[1] TAG had served the DET-BKL route (among others) since 1957; Wright provided competing service starting June 27, 1966, initially with a five passenger single-engined aircraft.

[8][9] In March 1968, Wright merged with Air Commuter, with a combined network comprising DET, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Dayton, Columbus, Lima and Findlay from BKL.

[11] In January 1969, Weller trumpeted Wright’s 1968 “record year” : 66,624 passengers, of which 45,421 were on BKL-DET, showing the importance of that route.

[12] But in June 1969, Weller sold out to Don Schneller, an original Wright Air Lines director and bank executive.

[14] The CAB examiner gave an initial opinion in favor of TAG in March 1969 on the basis of TAG’s superior finances, greater market longevity and plan to use superior equipment (Fokker F-27 turboprops, and possible use of Fokker F-28 jets vs Wright’s plan for Convair 240 piston aircraft).

It was unlikely (though not unheard of) that the board itself would overturn this finding, and generally conceded that whichever airline got the certificate would drive the other from the market.

When TAG stopped flying due to lack of financial resources, the CAB blithely ordered it back in the air.

[19] It was somewhat of a miracle the CAB acted at all; since 1969 it had, at industry request, been operating under a secret new route moratorium, a later notorious case of regulatory capture.

Schneller promised turboprop Fairchild FH-227 aircraft (a somewhat larger US-built version of the F-27) once CAB certification was achieved.

In September 1981, Wright signed a tentative $10 million purchase of Air New England (ANE), coincidentally another rare small airline certificated by the CAB in the 1970s.

The first sign of trouble was a half-million dollar unpaid bill to the Cleveland airports, for which Singerman’s excuse was that Wright lost track due to the merger.

For instance, he was involved with a new company, Advanced Turbo Manufacturing (ATM), that wanted to re-engine Convairliners (something that hadn't been done since the 1960s)[49] in depressed Youngstown, Ohio.

Singerman proposed to move Wright’s headquarters to the same Youngstown location, no doubt to the eager anticipation of the staff.

[51] In June 1984, Wright reported a huge $1.4mm loss on revenue of $7.3mm for the first quarter; the prior year had been break even.

[54] By November, Wright exited every route than Cleveland to Detroit (both DET-BKL and CLE-DTW, despite the presence of six other airlines on the latter).

[57] In July, the bankruptcy court ruled Wright guilty of fraud and converted the case to Chapter 7 (liquidation).

[60] To his credit, Singerman got the case reverted to Chapter 11 by putting up his own money to allow the company to be sold and Wright stumbled on into the fourth quarter of 1985.