To tell the story of Transocean Air Lines is to live once again the fairy tale of Prince Ahmed and his magic carpet; for Transocean traveled to virtually every corner of the world during its halcyon days from 1946 to 1960. Unlike the magic carpet of old, however, the men and women of Transocean Air Lines barnstormed around the globe during the 1940s and 1950s in DC-3s, DC-4s, DC-6s, Stratocruisers, Super Constellations, and other aircraft; aviation pioneers in the truest sense of the word. Organized by a handful of maverick aviators with more dreams than money in their pockets, Transocean Air Lines eventually became the largest supplemental air carrier in the world, employing at its peak over 6,700 workers at some 57 bases around the globe. More than sixty years have passed since the fledgling airline first took to the skies on that morning, March 16, 1946. That began a fourteen year 'round-the-world odyssey filled with the kind of adventures that pilots of today can only dream about. Transocean Air Lines folded its wings on January 6, 1960 when the last flight returned to Oakland, and the huge Boeing Stratocrusier taxied to the end of the field to join the fleet now at rest. Yet over five decades later, former employees of the airline - janitors, guards, secretaries, executives, mechanics, and flight crew members - recall the years they spent with Transocean Air Lines as the best years of their lives. To tell all of the exciting tales from those storybook days in this one volume is impossible. This work is not intended to be an exhaustive history of the airline but more a summary for the enjoyment of the casual reader and a stimulus for those who were part of it to recall and relive their experiences.
About the Author: Arue Beaulieu Szura is a native of South Carolina, but she has lived in California since 1937. She is a writer who has published more than eighty articles in magazines and the Daily Review newspaper in Hayward, California. She also self-published five cookbooks. The author worked as a secretary for Transocean Air Lines from March 1948 until January 1953, after which she served as Secretary for Transocean Air Lines' Council #130 of the Air Line Pilots' Association until the demise of the airline in 1960. She also wrote this book, "Folded Wings: A History of Transocean Air Lines" which was originally published in 1989. She is a charter member of the TALOA Alumni Association, published the TALOA newsletter for twenty-three years, and is the unofficial historian for Transocean Air Lines. She is also a member of the Oakland Aviation Museum, California, where she was instrumental in publishing the cookbook "Flight Galley" as a fundraiser for the museum. Ms. Szura now lives in San Leandro, California.