Ralph Damon

July 6, 1897 (age 58)

Franklin, New Hampshire, United States

Opportunities in the infant aviation industry were limited, when Damon began his career, and for a time he earned a living as a millwright. In 1922 he won a job at the struggling Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Co. , where he soon became factory superintendent. In 1935 he became president of the company. By 1936 the Douglas DC-2 (soon to be followed by the DC-3) had taken the passenger aircraft market away from Curtiss. Damon left Curtiss and joined the rapidly growing American Airlines as vice-president in charge of operations. In 1941, with the pressing need for greatly improved military pursuit aircraft, General H. H. Arnold of the Army Air Corps persuaded Damon to take charge at Republic Aviation Corporation and put the P-47 Thunderbolt into mass production. In 1943, with 450 P-47's a month coming off the line, he returned to American Airlines and in 1945 became president under C. R. Smith, chairman of the board. Damon was convinced that international commercial aviation would grow rapidly after the war, that the United States would dominate it for years, and that there was a place in it for American Airlines. Juan Trippe of Pan American Airways, United States pioneer in international aviation, pressed Congress in 1945 to give exclusive rights to a single "chosen instrument, " a "community airline, " to develop the international field on behalf of the United States. Damon, whose company's subsidiary, American Export Airlines, was struggling to gain a foothold, acted as spokesman for seventeen domestic carriers that opposed Trippe's monopoly plan. There was enough potential traffic for several international United States carriers, he asserted, and experience and efficiency would more than outweigh subsidies that foreign lines would receive. He warned that a monopoly airline would soon grow "fat and complacent" and lose its cost advantages. "Airlines should be lean and hungry, " he concluded, and Congress agreed, rejecting Trippe's plan and granting certificates to Pan American, American, and Transcontinental and Western Airlines (TWA). By 1949 Pan American, with vastly greater experience and prestige, had garnered most of the still small, premium business of overseas aviation; TWA and American were lean and hungry. Without telling Damon, Smith opened negotiations with Pan American to sell American's international subsidiary. Hours after the deal was announced Damon resigned. Several offers of jobs arrived immediately, but Damon telephoned Howard Hughes, who controlled TWA, and was accepted for the presidential post that Jack Frye had stormily vacated less than two years before. Air traffic boomed after 1949, and Damon's predecessor had already worked out a consolidation of two maintenance centers that saved $2 million a year, but the rejuvenation of TWA was primarily due to Damon's efforts. For the first year he traveled almost constantly. He sold TWA's old Boeing Stratoliners, bought forty-three Lockheed Constellations for the booming coast-to-coast service, and acquired fifty-two short-haul Martin aircraft for TWA's expanded network of routes. In 1949 Damon introduced air coach travel, which opened up flying to a mass market. By 1956 passengers were flying nonstop across the continent for $99 plus tax. In that year, at the height of pre-jet aviation's golden age, Damon died in Mineola, New York.

Ralph Shepard Damon

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airline executive

Background

Ralph Shepard Damon was born on July 6, 1897 in Franklin, New Hampshire, United States. He was the son of William Cotton Damon and Effie Ives.

Education

Receiving the Bachelor of Arts cum laude from Harvard in 1918, Damon planned to study astronomy, but service as an air cadet during World War I converted him to a lifelong career in aviation. He learned to fly before he learned to drive a car.

Career

Opportunities in the infant aviation industry were limited, when Damon began his career, and for a time he earned a living as a millwright. In 1922 he won a job at the struggling Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Co. , where he soon became factory superintendent. In 1935 he became president of the company. By 1936 the Douglas DC-2 (soon to be followed by the DC-3) had taken the passenger aircraft market away from Curtiss.

Damon left Curtiss and joined the rapidly growing American Airlines as vice-president in charge of operations. In 1941, with the pressing need for greatly improved military pursuit aircraft, General H. H. Arnold of the Army Air Corps persuaded Damon to take charge at Republic Aviation Corporation and put the P-47 Thunderbolt into mass production. In 1943, with 450 P-47's a month coming off the line, he returned to American Airlines and in 1945 became president under C. R. Smith, chairman of the board.

Damon was convinced that international commercial aviation would grow rapidly after the war, that the United States would dominate it for years, and that there was a place in it for American Airlines. Juan Trippe of Pan American Airways, United States pioneer in international aviation, pressed Congress in 1945 to give exclusive rights to a single "chosen instrument, " a "community airline, " to develop the international field on behalf of the United States. Damon, whose company's subsidiary, American Export Airlines, was struggling to gain a foothold, acted as spokesman for seventeen domestic carriers that opposed Trippe's monopoly plan. There was enough potential traffic for several international United States carriers, he asserted, and experience and efficiency would more than outweigh subsidies that foreign lines would receive. He warned that a monopoly airline would soon grow "fat and complacent" and lose its cost advantages. "Airlines should be lean and hungry, " he concluded, and Congress agreed, rejecting Trippe's plan and granting certificates to Pan American, American, and Transcontinental and Western Airlines (TWA).

By 1949 Pan American, with vastly greater experience and prestige, had garnered most of the still small, premium business of overseas aviation; TWA and American were lean and hungry. Without telling Damon, Smith opened negotiations with Pan American to sell American's international subsidiary. Hours after the deal was announced Damon resigned.

Several offers of jobs arrived immediately, but Damon telephoned Howard Hughes, who controlled TWA, and was accepted for the presidential post that Jack Frye had stormily vacated less than two years before.

Air traffic boomed after 1949, and Damon's predecessor had already worked out a consolidation of two maintenance centers that saved $2 million a year, but the rejuvenation of TWA was primarily due to Damon's efforts. For the first year he traveled almost constantly. He sold TWA's old Boeing Stratoliners, bought forty-three Lockheed Constellations for the booming coast-to-coast service, and acquired fifty-two short-haul Martin aircraft for TWA's expanded network of routes. In 1949 Damon introduced air coach travel, which opened up flying to a mass market. By 1956 passengers were flying nonstop across the continent for $99 plus tax. In that year, at the height of pre-jet aviation's golden age, Damon died in Mineola, New York.

Achievements

During his time at Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Co. Damon helped develop such well-known Curtiss airplanes as the Robin, the Thrush, and the first air transport with sleeping accommodations, the Condor. As vice-president of American Airlines, Damon helped build the carrier into a leading coast-to-coast airline by World War II. Holding the position of president of TWA he contributed by converting TWA's three-year accumulated $18. 6 million deficit of 1949 to annual profits of $28 million.

Views

Quotations: "I've always had the good fortune to join a winning team just as it is starting to win. "

Personality

An unprepossessing, cigar-smoking, hawknosed man in a battered hat and rumpled suit, he talked to passengers, mechanics, flight attendants, and pilots whenever he could, thereby boosting employee morale while cutting away deadwood.

Connections

On October 14, 1922, he married Harriet Dudley Holcombe; they had four children.

Father:: William Cotton Damon
Mother:: Effie Ives
Spouse:: Harriet Dudley Holcombe

References

TWA: nearly three decades in the air

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Ralph Shepard Damon

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