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In 1928, Oklahoma City native Paul Braniff created Oklahoma’s first regularly scheduled air service – Braniff Airlines.
Braniff bought his first airplane, a Stinson Detroiter, with $11,000 borrowed money. It made three round trips daily from Oklahoma City to Tulsa; one-way tickets cost $12.50. A year later, Braniff expanded routes to Dallas and Fort Worth and purchased two six-passenger Lockheed Vegas – the same plane Wiley Post used to fly around the world in 1931.
Thanks to early leaders like Braniff, aerospace is now a prominent state industry employing over 120,000 Oklahomans.
– Dr. Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma History Center
