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'Braniff International Airways' was an American airline that existed from 1928 until 1982. It operated in the central midwest, South America, Asia and Europe. The airline ceased operations on May 12, 1982, a victim of escalating fuel prices, aggressive expansion, and fierce competition.

Contents

Founding and first decades

The End of the Plain Plane

The BRANwich

1970s redesigns

Deregulation

Concorde

Bankruptcy

Successor organizations

Incidents and accidents

Trivia

External links

Founding and first decades

In 1928 an insurance salesman and financier named Thomas E. Braniff financed an aviation company with his brother Paul Revere Braniff, named Paul R. Braniff, Inc. The airline was named Tulsa-Oklahoma City Airways and offered passenger service between most of the major cities in Oklahoma. The original Braniff brothers would remain a part of the company, even as the ownership was transferred repeatedly. Eventually Braniff was purchased by what was to become today's American Airlines. However, after briefly operating the Braniff division, the holding company shut the operation down.

The Braniff brothers restarted another airline in 1930 as Braniff Airways, Inc. During the 1930s, Braniff Airways expanded its service throughout the Midwest. Braniff’s long-term survival was assured when Paul Braniff, then General Manager, flew to Washington, D.C., to petition for the Chicago-Dallas airmail route. The United States Post Office granted Braniff its first airmail route, in the wake of the 1934 Air Mail Scandal. In 1935, Braniff became the first airline to fly from Chicago, Illinois, to the U.S.-Mexico border. Paul Braniff left the airline in 1935 to pursue other interests but Tom Braniff retained control of the carrier and hired Charles "Chuck" Beard to run the airline's day-to-day operations. Beard became President and CEO of Braniff in 1954.
Over the years, Braniff acquired a number of other airlines, as well as new Douglas DC-2 and Douglas DC-3 aircraft to fuel its expansion. Most of its operational network remained focused on the midwestern north-south portion of the United States. During WWII, the airline leased a portion of its fleet to the United States military, and facilities at Dallas Love Field and throughout the country became training sites for pilots and mechanics. During the 1940s, Braniff was allowed by the Civil Aeronautics Board to serve the Caribbean, Latin America, and South America. These routes were served by the new and improved Douglas DC-6 aircraft.
During the 1950s the airline expanded nationwide. The acquisition of Mid-Continent Airlines in 1952 allowed Braniff to add several more domestic cities to its already established north-south route system. On January 10, 1954, Thomas E. Braniff died in one of his personal planes, which crashed lakeside, on the shore of Lake Wallace, 15 miles outside of Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana.
According to information from Captain George A. Stevens: ''Mr Braniff was on a hunting expedition with a group of important citizens of Louisiana, (including Milton Weiss - brother to Seymour Weiss, of Huey Long Fame). They were departing from a small duck hunting lake out of Shreveport in a new aircraft with no deicing system. The wings iced up and they attempted to land. One of the wings hit cypress stumps and the plane crashed against the shore. It caught fire and all 12 lives aboard were lost (including a number of Shreveport's most important civic leaders).''
Paul R. Braniff died later that year of cancer. Charles "Chuck" Beard became the first non-Braniff President of the carrier after Tom's death. He would lead Braniff into the jet-age, and would be instrumental in turning Braniff into a 95% jet carrier by 1964.
In 1959, Braniff entered the jet age with the introduction of the Boeing 707-227.

