Saunie Gravely. Founder.
Saunie Gravely, future AAF gunnery instructor, will found Veterans Air Express post-WWII.
Veterans Air Line
Saunie Gravely. Founder, Board Chairman, President. My Dad!
WWII GIs, war surplus DC-3s and DC-4s, produce and passengers: Saunie’s 1945 non-sked air service.
1945 express delivery of perishable produce
Saunie considers C-60 Lockheed Lodestar. That will change. But Newark Evening News reporter gives extensive Air Express details.
Gordon E Bellman. Board Member. Operations Mgr.
Gordon E Bellman, a 6-year WWII vet of both RAF and AAF, Army Air Forces, joined Veterans Air Express in mid-1945 on Board of Directors and as Director of Operations.
Glider on the horizon
A scheduled cargo flight of ice-packed turkeys in a DC-3-towed-glider. A historic flight?
Florida & Cape Cod by Air in 1946
Non-sked. Newark round-trip. Modern airliners. “Snowbirds” to Miami. Summer vacationers to Cape Cod. (NYT classifieds. Newark NJ display ad.)
C-54 converted to DC-4 at Sebring FL ops base
Company techs convert an Army C-54 to second cargo DC-4 in just 13 days. But too slow military-to-civilian airfield negotiations hinder FL ops plans.
Carole Landis christens non-sked DC-4. July1946
Hollywood star Carole Landis christened Veterans Air Line DC-4 on July 24, 1946. The aircraft and attending celebrity Mrs. Gloria Vanderbilt both got champagne-splashed. Still searching for press photo coverage of event.
The whole story. Air line ticket-selling romance.
Great fun recently meeting sons of Richard Broughton…Craig and his wife Carol in Florida and Bob and his wife Mary in Kentucky. Plus the visit unveiled an unexpected story about their dad and mom. Come read about the Veterans Air Line romance that surprised us all.
Research project seeks 1945 Non-sked story.
In May 2015, the daughter of WWII vet, Saunie Gravely, begins a research project about Veterans Air Express and Veterans Air Line.