What was the name of the first commercial airliner in the United States?

Jan. 1, 1914, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line became the world's first scheduled passenger airline service, operating between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Fla. It was a short-lived endeavor — only four months — but it paved the way for today's daily transcontinental flights.

In 1913, a trip between the two cities, sitting on opposite sides of Tampa Bay, took two hours by steamship or from 4 to 12 hours by rail. Traveling by automobile around the bay took about 20 hours. A flight would take about 20 minutes.

The first flight's pilot was Tony Jannus, an experienced test pilot and barnstormer. The first paying passenger was Abram C. Pheil, former mayor of St. Petersburg. Their 21-mile (34-kilometer) flight across the bay to Tampa took 23 minutes. They flew in a "flying boat" designed by Thomas Benoist (pronounced Ben-Wah), an aviation entrepreneur.