Inland Air Lines was a small trunk carrier, a scheduled United States airline which started as Wyoming Air Service (WAS), founded by Richard Leferink in May 1930, initially as a flying school.
[2][3] In the mid-1930s WAS won airmail contracts for routes in Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota and Montana.
[4][5] Pursuant to the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) of the United States certificated Inland as a United States scheduled airline on March 28, 1939.
[6] Thereafter, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), which succeeded the CAA in 1940, regulated Inland as a trunk carrier.
[7] However, although Western controlled the overwhelming majority of Inland’s stock, as a Wyoming corporation, Inland could not be merged into Western without the unanimous consent of its shareholders, and a few shareholders continued to hold out.