Logair
Logair, short for Logistic Airlift, was a domestic United States Air Force virtual airline that contracted carriers to fly cargo between Air Force bases, initially under the aegis of the Air Materiel Command . The program was first called Mercury Service but American Airlines then used the same name for coast-to-coast flights, so this quickly changed. Logair was a key source of demand for early US airfreight carriers, some of which became Logair specialists. Over time, its relative importance to the airline industry faded. The program was a victim of post-Cold War spending cuts and availability of robust commercial networks such as FedEx. The US Navy ran a similar service called Quicktrans.
History
Startup and early days
Mercury Service started April 1954 with contract awards to irregular air carriers AAXICO Airlines and Capitol Airways for six C-46 aircraft each. By August the name changed to Logair. Later that year, Logair awarded Resort Airlines a contract to fly DC-4s. Logair was similar to the Navy Quicktrans program started in 1950, but also formalized earlier Air Force air freight tests, such as "Project Skyway", which airlifted B-36 R-4360 radial engines to Pratt & Whitney, materially reducing time out of service. Similarly, air transport of jet engines cut out-of-service time from 135 days to 75 days, freeing 28 engines for use.File:Capitol Airways Curtiss C-46 Commando at Kelly Air Force Base in Air Force Logair service sometime in the 1950s or 1960s.png|thumb|Capitol Airways C-46 at Kelly Air Force Base sometime in late 1950s/early 1960s
File:Zantop International Airlines Curtiss Wright C-46A Commando Proctor-1.jpg|thumb|Zantop Air Transport C-46 1962
Logair was a large source of revenue for cargo and supplemental airlines, the two airline types that tended to dominate bidding. Fiscal 1957 Logair payments were $18 million. In the same period, total scheduled cargo airline revenue was $70.0 million, and that of supplementals $56.8 million. Logair awarded annual contracts for the federal government fiscal year initially based on competitive bidding for one or more "patterns" of service. For instance, in 1956, AMC solicited bids for five patterns for FY1957, one for DC-4s, the others for C-46s. Airline participation changed with the number of bids won from year to year, with the margin of victory sometimes less than a thousand dollars on bids totalling millions. Aircraft working for Logair were initially marked as such and could swap airlines. For instance, in 1960, AAXICO, by then a pure Logair specialist, lost its contract. It leased 25 C-46s to a winning bidder and ceased operations completely for twelve months, resuming when it won a contract the next year. In 1957, a new entity, the Military Traffic Management Agency, took over Logair and Quicktrans bidding, but the Air Force and Navy retained operational control.
Turbine transition and Vietnam
In 1960, competitive bidding for military charters came to an end. Instead, the Civil Aeronautics Board set military charter rates, with the military allocating contracts by participation in the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. The military measured an airline's CRAF participation by the mobilization value of aircraft enrolled in CRAF, with MV reflecting an aircraft's value to the military. Domestic and international CRAF were separate. International CRAF emphasized long-range jets, particularly jets convertible between passengers and cargo. Domestic CRAF aircraft were generally smaller, often turboprops. The greater an airline's MV of aircraft committed to domestic CRAF, the more its Logair/Quicktrans allocation.File:Uiug.30112105097718-seq 23.tif|thumb|ONA DC-9-30CF Wright-Patterson Air Force Base 1967–1968. Note small Logair logo just forward of "Pioneer"
Also in 1960, the Air Force started to reserve some patterns for aircraft capable of outsized loads, focusing on the Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy and a proposed civil version of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, which would become the Lockheed L-100 Hercules. Riddle Airlines started flying the Argosy for Logair in January 1961. Congress wanted turbine equipment, despite testimony by Saturn Airways and World Airways about the better economics of fully-depreciated, reliable and flexible DC-6s. Jet speed was irrelevant for a system with a 382-mile average flight length. Nonetheless, Overseas National Airways started flying DC-9s for Logair in 1967. By 1969, Logair added Lockheed L-100 Hercules and Lockheed L-188 Electras. In 1970, the turbine requirement forced the Navy to outsource a Quicktrans route to Logair as Quicktrans did not have the equipment.
