Word: smithing
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Smith, who drinks sparingly but ages his own 150-proof bourbon in special barrels for his friends, at first balked at the introduction of liquor on airlines. Later he decided to serve it-free. Says he: "It costs you more money to sell liquor than to give it away. Also, we don't want our girls to sell whisky. Would you want your daughter to be an airline hostess if she sold whisky...
When the jet planes were ready for production, C. R. Smith decided that for once American did not have to be first, though it could not afford to be last. He held off ordering until Pan American had placed the first firm orders for the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8, and United Air Lines had picked the DC-8. He shrewdly figured this would increase his bargaining power-as it did. To land American's order, Boeing agreed to enlarge the 707 fuselage, sell the planes for $500,000 less apiece than...
Topflight Staff. No sooner had American signed its jet contracts than it began planning for the long and involved transition from props. Though Smith personally keeps tabs on every major problem, he is surrounded by topflight staffers: Among them...
...Mosier, 61, executive vice president in charge of operations, is a big, sugar-voiced barrel of a man, who bosses the biggest operations setup in the industry, spends 70% of American's dollar. A onetime barnstorming pilot, football coach and city manager, Mosier was hand-picked by Smith in 1938, is gearing every part of American's operation to such jet-age innovations as new fuel supplies (the jets eat up 2,000 gal. of kerosene per hour). American's 1,000 maintenance men must virtually relearn their jobs; the jet training manual alone consists...
...Says Smith: "Sure, we could build a plane to go through the sound barrier right now. But we couldn't get our money back. We couldn't charge enough for a ticket." He expects the present jets to be around for a long time...