GAIL FORCE EXPRESS: 4746 South Columbia Drive, Janesville, Wisconsin 53546, United States; Phone (608) 756-1000; Fax (608) 756-5719; Code EP; Year Founded 1995. The all-cargo carrier Black-hawk Airways is renamed in 1995. At this point, the founder and chairman, Mark T. Jacobson, and President Richard Wixon oversees 22 employees services are offered essentially without change from the start-up years. The fleet, which visits various Midwestern destinations, now consists of 5 Beech 18s, 2 Beech 58 Barons, 1 Piper PA-31-310 Navajo, 1 Beech King Air, and 1 Cessna 182.
In 1998, GFE operates a fleet that includes 4 Mitsubishi Mu-2s, 3 Beech 18s, 2 Beech Barons, 1 Piper Navajo, 1 Piper Cherokee Six, 1 Cessna 340, and 1 C-172. While going around for a second approach to Peoria, Illinois, on February 23, Flight 179, the Cherokee Six with one pilot aboard, sustains substantial damage when it collides with the ground after stalling. The flyer is not hurt.
Robert Hansen is president in 1999-2000. The fleet is changed by the elimination of the Cessna 340 and C-172 and their replacement with two C-210s.
Having failed to use his checklist, the pilot of a Beech 58, landing at Decatur, Illinois after an April 19, 2000 service from Peoria, forgets to lower his landing gear. The Baron sustains substantial damage in the wheel’s-up touchdown that follows. The flyer is unhurt and his future with the company is unknown.
GALAXY AIRLINES (1): United States (1968-1969). The first Galaxy is established at Cleveland, Ohio, during the early summer of 1968 to provide scheduled intrastate passenger and cargo services. Having obtained an exemption from the CAB for their use, Galaxy inaugurates daily roundtrip frequencies with Douglas DC-3s on July 1. Flying from Cleveland’s Cuyahoga and Lakefront Airports, the refurbished transports will, for the next year, visit Cincinnati by way of Columbus and Dayton.
GALAXY AIRLINES (2): United States (1981-1987). Galaxy Airlines is set up at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1981 to operate cargo and passenger charters and other contract services. Originally affiliated with Carefree David Travel, the nonscheduled carrier subsequently changes owners before receiving its charter authority in August 1983.
Galaxy is equipped in September with a Lockheed L-188C purchased from COPA (Compania Panemena de Aviacion, S. A.) and an L-188AF from TACA International Airlines, S. A. The latter had begun service with Trans Australia Airlines (Pty.), Ltd. in 1960 as the Charles Sturt. On behalf of Computer Components Industry, the new airline launches scheduled cargo charters at the end of the month.
With the beginning of the summer passenger charter schedule in March 1984, Galaxy acquires a Convair CV-990A Coronado on a six-month lease, and employs it to operate flights between Fort Lauderdale and Freeport, in the Bahamas, on behalf of the Princess Hotel. Although a customer boarding count on the jetliner is not released, it is noted that the Electras have operated a total of 332,304 FTKs of cargo in this, the company’s first full year.
On January 21, 1985, Flight 203, with 6 crew and 65 passengers, is returning customers home to Minneapolis (MSP) after a weekend gambling trip. The failure of ground handlers to properly close an air access door on the ex-COPA L-188A leads to severe vibration just after its takeoff from Reno. The aircraft attempts to make an emergency landing back at its point of origin, but crashes into a field, bounces up and into a number of nearby mobile homes, and catches fire; the entire crew perishes and only one passenger survives the crash.
Following this well-publicized Electra disaster, President Philip Sheridan announces on January 25 that Galaxy will temporarily suspend passenger operations while its two remaining Lockheeds are examined by FAA inspectors. Both aircraft are found to be in acceptable condition and flights resume two days later. The accident is reviewed by Peter Garrison in his “Bad Vibrations: Fatally Low and Slow in an Electra at Reno,” Flying, 113 (August 1986): 24-26.
In the meantime, the FAA discovers that the CV-990A that has been operating Galaxy’s gambling junkets has been wearing company titles in violation of the Federal Air Regulations (FAR) 125 that the jetliner has been permitted to fly under. With no visual advertising of any kind permitted on the aircraft, the company now removes the titles. It will soon, thereafter, remove the aircraft.
Having suffered a jammed right main landing gear upon takeoff from Philadelphia for Charlotte on January 29, an L-188CF with three crew and a cargo of hazardous materials, is diverted to Dobbins AFB at Marietta, Georgia, where an emergency belly landing is made on a foamed runway. The aircraft skids 4,200 ft. and is damaged beyond repair, but there are no fatalities.
Later in the year, Galaxy elects to inaugurate scheduled daily roundtrip Cessna 402 shuttle flights linking its base with Miami. Cargo operations continue as FTKs ascend 31.2% to 483,000. At year’s end, the company stops flying military charters, although the Cessna service in Florida is maintained.
An unattended oil leak prompts the USAF to suspend the carrier from further MAC cargo charter flights on supply routes, as of March 25, 1986, until government inspectors are satisfied that Galaxy has addressed its maintenance problems adequately. The remainder of the year is occupied attempting to win a new fitness finding from the DOT.
Electra operations resume in early 1987 and continue for five months before the company shuts its doors. Prior to cessation, a total of 347,900 passengers are transported on the year. The assets are purchased by Sacramento-based Celebrity Travel, which has stillborn plans to operate Electra passenger charters. Declaring the carrier “defunct,” the DOT revokes the Galaxy certificate in mid-1988.
GALAXYAIRWAYS, S. A.: Greece (1999-2001). Theodore Kokmotos founds this Galaxy at Athens in the second quarter of 1999 to offer scheduled passenger and charter flights to points around Europe. In an unusual move, the founder serves as vice president/general manager, while
C. Ioannides is chairman and Vassiliki Ioannidou is managing director.
A workforce of 60 is recruited and revenue flights commence on August 31 with a leased Boeing 737-430, previously flown by Air One, S. p.A. and now christened City of Kavala. Approximately 30 weekly flights are operated linking Thessaloniki, Kavala, and Preveza with Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Nuremberg. The load is more evenly distributed during the fall following the addition of a chartered B-737-5K5. Revenues of ?25.5 million are generated.
With the beginning of the summer schedule at the end of March 2000, charter flights are also introduced on behalf of the tour operators Golden Sun and Alpha Risen to points in northern Europe. A DC-10-15 is acquired to help service these.
On October 30, thrice-weekly roundtrips to London (STN) are inaugurated from Thessaloniki, Kavala, and Preveza employing a newly acquired second B-737-430.
Galaxy will be shut down on March 12, 2001.
GALENA AIR SERVICE: United States (1986-1989). Norman Yeager establishes GAS at Galena, Alaska, in the early fall of 1986 to provide scheduled passenger and cargo services to local communities and bush destinations. Revenue flights commence in October with one each Cessna 207, Beech 58 Baron, and Piper PA-31-310 Navajo and continue until the company is taken over by St. Mary’s-based Hermen’s Air on June 27, 1989.
World History
