Braniff International aircraft models

On a recent trip to Houston, I was walking through the terminal at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) when I came across a display case featuring Braniff International Airways.

Braniff was an air carrier founded in 1928 by the brothers Thomas Elmer Braniff and Paul R. Braniff in Oklahoma, with service between Oklahoma City, OK and Tulsa, OK using small single-engine aircraft like the Lockheed Vega. The airline moved its headquarters to Dallas Love Field in 1942 and was by this time using the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. After World War II, Braniff became an international airline, with flights between the United States and Central America, Cuba, and South America. In the 1960's, Harding Lawrence became CEO, and he would transform Braniff by hiring the New York advertising firm Jack Tinker and Partners, whose employee Mary Wells would create the "End of the Plain Plane" advertising and branding campaign that revolutionized the image of the airline. Bright, vibrant colors on the airplanes and space age themed uniforms for the personnel would make flying on Braniff stylish and exciting. By the 1970's Braniff was one of the fastest-growing and most profitable airlines in the United States. But deregulation of the airline industry and the introduction of low-cost carriers (along with massive increases in the cost of jet fuel) eventually led to Braniff's demise as an air carrier.

Although Braniff ceased airline operations in 1982, the company still exists as "a leading global historic airline branding and marketing, online retail and historic airliner tour firm".  https://www.braniffinternational.com/airways-about

Until next time, keep looking to the sky and keep dreaming.

- Matt