Alvin P. Adams; Once Led Western Airlines

Alvin P. Adams, 90, an aviation pioneer who as president helped develop Western Airlines. A native of Grand Junction, Colo., Adams was educated at Yale and became the first aviation editor of the Wall Street Journal. At 29, he became president of a failing Western Air Express, which he turned into a successful Western Airlines. During his tenure from 1934 to 1941, Adams expanded the carrier, initiated stewardess service, put pilots in uniform and introduced the Douglas DC-3 aircraft. Adams left Western to serve as president of Seaboard Airways and then of Fairchild’s Duramold Division, which made plywood components for combat aircraft during World War II. Western was merged into Delta after airline deregulation in the 1980s. During his lengthy career, Adams also operated an airline consulting firm and was an executive at Pan Am and Airbus Industrie. On Wednesday in New York.