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Text Box: “We’re unique, so let’s not imitate. Imitation lets you catch up to the guy ahead, but never lets you pass.” Robert Prescott, founder and CEO of the Flying Tiger Line. Bob Prescott is the founder of the world’s first successful air-cargo company, the Flying Tiger Line Inc. Prescott’s Flying Tiger Line was the nation’s first regularly scheduled, transcontinental all-freight company that stretched across the northern U.S., connecting East Coast cities with Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon. With the can-do motto, “We’ll Fly Anything, Anywhere, Anytime,” Prescott’s fleet of freightliners proved to the international airline industry that passenger service was not needed to supplement the business of flying cargo. In 1966, Robert Prescott placed the largest fleet order ever made for jet freighters when he ordered seventeen new Boeing DC-8 aircraft winning him the lucrative mail and freight service from the U.S. to the Orient. Robert William Prescott was born in Fort Worth, Texas on May 5, 1913. After graduating from high school, Prescott left for California. He worked his

Text Box: way through Compton Junior College as a truck driver, and in 1939 joined the Navy to become an aviator. After completing his training he taught at the Naval Flying School at Pensacola, Florida until September 1941, when the Navy permitted him to resign his commission to join Claire Chennault’s American Volunteer Group (AVG) know as the “Flying Tigers.” After the U.S. entered the war on December 7, 1941, Prescott fought the Japanese from bases in China and was credited with six victories before the Flying Tigers were disbanded in the summer of 1942. He returned to the U.S. and went to work for TWA as an intercontinental pilot. He later flew as a captain for the China National Aviation Corporation completing over 300 missions carrying military supplies from India to China. The Flying Tiger Line Prescott’s dream of founding his own airlines materialized when, after contacting other veterans of the AVG raised enough money through other matching funding sources to buy fourteen Budd “Conestoga” RB-1 stainless steel cargo airplanes from U.S. Navy surplus. The nation’s first all-cargo airline went into operation

Text Box: on June 25, 1945. The Flying Tiger Line began carrying fruits and vegetables, household furniture, machinery, garments, livestock, wine, football teams, and fresh flowers. Rates were quoted on a basis of 30 cents per ton-mile -- a figure estimated because there were no accurate figures on operating costs, volume and any other factors associated with freightliners. Although in demand, the company lost $21,000 in their first month of operations, $12,000 in their second, but by the third month figures ran into the black. The Legend The Flying Tiger Line formed the nucleus of the air cargo industry on which the world depends so heavily today. Prescott’s original motto, We’ll Fly Anything, Anywhere, Anytime continued to be the keystone to the company’s legendary longevity and success after Prescott’s death in March, 1978. His legacy remains a milestone in commercial aviation history. Prescott’s Flying Tiger Line was acquired by Federal Express in 1989, and the Flying Tiger Line became a piece of our aviation heritage.

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Conservation Note—Oral History – Family Owned

How often we think of our own family history and wonder about those who have passed on. Where did they come from? What did they do? So many questions are generated by a simple thought. It is so easy to think that your parents and friends will never change, will always know about the past and certainly remember details of their own parents and grandparents as you do now. Family histories are very fragile. Document your family’s history by setting up your own oral history program. It can be as simple as having a conversation with your parents or other relatives while writing down the details. More elaborate oral history programs are instituted by museums that videotape those who were present when history was being made. An example of this would be the oral history of AJ High who learned how to fly multi-engine bombers during WW II, and became a pilot for Trans-Texas Airways. We are all obligated to preserve our heritage through any means available. Our own families are excellent examples. Take the time to listen and record their stories. To our future generations we will be characterized as walking history books of the twentieth century. Perhaps we should be detailing our own family history – now.