[2] The Aviation Corporation was formed on March 2, 1929, to prevent a takeover of CAM-24 airmail service operator Embry-Riddle Company by Clement Melville Keys, who planned on buying Curtiss aircraft rather than Sherman Fairchild's.

With capital from Fairchild, George Hann, Lehman Brothers, and W. A. Harriman,[3] the holding company began acquiring small airlines.

In January 1930, the board broke off the airlines into Colonial and Universal Air Lines.

[4] The company was required to divest American Airlines in 1934 due to new rules for air mail contracts.

[5] Two months after World War II ended the Aviation Corporation branched into the manufacture of farm machinery with its acquisition of the New Idea Company in October 1945.