William John "Jack" Frye (March 18, 1904 - February 3, 1959) was an aviation pioneer in the airline industry. Frye founded Standard Air Lines which eventually took him into a merger with Trans World Airlines (TWA) where he became president. Frye is credited for turning TWA into a world-class airline during his tenure as president from 1934 to 1947. Early life Frye was born in Sweetwater, Oklahoma on March 18, 1904 to cattle ranchers William and Nellie Frye. He had a younger brother, Donald, and a younger sister, Ople. After his mother Nellie's death in 1912, the family moved to Wheeler, Texas to live with grandparents. Frye enlisted in the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1921, and was discharged as a corporal in 1922. In 1922, Frye left for California with his brother Don. Aviation career Frye began flying lessons in 1923 with instructor Burdett Fuller at Burdett Field in Los Angeles. Frye joined Fuller in the "13 Black Cats", an aviation stunt team for the movie industry. Frye became good friends with two student pilots at Fuller's, Walter Hamilton and Paul E. Richter. Frye, Hamilton, and Richter pooled their money together and formed Aero Corporation of California in 1925. They bought out Fuller's flight school and did everything from flight instruction, banner towing, charter flights and crop dusting. Hamilton, who had been a mechanic for the Duesenberg Motors Company, ran their aircraft maintenance operation. Frye held Transport Pilot Certificate #933 and Richter held Transport Pilot Certificate #501. In 1926, Los Angeles aerial police ticketed Frye for flying less than 1,000 feet above the city. 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. Standard Air Lines initially flew single engine Fokker F-7 aircraft from Los Angeles to Tucson with a stop in Phoenix. Within a year, they extended their route to El Paso. In 1929, Standard purchased Fokker F-10A aircraft. Frye and Richter took one of their stock tri-motors and set a commercial aircraft altitude record of 22,680 ft. Western Air Express bought controlling interest of Aero Corp in early 1930, but still operated Standard as a separate airline. When Western Air Express merged with Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) in July 1930 to form Transcontinental and Western Air (T&WA), the government forced Western to sell Standard to