Company Description:

Eastern Air Lines was one of the "Big Four" airlines (along with United, Delta and American) that dominated the passenger airline business in the United States for nearly 50 years. It started flying officially as Eastern from 1930 (after its predecessor company was founded in 1927) and operated until 1991, when it ceased operations during the first Gulf War.
Eastern was an innovative airline company– it created the hourly "power" shuttle between New York, Washington and Boston. It was the first airline to order and operate the Boeing 727 and the Boeing 757. It was also the first US airline customer of Airbus– taking deliveries of the Airbus A300 in 1972. In the 1980s, it was the largest airline in terms of passengers in the world and the largest airline operating to Latin America and the Caribbean, with a major hub in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It bought all of the Latin routes of Braniff Airlines in 1982. Its two famous CEOs were Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the World War I flying ace who received the Congressional Medal of Honor, and was CEO from 1935 to 1963; and Colonel Frank Borman, who orbited the earth in Gemini VII in 1966 and circled the moon in Apollo VIII in December 1968.