In order to provide direct air service between Erie and Detroit, the Civil Aeronautics Board authorized Allegheny Airlines to add a spur to Segment 7 of Air Mail Route 97 on December 1, 1956.
No cachets or other special markings were applied to covers.
This cover was one of only 42 pieces of mail carried on the inaugural Air Mail Route 97 flight from Erie, Pennsylvania to Detroit, Michigan (where it was backstamped) and is listed in the Contract Air Mail Flights (CAM) Section of The American Air Mail Catalogue as 97W46. Heb Hauptmann, a noted air mail collector, prepared the cover. |
A Civil Aeronautics Board order, effective June 11, 1979, authorized the corporate title “Allegheny Airlines” to be changed to “USAir, Inc.” The name change reflected the carrier’s geographic expansion and increased airline status.
In early 1997 USAir changed its name to US Airways and introduced a new corporate identity.
On February 14, 2013, US Airways Group and AMR Corporation announced that the two companies would merge to form the largest airline in the world. The combined airline carries the American Airlines name.