Routine Commercial Flights Started Because of Michigan

Modes of transportation have evolved, from walking to horses, from ships and trains to automobiles. However, the most reliable mode of long-distance transportation is airplanes. The FFA averages 45,000 flights every day around the US, with many airports having regularly scheduled flights. For example, if you're flying out of Grand Rapids (GRR), you can get a direct flight to Chicago or almost every major city in Florida. 

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While these routine flights are essential to air travel today, there was a time over 100 years ago when airfare was still in its infancy, and air travel as a business was still developing. These regularly scheduled airline services had to start somewhere, and that somewhere was in Grand Rapids. 

Grand Rapids: The Birthplace Of Aviation (Sort Of)

While North Carolina and Ohio are in a constant debate about which state is the actual birthplace of aviation, the place where regularly scheduled airline services started is not up for debate. That honor goes to Grand Rapids and Detroit, whose regularly scheduled airline service began on July 31st, 1926.

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It was started by William B. Stout, an engineer and editor for Henry Ford (who famously made the automobile). He started Stout Air Services, Inc. in 1925 with a 14-passenger tri-motor monoplane. The flight between GR and Detroit saw so much traffic that a Cleveland-Detroit flight was added, and later a Chicago flight in 1929. Stout Air Services Inc. was eventually bought by National Air Transport, which later became United Airlines. 

Now, routine flights are the backbone of the air travel industry, and get many business workers around the country in a timely fashion. While there is some discourse about whether St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida, were actually the first regularly scheduled airline service, Grand Rapids and Detroit are widely accepted as the first.