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Abstract
The central character in this study is Lowell Yerex, a New Zealand-born entrepreneur who built a vast international airline network in the Caribbean Basin during the 1930s and 1940s. This work examines his role in the Anglo-American commercial aviation rivalry of the period. This was a critical time in the field of commercial aviation, as wartime advances in air transport operations promised significant changes for international airlines. The United States and Great Britain, longtime rivals in the field, battled each other during the war to define the future of commercial aviation. In the midst of this struggle was Yerex, who courted both governments in an effort to obtain operational and diplomatic assistance. He was the only independent airline operator with whom both the British and the Americans had to deal. Thus, he offers a unique perspective from which to study their aviation policies and to compare their aviation establishments. This work examines the economic, strategic, political, and cultural dynamics involved in this story. It draws upon both traditional (i.e. diplomatic records) and non-traditional historical sources (i.e. advertisements). This study will address not only Yerex's role in the Anglo-American commercial aviation rivalry, but also several broader historical issues, most notably the Anglo-American alliance. This study indicates that while the Americans and British were able to join closely in fighting the Axis powers, there remained underlying differences between the two that were of a significant and fundamental nature. Nowhere were these differences more acute than in the field of commercial aviation. As a result of his birth and upbringing, Yerex had ties to both the British and the Americans, and thus had the potential to serve as a bridge between the two. However, their suspicion of each other was simply too great, and thus his ties with both sides made him suspect in the eyes of both. As a result, Lowell Yerex was a man without a country.