An Old Frontier
Shown are summer uniforms worn by the flight attendants in the late 1940s at Challenger Airlines. At the time, uniforms changed often.
But then, so did airlines.
Challenger Airlines began in Wyoming on the last day of 1941 as Summit Airways, a non-scheduled carrier. When its owner, Charles W. Hirsig II, died in an air crash on Jan. 15, 1945, Laramie 1st National Bank investor George J. Forbes took over and changed the name to Challenger Airlines. The carrier was moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and bought three Douglas DC-3s. It purchased another DC-3 and began full operations in 1947 with service between Salt Lake City, Billings and Denver with many intermediate stops including Vernal, Cody and Cheyenne.
After many financial difficulties, the airline merged with Monarch Airlines and Arizona Airways, was moved to Denver and renamed Frontier Airlines on June 1, 1950.