Through his airline, Parks Air Lines, he controlling a portfolio of route authorities viewed as potentially making his company one of the most significant carriers of its kind.
[1] Combining his sales and piloting skills, Parks flew a Standard J with the Gravois Motor logo painted on the fuselage and wings.
The College (including manufacturing) was rolled into Detroit Aircraft Corporation and Parks later bought back the training operation.
[4] In the late 1930s, with war brewing again in Europe, Parks convinced the United States Army Air Corps that the training program at his college could adequately prepare military pilots for combat missions.
In 1946, having concluded that future aviation leaders would need a broader, more academic education and also out of gratitude for the aid given him by Jesuit priests after a 1927 crash,[7] Parks gave the college named after him to Saint Louis University, a Jesuit institution located across the Mississippi River from Parks's Cahokia, Illinois campus.
[14] He disposed of his stock thereafter, to stay in compliance with the CAB to avoid conflicts of interest with his shareholdings in Ozark Air Lines (see below).
[15] In 1959, with the airport experiencing financial difficulties, the facility closed and developers started to create a residential community on the property.
In 1946 and 1947, the CAB awarded PAT the largest route network of any such applicant in significant part based on Parks's reputation.
In June 1949 the CAB started proceedings to potentially revoke the certification of the airline, by then renamed Parks Air Lines.
In June 1950, shortly before the CAB gave its final ruling, PAL started service on a route from Parks Metropolitan Airport to Chicago, via St Louis and three central Illinois cities.