Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation provided passenger flights and mail service in the deep south during the 1920s and 1930s. Wedell-Williams is far more remembered for its success in air racing. Wedell-Williams aircraft, designed by Jimmie Wedell, won trophies and acclaim with famous pilots such as Roscoe Turner and Jimmy Doolittle at the controls. Among the more prolific of these pilots was Wedell himself.

The business was the creation of James "Jimmie" Wedell and Harry P. Williams. Williams was a fixture of New Orleans high society; his family were lumber barons, he collected sports cars and lived in a mansion on St. Charles Avenue, and he was married to the silent-film star Marguerite Clark. Jimmie Wedell's upbringing was decidedly less genteel. Jimmie had little formal education; he taught himself to repair, fly, and eventually build his own aircraft from scratch.

This is the history of Jimmie Wedell, Harry Williams, and their brilliant but short and ultimately tragic aviation venture. The story takes place during a time of rapid aeronautical development, but also in the unique setting of interwar New Orleans. The development of Wedell-Williams ran in parallel with the rise and fall of the populist demagogue Huey Long, who, holding the posts of governor and senator simultaneously, ruled Louisiana in autocratic and controversial fashion. Neither Long, Wedell, nor Williams was destined to die of old age.