Jack Frye

Who was Jack Frye?

William John "Jack" Frye was an aviation pioneer, who with Paul E. Richter and Walter A. Hamilton, built TWA into a world class airline during his tenure as president from 1934-1947.

Frye enlisted in the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1921, and was discharged as a corporal in 1922. He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1934, was commissioned lieutenant, and in 1940 was promoted to lieutenant commander, resigning in 1952. He began to fly in 1923. In a "first," in 1926, Los Angeles aerial police ticketed Frye for flying less than 1,000 feet above the city. Frye received the first commercial pilot certificate issued in the State of Arizona - #1 - and held Transport Pilot certificate #933. Frye, Walter Hamilton and Paul E. Richter, Arizona pilot certificate #2, founded Aero Corporation in 1926 Los Angeles, with a subsidiary Standard Air Lines in 1927. Jack Frye, as pilot, flew the first commercial plane into Tucson, Arizona.

Standard Air Lines was sold to Western Air Express in early 1930. Western Air Express merged with Transcontinental Air Transport in 1930 to form T&WA. Frye was director of operations. After the reorganization caused by the Air Mail Scandal of 1934, Frye became president of T&WA in 1934 and Richter became Vice President. TWA was known as "The Airline Run by Flyers".