The End of the Plain Plane

In 1964, Troy Post — then the chairman of Greatamerica Corporation, an insurance holding company based in Dallas, Texas — purchased Braniff as part of an expansion of holdings which also included National Car Rental. Both Braniff and National were chosen after Greatamerica CFO C. Edward Acker identified them as particularly poorly managed companies. As part of the acquisition, Acker became Executive Vice President and CFO of Braniff as well.
In 1965, Post hired Harding L. Lawrence, the Executive Vice President of Continental Airlines, to become the new president of Braniff International. Harding viewed Braniff as a "backwater" airline — despite the facts that the airline had routes from North Dakota to Argentina, and was already the 11th-largest airline in the world—and sought to re-image Braniff. Over the next 15 years, Lawrence's aggressive expansion into new markets and ideas unorthodox for the airline industry would lead Braniff to record industry performance, expanding earnings tenfold (despite load factors which hovered around 50%) and making the airline the sixth-largest airline in the world (although Braniff fell to the 14th largest airline from the late 60s until deregulation). Unfortunately, the same ideas which would catapult Braniff to the front of the American consciousness would eventually doom it to bankruptcy.
To overhaul the Braniff image, Lawrence hired Jack Tinker Associates, who assigned advertising executive Mary Wells as account leader. First on the agenda was to overhaul Braniff's public image—including the red, white, and blue livery—as they perceived that image as "staid". Two internationally famous trendsetters, New Mexico architect Alexander Girard and Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci, were called in, and with this new creative talent, Braniff began the "End of the Plain Plane" campaign.
At Girard's recommendation, the old livery was dropped in favor of a wide palette of bright colors. Girard wanted the planes painted from tail to nose in colors like "Chocolate Brown" and "Metallic Purple." He also favored a small "BI" logo and small titles. Braniff engineering, and Braniff's advertising department modified Girards colors, increased the "BI" logo, and added white wings and tails. The new "jelly bean" fleet consisted of such bold colors as beige, ochre, orange, turquoise, baby blue, medium blue, lemon yellow, and lavender. (Lavender was dropped after one month, as lavender and black were considered bad luck in Mexico.) Girard also outfitted the interiors with 57 different variations of Herman Miller fabrics. There were 15 colors used by Braniff for plane exteriors during the 1960s (Harper & George modified Girard's original seven colors in 1968). Many of the color schemes were applied to aircraft interiors, gate lounges, ticket offices, and even the corporate headquarters. Art to complement the color schemes was flown in from Mexico, Latin America, and South America.
Pucci used a series of nautical themes in overhauling the crew's uniforms. For the stewardesses, Pucci used "space age" themes, including plastic bubbles (resembling Captain Video helmets) which the stewardesses could wear between the terminal and the plane to prevent any hairstyles from being disturbed. However, the "space bubble" was dropped after about a month, for multiple reasons: the helmets cracked easily, there was no place to store them onboard the aircraft, and jetways at many airports made them unnecessary. The stewardess uniforms were also designed with interchangeable parts, which could be removed and added as needed.
In 1968, Braniff expanded an advertising campaign that showed the likenesses of Andy Warhol, Sonny Liston, or a Playboy Bunny, and other socialites of the time, all embellishing their experiences flying Braniff. It became one of the most celebrated marketing efforts Madison Avenue had ever produced, blending effectively a message of style and arrogance; one advertising slogan was "if you've got it—flaunt it!" Though management considered the campaign a success, Braniff's core customers were outraged by the grandiose behavior and perceived "bragging", causing many corporate accounts to leave Braniff.
Operationally, Braniff entered the jet-age in 1959 with the 707-227. Braniff took delivery of four of these (another crashing before delivery) and was the only airline to order the -200 series from Boeing. (Braniff later sold the -227s to BWIA in 1971.) Boeing 720s would be added shortly after. In 1961, Braniff became the launch U.S. customer for the British-built BAC-111 twin jet. By 1965, Braniff had a 95% jet fleet. With Lawrence's arrival in late spring 1965, the brash executive cancelled most of its remaining BAC-111 orders (placed under Charles Beard, Braniff President 1954-1965) in favor of the larger Boeing 727. Braniff eventually ordered several variants of the new Boeing type including the new "quick change" cargo/passenger variant, the stretched -200, and later the -200 Advanced. By 1969, the turboprop planes were all retired, making Braniff an "all jet" airline. By the mid-1970s, Braniff operated the largest fleet of Boeing 727s in the world, and pioneered the concept of fleet standardization and the efficiencies that a single type of aircraft could produce. Also during this period (1967), Braniff acquired Pan American-Grace Airways, which increased its already strong presence in South America.

The BRANwich

In-flight cuisine was a particular concern of Harding Lawrence's management team. Starting in 1965, an international board of chefs was assigned to "outdo" all the other airlines in terms of food service. In 1971, Braniff chefs revamped the traditional sandwich into what became known as the "BRANwich", which was a hit with passengers. These were made by wrapping puff pastry around various fillings like beef Wellington. The BRANwich became so popular that recipes were published in major U.S. magazines.

