Pioneer Air Lines  Martin 2-0-2  N93055           (c/n  9145)

                                    

                                         In March of 1952 Pioneer sold eleven of its DC-3s to the U.S. Navy (at a profit of almost a million
                                         dollars) and purchased purchased nine Martin 2-0-2s from Northwest, dubbing them Pioneer Pace-
                                         makers.  The machine above was named "Pacemaker Kit Carson" in keeping with the airline's pen-
                                         chant for naming their aircraft after famous Western personalities.  The buffalo tail livery was introd-
                                         used at the same time. The C.A.B. was actually pretty upset about the transaction, stating that since
                                         Pioneer received air mail subsidies, their action was not consistent with the regulations governing the
                                         spending of public money.  Further, they decreed that the Martins were more expensive to operate
                                         and insisted that the airline went back to DC-3s for their air mail routes!   The airline responded by
                                         floating a "holding" company (Pioneer Aeronautical Services) which then owned the Martins and
                                         leased them back to Pioneer Air Lines.  Today this would be called "constructive accounting".  By
                                         now Pioneer was serving the whole of central Texas and as far west as Albuquerque, N.M.   Whether
                                         under C.A.B. pressure or not, Pioneer Air Lines was merged into Continental Airlines on 1 April 1955.
                                         This Martin went to Allegheny Airlines as N175A.