Editing Eastern Air Lines (section)

===Growth under Rickenbacker===
[[File:The Great Silver Fleet 1939.jpg|thumb|The Great Silver Fleet in 1939]]
By 1937, Eastern's route system stretched from New York to Washington, Atlanta, and New Orleans, and from Chicago to Miami.<ref>{{cite web |title=Eastern Airlines timetable, May 17, 1937 (p. 2) |url=https://timetableimages.com/ttimages/complete/ea37/ea3705-2.jpg |website=Airline Timetable Images |access-date=9 May 2022}}</ref> In the same year, it operated 20 daily flights and returns, every hour on the hour, between New York and Washington; the flight time was one hour, twenty minutes, one-way.<ref>{{cite web |title=Eastern Air Lines timetable, May 17, 1937 (p. 6) |url=https://timetableimages.com/ttimages/complete/ea37/ea3705-6.jpg |website=Airline Timetable Images |access-date=9 May 2022}}</ref>

In 1938, [[World War I]] flying ace [[Eddie Rickenbacker]] bought Eastern from General Motors. The complex deal was concluded when Rickenbacker together with Sidney Shannon<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://fredericksburg.com/news/local/vintage-airliner-added-to-shannon-air-museum-collection/article_26700020-767b-52df-b6cc-10c75b4971df.html|title = Vintage airliner added to Shannon Air Museum collection| date=8 January 2021 }}</ref> presented [[Alfred P. Sloan]] with a certified check for {{US$|3500000|1938|round=-4}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daly Bednarek|first1=Janet Rose| last2=Launius|first2=Roger D.|date=2003 |title=Reconsidering a Century of Flight |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TuqG9SgstIoC&pg=PA127 |publisher= [[UNC Press Books]] |page=127 |isbn=9780807854884 |access-date=August 1, 2014 }}</ref>

Rickenbacker pushed Eastern into a period of growth and innovation; for a time Eastern was the most profitable airline in the post-war era, never needing state subsidy. In the late 1950s Eastern's position was eroded by subsidies to rival airlines and the arrival of the jet age. On October 1, 1959, Rickenbacker's position as CEO was taken over by [[Malcolm A. MacIntyre]], a brilliant lawyer but a man inexperienced in airline operations.'<ref name="Rickenbacker, 1967">Rickenbacker, 1967</ref> Rickenbacker's ouster was largely due to his reluctance to acquire expensive jets as he underestimated their appeal to the public. A new management team headed by [[Floyd D. Hall]] took over on 16 December 1963, and Rickenbacker left his position as director and chairman of the board on December 31, 1963, aged 73.<ref name="Rickenbacker, 1967"/>

In 1956, Eastern bought [[Colonial Airlines]], giving the airline its first routes to Canada.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Commercial_Aviation/EasternAirlines/Tran13.htm |title=Eastern Air Lines History |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061207020805/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Commercial_Aviation/EasternAirlines/Tran13.htm |archive-date=2006-12-07 }}</ref>