Varig Porto Alegre, by Otto Ernst Meyer-Labastille, a German aviator decorated in the World War I, who immigrated to Brazil in 1921 and noticed how necessary air transportation was for a large country like Brazil. Varig was an off-spring of the German trade company and airline Condor Syndikat, thus sharing the same origin as Syndicato Condor, later renamed Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul. Condor Syndikat gave the initial operational and financial support and for a short time Varig and the sister-company Syndicato Condor operated in partnership. The first aircraft of VARIG was a ten-passenger Dornier Do J Wal flying boat, transferred
American Flyers Airline to operate transatlantic flights, from the mainland US to London Gatwick and Manchester in the United Kingdom, and to Frankfurt, Germany. Around this time the airline moved its operations to Middletown, Pennsylvania. By 1970, American Flyers was operating just two leased Douglas DC-8 Series 63CF having sold the Electras and later the Boeing 727s. AFA was taken over by Universal Airlines on May 25, 1971, which in turn was absorbed by Saturn Airways the next year. Its DC-8s went to Flying Tiger Line. AFA was founded by Reed Pigman who was an early aviation pioneer who was instrumental in developing