As the 1960s progressed, Logair became a sideshow, as international military charters soared due to Vietnam. As [|Table 1] shows, in 1961, Logair and Quicktrans together accounted for over 50% of military cargo charter spending and over 25% of all military charters, but by the end of the decade, Logair and Quicktrans were overshadowed. In FY1968, US flag carrier Pan Am alone was awarded just shy of $100 million in international military charters, more than twice total Logair and Quicktrans contracts. Table 1 also demonstrates how supplemental carriers dominated Logair: of Logair carriers listed, all were supplementals except for Airlift International and Slick Airways, which were scheduled cargo airlines.
Also, in April 1961, the Air Materiel Command became the Air Force Logistics Command, the new parent organization of Logair.
| USD millions / YE June 30: | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 |
| Logair: | |||||||||
| AAXICO Airlines | 7.8 | 7.3 | 8.4 | 9.3 | |||||
| Airlift International | 5.0 | 10.9 | 3.9 | 4.2 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.8 | |
| Capitol Airways | 10.6 | 2.6 | 7.2 | 6.5 | 3.8 | ||||
| Overseas National | 6.0 | 13.3 | |||||||
| Saturn Airways | 11.1 | 12.9 | 17.2 | 9.9 | |||||
| Slick Airways | 6.1 | ||||||||
| Southern Air | 0.3 | ||||||||
| Universal Airlines | 5.3 | 3.2 | 6.4 | 8.2 | 11.4 | 12.0 | 10.1 | 6.5 | 6.3 |
| World Airways | 4.5 | 4.8 | 5.5 | 4.1 | 5.4 | 5.7 | 0.1 | 2.6 | |
| Logair total | 25.3 | 29.2 | 30.3 | 31.4 | 30.7 | 28.8 | 29.3 | 31.0 | 32.1 |
| Quicktrans: | |||||||||
| Airlift International | 0.3 | 0.1 | |||||||
| Alaska Airlines | 0.0 | ||||||||
| Flying Tiger Lines | 3.0 | ||||||||
| Slick Airways | 6.5 | 7.8 | 8.9 | 7.9 | |||||
| US Overseas | 5.2 | ||||||||
| Universal Airlines | 6.6 | 10.2 | 11.7 | 12.4 | |||||
| Quicktrans total | 5.2 | 6.5 | 7.7 | 8.9 | 7.9 | 9.5 | 10.2 | 12.0 | 12.5 |
| All military cargo charters | 55.2 | 101.4 | 101.2 | 86.4 | 120.7 | 165.7 | 321.1 | 241.3 | 187.3 |
| All military charters | 112.5 | 179.8 | 206.1 | 186.9 | 235.1 | 357.7 | 617.0 | 617.3 | 573.7 |
| Logair + Quicktrans as % of all military cargo charter | 55.2 | 35.2 | 37.6 | 46.7 | 32.0 | 23.1 | 12.3 | 17.8 | 23.8 |
| Logair + Quicktrans as % of all military charter | 27.1 | 19.9 | 18.5 | 21.6 | 16.4 | 10.7 | 6.4 | 7.0 | 7.8 |
File:N7951S L.100-20 Hercules Southern Air LGW 02FEB70.jpg|thumb|When, in 1973, it was revealed the CIA secretly owned Southern Air Transport, the airline was blocked from Logair. CIA-era Hercules at London Gatwick 1970
1970s: diminished competition and the CIA
Logair competition diminished substantially in the 1970s:- By 1970, Capitol and World shifted their fleets to long-haul aircraft Logair didn't use.
- Airlift International made an effort to compete for Logair business by acquiring Lockheed L-100 Hercules, but could not finance them, so sold them and its Logair business to Saturn in 1970.
- Universal collapsed in 1972. Saturn took over Universal's Logair contract and Electra fleet.
- Overseas National Airways got out of Electras by year-end 1974 and DC-9s by 1976.
- In 1973, Southern Air Transport, which had three Hercules, was, for the first time, awarded a portion of the Logair contract. This was seen by some as the last straw in a scandal over the CIA's secret ownership of SAT. By year end, SAT gave up its Logair contract and its CAB certification.