William John "Jack" Frye (March 18, 1904 – February 3, 1959) was an American aviation pioneer in the airline industry.

[9] Frye, Richter, and Hamilton's new goal was to enter the scheduled airline business, so on February 3, 1926, Standard Air Lines was formed as a subsidiary of Aero Corp.[1] Standard Air Lines initially flew single engine Fokker F-7 aircraft from Los Angeles to Tucson with a stop in Phoenix.

Frye and Richter took one of their stock tri-motors and set a commercial aircraft altitude record of 22,680 ft.[10][11] Western Air Express bought controlling interest of Aero Corp in early 1930, but still operated Standard as a separate airline.

[12] The airline suffered near disaster after its reputation was hurt in 1931 when Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne died on a T&WA Fokker F-10 tri-motor airplane.

In May 1934, Frye broke his record by flying a Northrop Gamma from Los Angeles to Newark in an elapsed time of 11 hours and 31 minutes.

[13] In 1937, Frye and Richter founded "Conquistadors del Cielo" (Conquerors of the Sky), an annual gathering of top airline executives at a dude ranch in Wyoming.

[14][15] In 1939, desiring greater control of their airline, Frye and Richter approached industrialist and film producer Howard Hughes to buy into the company.

In July 1950, Frye married his fourth wife, in Hollywood, Florida, New York showgirl and actress Emily Nevada Smith.

[17] Frye was very well connected in Washington D.C., and soon landed a coveted prize as director of one of the German corporations seized during World War II, in this case the U.S. residual of IG Farben.

[20] Frye remained President of General Aniline until 1955, when the Eisenhower administration unwound these holdings through the Office of Alien Property Custodian.

[24] On February 3, 1959, while driving home after a meeting with Howard Hughes in Tucson Arizona to finalize plans on the development of Frye's new aircraft: An STOL and Safari heavy transport plane, Frye in his 1959 Ford Galaxy 500 was killed instantly in a car accident by a drunk driver who ran a stop sign.