Air America

Air America may refer to:

Air America (TV series)

Air America is an American action/adventure television series starring Lorenzo Lamas, and premiering on October 4, 1998. The series is not based on the 1990 film Air America.

Plot

The series concerns two undercover secret agents, Rio and Wiley, who assume a new role for the State Department as pilots who work for the Latin America airline Air America. They receive direct orders from the State Department to do various missions such as protecting witnesses, investigating international crime, and rescuing those in need.

Cast

DVD release

On June 6, 2006, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released Air America: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.

References

Air America (airline)

Air America was an American passenger and cargo airline covertly owned by the US government in 1950 as a dummy corporation for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operations in China. The CIA did not have enough work to keep the asset afloat and the National Security Council farmed the airline out to various government entities that included the USAF, US Army, USAID and for a brief time France. Essentially, Air America was used by the US government covertly to conduct military operations, posing as a civilian air carrier, in areas the US armed forces could not go due to treaty restraints contained in the 1954 and 1962 Geneva Accords. Measured in terms of the number of aircraft owned or available, Air America was "the largest airline in the world" at its peak.

Organization

In August 1950, the CIA, at the direction of the National Security Council, formed a Delaware corporation named Airdale. Airdale formed a subsidiary corporation named CAT, Inc. CAT purchased 40% of the assets of Civil Air Transport (CAT), an airline that had been started in China in 1946 by Gen Claire Lee Chennault (of Flying Tigers fame) and Whiting Willauer. Sixty percent remained with Chinese investors. CAT Inc. also formed Asiatic Aeronautical Company Ltd, a Republic of China company.