1970s redesigns

In 1973, Alexander Calder was commissioned by Braniff to paint an aircraft. His contribution was a Douglas DC-8 known simply as "Flying Colors." In 1975, it was showcased at the Paris Air Show in Paris, France. Its designs reflected the bright colors and simple designs of South America and Latin America, and was used mainly on South American flights. Later in 1975, he debuted "Flying Colors of the United States" to commemorate the Bicentennial of the United States. This time, the aircraft was a Boeing 727-200. First Lady Betty Ford dedicated "Flying Colors of the United States" in Washington, D.C.. Calder died in 1976 as he was finalizing a third livery, termed "Flying Colors of Mexico"; this livery was not used on any plane.
In 1977, Braniff dropped Pucci as its designer of uniforms. American fashion and couture designer Halston was then brought on to bring a more American look back to Braniff. His all-leather looks—dubbed the "Ultra" look—were applied to uniforms and the fleet, including Braniff's new Boeing 727-200s (and the "Flying Colors" planes as well). His uniforms and simplistic design were praised by critics and passengers.
In 1970, Braniff accepted delivery of the 100th Boeing 747 built—a 747-127 model, N601BN—and began "jumbo jet" service to Hawaii on January 15, 1971. This plane, dubbed "747 Braniff Place" and "The Most Exclusive Address In The Sky", became the flagship of the airline. In 1978, N601BN flew the inaugural flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to London. Additional 747s, including the 747SP, would be acquired for service to Asia and Europe. The Douglas DC-8s were aging toward the end of the 70s, there was speculation over the purchase of new McDonnell Douglas MD-80s, Boeing 757s, or Boeing 767s to replace the DC-8-62s (which flew the South American routes). However, financial problems at the airline would soon make this question irrelevant.

Deregulation

Up to 1978, Braniff remained one of the fastest-growing and most-profitable airlines in the United States. But deregulation of the airline industry was to be introduced in 1978, and Braniff under Lawrence would misjudge this change.
Lawrence believed that the answer to deregulation was to expand Braniff's route system dramatically; consequently, the domestic system became 50% larger, with flights to 16 new cities. International hubs were created in Boston and Los Angeles to handle expected increases in travel outside North America. This would have included flights to Tokyo, as well as an "oil run" between Dallas, Houston, and Dubai; these routes never entered service.
Unfortunately, little of the expected new business materialized; 747 service from the new Boston hub proceeded particularly poorly, with the huge planes flying nearly empty. As a consequence of the new equipment and the new hubs, Braniff's debt expanded tremendously; more debt was generated in shifting Braniff's main base of flight operations from Love Field in Dallas to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, complete with a sprawling new headquarters just outside the new airport. Braniff's sub-par load factors, which were especially intolerable on the expensive-to-run 747s, and the large debts combined to produce massive financial shortfalls. The rising debts in addition to allegations of accounting fraud led to the removal of Harding Lawrence in 1980.

Concorde

Concorde, the world's second supersonic airliner (the first being the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144) was the culmination of an Anglo-French investment between Britain's BAe and France's Aerospatiale. The airline started service with Concorde in 1979 between Dallas/Fort Worth and Washington, D.C., to Paris and London on interchange flights with Air France and British Airways. Flights between Dallas/Fort Worth and Washington Dulles airports were commanded by Braniff cockpit and cabin crews (including Braniff Captains: Manton Fain, Ken Larson, Glenn Shoop, and Dean Smith to name a few) while British or French crews would take over for the remaining segment to Europe. Over U.S. soil, the Concorde was limited to Mach 0.95, though crews often flew just above Mach 1; the planes flew at Mach 2 over open water.
The Concorde service proved a fiscal disaster for Braniff. Though Braniff charged only a 10% premium over standard first-class fare to fly Concorde - and later removed the surcharge altogether - the 100-seat plane often flew with no more than 15 passengers. Meanwhile, Boeing 727s flying the same route were filled routinely. Consequently, Concorde service ended little more than a year after it began.
Although many postcards show a Braniff Concorde, the Braniff livery was never applied to both sides of a Concorde, and the aircraft remained in the ownership of British Airways throughout the operation.

