The adventurous early proprietors of air taxis, now known as commuter airlines, pioneered their branch of aviation in the rugged individualistic style of the nation's frontier explorers and scouts. Featuring profiles of twenty-two of the most important pioneers in commuter aviation, this book provides the first comprehensive history of commuter airlines, for many decades the fastest-growing segment of the scheduled airline industry.

The book chronicles the dramatic ebbs and flows of commuter aviation since its origin in the 1920s - when all of the nation's airlines carried fewer passengers than today's commuter airlines - but focuses on the industry's growth since the 1960s. The authors describe the changing government regulation of the industry, including clashes between maverick entrepreneurs and the federal agencies that often roughly tried to shoehorn the commuters into the nationwide airline structure.

An examination of the impact of deregulation in the 1970s reveals how the giant carriers ultimately absorbed or drove out of business most commuter airlines.