When you think of an airline, what do you think?

Do you think of booking your tickets online?

Then get annoyed when you realize you have to pay for extra baggage?

Do you think about how there seems to be less legroom than there used to be?

Maybe think about how you hope you get bumped up to first class,

so you don't have to sit to some next to some sweaty mouth breather

who's gonna spend the whole time chatting about some vacation they just took

that you could care less about, that kind of stuff.

I doubt you think about the CIA and drugs muggly.

Air America was a passenger in cargo airline originally established in 1946

by Whitleyne Willauer and former US military aviator Claire Lee Shenalt.

Initially called civil air transport.

Its mission was to provide support for nationalist Chinese forces

fighting the communists in war-ravaged China.

But that would change when China fell to the communists

and suddenly the Asian communist plane field got a whole lot bigger.

Now China was looking to support communist parties

wherever else they could take hold in Southeast Asia, the red spread.

And the US was not happy about it.

And the CIA would be sent in to fight communist forces

and they would buy out civil air transport to help changing the name to Air America.

Air America often appeared as if we're running regular old civilian flights

...