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Star Air Service, later Star Air Lines and Alaska Star Airlines was an American air service in Alaska from 1932 to 1944. With financial help from a wealthy Alaska miner, three pilots who had started a flying school and charter business in Seattle, shipped an open-cockpit biplane by steamship to Alaska in March 1932. Star Air Service was incorporated in April, 1932 in Anchorage with capitalization of $4,000. The company had some early success training student pilots, but their airplane was destroyed in a crash. Their financial backer helped them purchase a larger plane with an enclosed cabin which supported winter operations. Three air services were founded in Anchorage in 1932. There was a surplus of airplanes, and not enough business to support them all, which prompted the 1934 merger of McGee Airways with Star Air Service. Star became the largest carrier in Alaska. A lack of financial resources and poor management continued to haunt the company. One of the founders lost his pilot’s license and another died in a plane crash in 1936. With a change in management, the company was sold to a new group of investors in 1937, and renamed Star Air Lines. Government regulation of Alaska airline routes which began in 1938, along with continued financial instability of Alaska’s air carriers prompted a consolidation within the industry. In 1942, Star Air Lines was purchased by New York businessman Raymond Marshall. The new owners acquired three smaller Alaska carriers, gaining additional scheduled routes to Fairbanks, Nome and the Kuskokwim area. The expanded company was renamed Alaska Star Airlines. In September 1943, after narrowly beating a competitor who was also filing for the name, the company was renamed again, becoming Alaska Airlines, which continues to operate today.〔name="Aerofiles">〕 ==Company founders== Steven E. "Steve" Mills was born in Dayton, Wyoming, in 1896 and moved to Seattle after serving in World War I.〔 He worked as a furnace inspector for the Seattle Gas Company while taking flying lessons at Washington Aircraft Company at Boeing Field. In 1928 he went to work for the firm’s flying school and was chief instructor until he went to Alaska in 1932.〔〔 John E. "Jack" Waterworth was born in Oelwein, Iowa, reared in Seattle and attended the University of Washington studying to be a pharmacist.〔 With financial help from the industrialist Norton Clapp, Jack took flying lessons from Steve Mills at Washington Aircraft Company. Instead of becoming a pharmacist, Waterworth decided to stay in aviation and he worked as an instructor and charter pilot. He made numerous flights throughout the northwest and an occasional cross-country trip to ferry planes from the east coast to Seattle.〔 Charles H. "Charlie" Ruttan was a 22-year-old Canadian from Winnipeg, Manitoba, who had moved with his family to Victoria, British Columbia, and took flying lessons from Steve Mills.〔 Wesley Earl Dunkle was a wealthy Alaska mining engineer with several mining claims, as well as being superintendent of the Lucky Shot Mine in the Chugach Mountains north of Anchorage. Dunkle was interested in aviation and went to Seattle to take flying lessons, where he became friends with Mills and Waterworth. With aviation becoming popular in Alaska, many Alaskans wanted to learn to fly, but could not afford to go to Seattle for lessons. Dunkle encouraged Mills and Waterworth to open a flying school in Anchorage and offered to make them a loan in exchange for free flying lessons when they moved to Alaska.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Star Air Service」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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