Editing Commercial aviation (section)

====Origins====
[[File:The World areas covered by Commercial Air Routes.jpg|thumb|Areas covered by commercial air routes in 1925|282x282px]]
[[Harry Bruno]] and [[Juan Trippe]] were early promoters of commercial aviation.

The [[Air Commerce Act of 1926]] began to regularize commercial aviation by establishing standards, facilitation, and promotion. An Aeronautical Branch was established in the [[United States Department of Commerce|Department of Commerce]] with [[William P. MacCracken Jr.]] as director. To promote commercial aviation, he told [[town fathers]] that "Communities without airports would be communities without airmail."

Writing for ''[[Collier's]]'' in 1929, he noted "Commercial aviation is the first industry inspired by hero-worship and built upon heros". He cited the promotion in South America by [[Herbert Dargue]] in early 1927. After his 1927 trans-Atlantic flight, [[Charles Lindbergh]] made a tour of the [[contiguous United States]], paid for by the [[Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics|Daniel Guggenheim Foundation for the Promotion of Aeronautics]]. From that point, commercial aviation took off:

<blockquote>Roads were choked on Sundays, for weeks afterward, by motorists trying to get to [[Lambert Field]], Lindbergh's home port in Saint Louis, to buy their first air hop. Hundreds of thousands of you went aloft for the first time that summer.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last1=McCracken |first1=William P. Jr. |author-link=William P. MacCracken Jr. |last2=Courtney |first2=W. B. |date=1929-12-21 |title=It's Hard to Get You Up: Selling aviation in America |magazine=[[Collier's]] |pages=10–11 }}</ref></blockquote>[[File:011 Aircraft of various airlines together at Narita Airport, Japan. Swiss Air Lines, United Airlines, Thai Airways.JPG|thumb|right|Variety of commercial airliners at [[Narita International Airport|Tokyo Narita Airport]]]]

The Aeronautical Branch was charged with issuing [[commercial pilot license]]s, [[airworthiness certificate]]s, and with investigating [[air accident]]s.<ref>[https://www.faa.gov/about/history/milestones/media/The_First_Federal_Regulator_for_Aviation.pdf The First Federal Regulator for Aviation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003030738/https://www.faa.gov/about/history/milestones/media/The_First_Federal_Regulator_for_Aviation.pdf |date=2017-10-03 }} from [[Federal Aviation Administration]]</ref>