Formed by Gerald James and George Day at Brownwood, Texas, in the fall of 1976, ECA begins scheduled passenger service on December 1 as replacement for Texas International Airlines on a route to Dallas (DFW), Waco, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, San Angelo, Eastland, and Lufkin. Flights are undertaken with a pair of Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftains. The Oklahoma city of McAlester joins the route network late in the decade, along with several Britten-Norman BN-2 Islanders.
A Navajo Chieftain is lost in an accident at Houston (HOU), on March 21, 1980.
Operations continue apace during the remainder of the early 1980s and, by 1985, enplanements are 4,830.
In January 1986, the FAA lifts the carrier’s operating certificate for various maintenance regulation violations. All efforts to win it back fail.
EAGLE EUROPEAN AIRWAYS, LTD.: United Kingdom (19931994). Following its December 1992 purchase by new owners, Merrix Air, Ltd. is reformed at its Exeter Airport base in January 1993. General Manager Martin G. Wild and Managing Director Richard Merrin oversee a workforce of 6 and acquire a Piper PA-31-310 Navajo and an Em-braer EMB-110 Bandeirante, the latter by lease from David Martin Worldwide, Ltd.
Scheduled service is inaugurated in February from the company’s base to Manchester. The fleet grows by a second chartered Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante in October when a route is stretched to Morlaix and the carrier adopts its present corporate identity.
Operations continue apace during 1994, although one of the Ban-deirantes is replaced by a British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31. Operations are suspended in July.
EAGLE HELICOPTERS: 5311 E. Rutter Ave., Spokane, Washington, 92212, United States; Phone (509) 534-1285; Fax (509) 5330468; Year Founded 1980. Eagle Helicopters is established at Spokane in 1980 to provide helicopter work services to the surrounding area, eventually venturing throughout the Northwest from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast. During its first 18 years, the concern engages in personnel charters, timber surveys, photographic and motion picture support work, long-line environmental drill support, long-line seismic magnetometer surveys, external loads (particularly the lifting of air conditioners onto roofs) and, under contract to the U. S. Forest Service, fire suppression and crew support.
By 2000, the company employs 3 full-time pilots and operates 2 each Eurocopter AS-350B A-Stars, SA-315B Lamas, and SA-316B Alouette IIIs.
World History
