National Air Transport  Curtiss Carrier Pigeon      Identity Unknown

                                    

                                       National Air Transport was the first company registered specifically to operate as an airline.  The
                                       date was 21 May 1925.   When I worked for Western Airlines they always claimed they were the
                                       nation's oldest airline (incorporated 13 July 1925) by virtue of the fact that they had retained the same
                                       name (or close to it), whereas NAT had been merged into United in 1930.  NAT was founded by
                                       financial wizard Clement M. Keys who had first floated North American Aviation in 1925 as a holding
                                       company.  His backing came from both New York and Chicago.  NAA had, as subsidiaries (among
                                       other things) the Curtiss Aeroplane Company, National Air Transport and Transcontinental Air Trans-
                                       port.  I'm telling you, this guy was a promoter supreme.  Anyway, NAT was originally started with 10
                                       Curtiss (what else) Carrier Pigeons and the two depicted on this page (No 1 and No 8) are from images
                                       I obtained in the 1940s from United Air Lines.