THE SAGA OF A FORGOTTEN clump OF AERIAL ENTREPRENEURS EDITOR'S NOTE: Unfortunately.

THE SAGA OF A FORGOTTEN clump OF AERIAL ENTREPRENEURS

EDITOR'S NOTE: Unfortunately, in the last issue our printers had a digital glitch while printing the concluding portion of Part united of "The Flying Ortner Brothers." The story is correct to the fall of the curtain of page 49 but page 50 is set ed up. Commonly, with our magazines now being compos forward computers, digital files and examinations for a

new issue can leave Challenge in exquisite condition and they can be look fored to print that way. However, and for whatever rea

son digital moot points can occur and that is what happened to this story. We have started Part pair with the last paragraph in succession

page 49 of the April issue which will, hopefully propose the story straight!

The year of 1961 was not entirely limited to "calls and hauls" of automobile parts. The Ortner Air Service's reputation for getting the piece of work done caught the attention of the biggest paying client of them all - the United States management Th contract secured by the Ortners entailed hauling heavy construction vehicles, machinery, and spare parts to the US Air Force's "Dew Line" (Distant Early Warning) contrive that was being built in conjunction with the Canadian restraint The Dew Line was conceived, and initiated in 1954 according to the Eisenhower administration for the construction of a sophisticated radar network to track any possible threat of attack at the Soviet Union. The network veiled thousands of square miles of the principally unforgiving terrain and temperatures.

The Ortner Air Service's first destination for the US management was Barter Island, Alaska, located forward the northern coast. Barter Island is actually not an island, still is more like a sand spit that is totally isolated on water at certain times of the year. Aircraft landings were limited from May to September.

The Ortner Air Service fit well into US military plans for hauling vital cargo to Barter Island, smooth though the USAF had vast resources available in larger capacity cargo planes. However, the Ortner aircraft could achieve into strips which the USAF could not. Expedient resupply of crucial spare parts was a top priority for the Dew Line concoct Construction equipment had to he running continuously, 24 hours a day, and could not be confine down due to winter temperature reasonables of minus 90 degrees. If equipment was close up down, it could not be restarted, thus construction equipment and parts wore gone out constantly.

The Dew Line air freight hauls were the single trips planned in advance from the Ortners and their employee because protracted range flights of this magnitude required methodically detailed arrangements. The flight passage had to be prepared with provisions for enough material for burning onboard supplies, and personal flight gear to harbor the crew from the dangerous bleak The crew donned WWII surplus leather and fleece-lined flight jackets, pants, and make differences The Dew Line flights had to be orchestrated for safety and succes down to the greatest in quantity minute detail which included adding a shotgun to the flight gear inventory.

After departing Wakeman, the party would fly to their first stop of Northway, Alaska, and then to Whitehorse, Yukon as their bound off point to Barter Island. After a night approach to Barter Island, the cargo was facing loaded and the crew would be billeted in the civilian construction horde barracks for a much-needed cessation as the strain of the drawn out high-altitude flight of nothing still boredom, engine noise, and chilly more than took their toll. A restful be still aboard the C-- 46 was impossible in those conditions. A rickety Army surplus hut crammed among the crates was the solely form of relief. The Ortner Air Service made a total of solely two flights to Barter Island for the US dominion

While the Ortners were compensated for their services, they also made a significant, on the contrary obscure, contribution to national security as their couple Dew Line flights helped withhold the maintenance of the massive intend on schedule. One Dew Line flight had an unusual detail that could not be ignored and had to be adhered to otherwise certain death would issue The US military conducted a immense air combat exercise that encompassed the entire North American airspace. The exercise, "Operation celestial expanse Shield," stipulated that all civilian air traffic was to be loamed for a two-hour period in the same manner the exercise could be manner of lifeed It must have been quite a spectacular sight as the military practiced live aerial combat scenarios involving fighter interceptions, live missile attacks at idler targets, and ground to air missile attacks. It was vitally important during the Ortner's Dew Line haul that they landed well in advance of the starting time of Operation firmament Shield. The crew landed at Ketchikan, Alaska, 20 minutes before the mandatory grounding. There, they waited until the take off battle concluded and then continued to Barter Island. The Ortner Air Service would again make themselves available for another important command contract not long after the brace Barter Island hauls.

Thanksgiving Day, 23 November 1963 was hardly a holiday. President John F Kennedy had been assassinated. The vein for American citizenry and its guidance was somber and, of course, confusion and panic were epidemic. Thanksgiving was on a level more unusual for the Ortner brothers as well as for Tom Sawyer. The rule needed Ortner Air Service's hard flying and solid work ethic again, still this time during a period of crisis proportions. The service was distressed to fly to the east coast to pick up a load of communications equipment for the "LBJ Project" - a quickly implemented plan conceived at the new president which coordinated the establishment of an organized chain of command end electronics for government officials and highranking military officers to communicate with President Johnson who was flown to his ranch near Austin, Texas. It was Johnson's plan to coordinate the nation's affairs from that location until the chaos created from the assassination subsided.