Silver City, New Mexico, early in 1985 to provide scheduled passenger and cargo flights to Carlsbad via El Paso. Cessna lightplane flights are duly inaugurated, but cannot be maintained beyond the summer.
TURNER AIRLINES: United States (1947-1950). With the brothers Paul and John Weesner as partners, the legendary 1930s air racer Col. Roscoe Turner, whose title, given his nonmilitary service, is honorary, establishes Roscoe Turner Aeronautical Corporation at Indianapolis in 1940. Ground is broken for a large complex that will include shops, hangar, flight school, and dormitories. A terminal and control tower are also constructed. What is started is not an airline per se, but a basic air training facility for the U. S. Army Air Corps. From this point through World War II, RTAC will educate 3,500 students for the U. S. military.
Col. Turner has ideas about forming an airline, even as the CAB is debating the concept of the “feeder airline.” In 1944, Turner, employing single-engine Stinson SR Reliants, undertakes what he calls “scheduled charters,” multistop flights from Detroit to Memphis. The new service is protested by Chicago & Southern Air Lines and the CAB orders it shut down.
RTAC is incorporated as an unscheduled air carrier on September 3,
1947, with Col. Turner as president. The CAB, during the third quarter of
1948, grants RTAC certification to operate as a local service provider from Indianapolis to nine communities in Indiana and Ohio. Charter flights commence with a fleet of 2 Beech 18s and 3 V-tailed Beech Bonanzas.
Having expended over $2 million on start-up costs, Col. Turner sells controlling interest to the Weesner brothers, while agreeing to remain as minority owner and unofficial director of public relations. His activities with this carrier will be reviewed by Carroll V. Glines in his Roscoe Turner: Aviation's Master Showman (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995).
On May 31, 1949, the firm’s name is changed to Turner Airlines. The Beech single - and twin-engine aircraft operations continue as a search is made for larger aircraft.
Two Douglas DC-3s are purchased from Northwest Airlines in October and one of these, on November 12, inaugurates scheduled passenger services from Indianapolis to Grand Rapids, Michigan, via Kokomo, South Bend, and Kalamazoo.
A total of 559 passengers are transported by December 31.
Airline employment stands at 25 in 1950. In January, DC-3 service is started from Chicago (MDW) to Cincinnati via Lafayette, Indianapolis, and Connersville. This roundtrip route and the previous one are operated twice daily.
During the fall, the Indiana communities of Bloomington and Richmond are added to the route network and a third DC-3, also purchased from Northwest Airlines, is placed into service.
On November 12, the DC-3 operator is renamed once again, this time becoming Lake Central Airlines.
Enplanements for the year total 12,757.
World History