Bankruptcy

On May 12, 1982, Braniff Airways ceased all operations, thus ending 54 years of service in the American airline industry. N601BN "747 Braniff Place" (also known as "The Great Pumpkin" because it was painted orange) made the very last Braniff flight from Hawaii to Dallas/Fort Worth on May 13.
The day before on May 11, 1982, the airline's CEO, Howard Putnam, who was President of Southwest Airlines from 1978-1981, left a courtroom at the Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, after he failed to gain an extension from the airline's principal creditors because of the massive debt built up under the Harding Lawrence regime.

Successor organizations

Three airlines were formed following the shutdown of Braniff. Former Braniff employees founded Minnesota-based Sun Country Airlines in 1983. It flew a fleet of Boeing 727-200s and DC-10s until 2001. It reorganized and currently flies a modern fleet of Boeing 737-800 series aircraft.
Two other airlines were formed from the assets of Braniff:

★ Braniff, Inc, founded in 1983 by the Hyatt Corporation under the umbrella corporation "Dalfort."

★ Braniff International Airlines, Inc., founded in 1991 by financier Jeffrey Chodorow.
The remains of the original Braniff (including Braniff Airways original Tax ID number)
are retained by a company named "Asworth" in Dallas. Asworth was formed out of the old "Dalfort" corporation and is responsible for paying pilot pensions according to the Braniff Retired Pilots Group, B.I.S.E.

Incidents and accidents

★ Braniff Flight 542 crashed in Buffalo, Texas, on September 29, 1959. It was en route to Dallas, Texas, from Houston, Texas. Twenty-nine passengers and five crew members were killed in the crash. The plane was a turboprop Lockheed L-188 Electra, registration number N9705C. The plane was eleven days old when it crashed. The Civil Aeronautics Board blamed the crash on the infamous "whirl-mode" prop theory.

★ Braniff Flight 250 crashed in Falls City, Nebraska, on August 6, 1966. It was en route to Omaha, Nebraska, from Kansas City, Missouri. Thirty-eight passengers and four crew members were killed in the crash. The plane was a BAC 1-11-203AE, registration number N1553.

★ Braniff Flight 352 crashed in Dawson, Texas, on May 3, 1968. Like Flight 154 nine years earlier, It was en route to Dallas, Texas, from Houston, Texas. Seventy-nine passengers and five crew members were killed in the crash. The plane was a Lockheed Electra II, registration number N9707C. Two other Braniff employees, a Cargo secretary, and a Braniff Construction Engineer were among the dead. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled Weather, and an "overstressing of a wing plank" as the cause. There is, however an alternate theory.

Trivia

★ In 1981, Braniff dedicated a Boeing 727-227 with the colors of the Dallas Cowboys, an American football team that chartered the aircraft for road games. The aircraft featured a Cowboys helmet on its tail section. The Cowboys had been a customer of Braniff throughout the 1970s.

★ Many Braniff groups are active today, including:

★
★ The Retired Pilots, "The Braniff International Silver Eagles"

★
★ The Retired Hostess Organization, "The Clipped-B's"

★
★ The Braniff Retirement Club (Based in Dallas)

★
★ The Braniff Family Annual North Texas Reunion Organization

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★ Braniff/Mid-Continent Reunion Club (who have met every year in Minnesota since 1978)

★ A portion of an old Braniff advertisement with a Boeing 727 appears after the end credits (where production company logos normally go) of every episode of ''South Park''. However, in 2001, the New York Trust that still owns the Braniff Trademarks informed South Park Studios not to use Braniff in any other formats. The 12-note riff played on top of this ad during earlier ''South Park'' episodes is from a song, "Shpadoinkle Day" from Trey Parker's collegiate film project, "" (later filmed as ''Cannibal! The Musical''). The lyrics associated with those notes are "The sky is blue/and all the leaves are green."

★ Braniff International items with the now-famous "BI" logo on them such as playing cards, posters, air schedules, aircraft models, pins and serving ware have become collectibles.

★ In November of 1967, adwoman Mary Wells married Braniff chief Harding Lawrence and soon thereafter dropped the Braniff account.

External links

★ BraniffList.com For former Pilots

★ BraniffPages.com History and Current Reunion Info

★ BraniffInternational.com General

★ thebranifffamily.org For ex-employees

★ BraniffInternational.org History

★ BraniffMemories.com Braniff Memorabilia