Jim Banning

The veteran World War II combat pilot who was the head of the Banning Line, a helicopter delivery service owned and operated by Banning and a group of veteran flyers with whom he flew missions in the service.

In April 1948, in a ruthless effort to drive Banning and his buddies out of business and seize their helicopter delivery service for himself, Martin Grew, head of the rival Grew Line, repainted his own helicopters to resemble Banning's and loaned them to a gang of criminals for use in a series of spectacular crimes so that, once the helicopters had been spotted and Banning and his buddies branded as criminals, he would be in a position to gain complete control over the city's lucrative helicopter delivery business.

Superman's efforts to apprehend the cunning "sky-bandits" were severely hampered by the fact that Lois Lane had prevailed upon Clark Kent to "impersonate" Superman as part of her elaborate scheme to lure the criminals into a trap, thus placing Kent in the unenviable position of having to "pose" as Superman without being able to use his super-powers overtly for fear of betraying the secret of his dual identity. Ultimately, however, by working behind the scenes and using his super-powers in secret, Superman managed to orchestrate the capture of the sky-bandits—and the exposure of Martin Grew's vicious scheme to put the Banning Line out of business—by Banning and his fellow flyers (Act No. 119: "Superman for a Day!").