprise

One of several independent airlines in California that was trying to launch passenger air service without a mail con­tract was Union Air Lines, of Sacramento, concentrating on the more populous cities of the Golden State. On 5 March 1928, it started a daily service between San Fran­cisco and the northwest cities of Portland and Seattle. This also offered express package service, and operated as West Coast Air Transport, which was incorporated in Delaware on 27 June 1929. Its fleet consisted mainly of tri-motored Bach Air Yachts, which, however, must have met with problems when flying across the mountainous areas of northern California.

Western Air Express lakes Over

Harris Hanshue believed in the benefits of expansion and aimed to build an airline empire in the West. As part of this ambition, he acquired West Coast late in 1929, and thus com­pleted a route from Seattle to San Diego, effectively from Canada to Mexico. But unfortunately, the only mail contract along that route was Pacific Air Transport’s CAM 8, which operated, as part of the Boeing organization, from Seattle to

Los Angeles. Without a mail contract, West Coast lost money heavily, and after the crisis of 1930 (see page 24) Hanshue had to retrench, terminating service in December 1930 and selling to Boeing, for $250,000, on 16 March 1931.