American Airlines Vultee V-1A  NC13767         (c/n  5)

                                             

                                                    In 1934 American Airlines placed 10 of these high speed single engined airliners into use mainly
                                                    on their Fort Worth-St.Louis-Chicago route.   It was, in fact, the first new type introduced by
                                                    the company after the air mail fiasco had changed the corporate name to American Airlines.
                                                    The new airline was tied loosely to the Vultee Aircraft Corporation and had more or less been
                                                    "persuaded" to operate the aircraft.  However, they didn't last long with American since the DC-2
                                                    and DC-3 came out within a couple of years and single engined airliners became passé. Eight
                                                    passenger airliners, no matter how fast, just were not economically viable. The rare shot below
                                                    (acquired from Consolidated Vultee in the 1950s) is believed to to be that of the first production
                                                    model V-1A (NC13764) being accepted by Cyrus R. Smith, President of American Airlines
                                                    (on the right) from Gerry Vultee (on the left, with dark glasses).