It's the Brian Larry Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone.

Now we continue our centennial series, 100 years of 100 things.

We're entering the home stretch with thing number 90, 100 years

of commercial air travel. Most of us are familiar with the start of this story, right? December 17th,

1903, the Wright brothers become the first humans to successfully fly an airplane. But what happened

between then and now? We have airports all across

the country, of course, and the world, and you can get practically anywhere in the continental

United States within a matter of hours by flying, except maybe if you're traveling by a Newark

airport at the moment. Air travel still has its complications. With us now to walk us through the last hundred years of air travel is Bob Vanderlinden,

commercial aviation curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Bob, what a treat to have you.

Welcome to WNYC.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

So we'll start just a little before our timeline of 100 years.

January 1st, New Year's Day, 1914, the first scheduled commercial flight.

Tell us where it went, where it originated.

Yeah, it might surprise people.

It went across Tampa Bay.

It was the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line.

It lasted three months from January 1st, 1914 to the end of March 1914.

Wait, it flew from St. Petersburg to Tampa?

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