History
Flying W Ranch
Former Eastern Air Lines pilot William (Bill) Whitesell and his brother James opened the airport (then called Flying W Ranch) in 1961. It billed itself "the most unusual resort in the U.S." and a "Texas-style ranch in New Jersey"; ramp personnel dressed as cowboys and guests stayed at the Ponderosa Lodge. [1] [2] By 1968, they added a small airline, Flying W Airways (FWA), operating C-46 freighters (see External links for a photo) and smaller aircraft. A newspaper noted the change in focus from hospitality to business. [3] Whitesell repurposed an existing public company as the airline, giving Flying W a share price. [4] [5] At the time, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), a now-defunct Federal agency, tightly regulated almost all US air transport. FWA sidestepped the CAB by being a contract or uncertificated carrier that only offered services on a privately-contracted basis (not a common carrier). In 1969, FWA pivoted again. It sold the C-46s and bought Red Dodge Aviation (RDA) of Alaska. FWA ordered Hercules aircraft for RDA. RDA would contract with oil companies. [6]
Alaskan oil
In early 1968, oil was discovered on Alaska's North Slope (facing the Arctic Ocean), which became Prudhoe Bay Oil Field. There were then no roads on the North Slope; exploration depended entirely on air transport. Entire drilling rigs, accommodation blocks for workers, bulldozers, food and even diesel fuel were flown in, in temperatures that could be negative 40 or worse. The key aircraft was the Hercules, which could fly large loads into small gravel airstrips and had its own rear loading ramp. Bulldozers could drive on and off. [7] External links has a brief color film of a competitor airline flying a Hercules to the North Slope. The pipeline phase promised even more Hercules demand. [8]
Pipeline was the only feasible way to get this oil to market. Building the pipeline was widely expected to start in 1970, but native Alaskans and environmentalists forced a delay, the former by negotiating for use of their lands and the latter by leveraging the newly-passed National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which required the writing of a lengthy environmental impact statement. Litigation lingered until Congress acted in the wake of the 1973 energy crisis and got things moving in early 1974.
Red Dodge
Earl "Red" Dodge (1926–2004) [9] was a Western Air Lines pilot with Alaska aviation side-businesses. He owned a P-51, painted pink, which he contracted out as a fire-spotting aircraft. [10] He had B-25s that dropped fire retardant and in the late 1960s, he converted a small fleet of Lockheed Constellations to transport diesel fuel to the North Slope. [11] The Federal Aviation Administration prosecuted him for that, because he didn't bother to obtain commercial operational authority, but the jury refused to convict. [12] RDA combined his expertise with FWA money.
Bankruptcy
FWA flew its first Hercules delivery to Flying W Airport for an April 1969 meeting of the board, which included Hollywood actors Bob Cummings [13] and Robert Montgomery. [14] The presence of a large aircraft at a small airport, with celebrities, got press. Shortly thereafter the board chair became Robert Matlack, [15] reflecting a controlling interest now held by him and his brothers Edwin and Brooke. [16] The family money was from Matlack, Inc., one of the largest US tanker truck companies, which coincidently called itself a "pipeline on wheels." [17] [18]
By early 1970, RDA had three Hercules [19] (External links has photos of FWA/RDA Hercules). But as indicated above, Alaska oil development suddenly halted and Hercules demand did not materialize. FWA was highly leveraged and filed for bankruptcy, along with RDA, in September 1970. [20] FWA/RDA operated in bankruptcy until February 1972, when a Federal judge stripped RDA of its two remaining aircraft noting there wasn't work enough for even one Hercules, no expert was willing to testify as to when the pipeline moratorium would end, and no credible party had emerged to reorganize the airline. The stakes, the judge noted, were extremely high as "[i]nfected, as it were, by the exuberant Klondike-like spirit which gripped Alaska" the main shareholders had backed the aircraft financings with personal guarantees (in the case of the Matlacks, that of the family holding company). [21]
Also stranded was RDA's Anchorage hangar, which would have been the only one in Alaska capable of accomodating a Hercules, left partially built since filing. [11] Flying W Airport, no longer operational, was sold in bankruptcy July 1971 [22] and did not operate again until 1984. [23] RDA competitor Interior Airways filed for bankruptcy due to its own Hercules commitment, but survived, fully paying creditors. [24] Alaska Airlines, which pioneered the use of the Hercules in Alaska in 1965 [25] and which had four in its fleet at year-end 1970, [26] exited the Hercules business by 1972. [27]
