Worland's airline history

I read with some consternation the other day that Worland will be losing scheduled air service after this summer. It’s not that much of a surprise, as it’s been talked about for years. Losing our airline service still bothers me, as much as anything because it’s yet another blow against small town America.

It bothers me for another reason, that for my entire life I remember airline planes coming in and out of the Worland airport. I did a little research on this and learned that as early as 1947 (when I was four), Challenger Airlines, a Wyoming corporation, was flying passengers around Wyoming. They flew DC-3s, probably war surplus planes. In its military incarnation, the DC-3 was known as the Dakota and during World War II thousands and thousands were built. They had two engines, a classically simple form and they worked. And worked. And worked. They were sturdy, not fast (I think 180 mph cruising speed), but very easy to fly. They were also reliable; not a single fatality occurred when these planes flew in and around the Rocky Mountains after World War II. Somewhere around 1960 a different plane started flying in here, a Convair 240. The Convair was another two-engine plane, but it was larger, somewhat faster, and was pressurized. Convair eventually went to a turbo-prop, but I think only after flying for several years using a conventional propeller engine. The most obviously different feature of the Convairs was that they had their third wheel in the nose, not beneath the tail, as did the DC-3s.

Of course, I didn’t know all this when, as a boy, I watched planes flying south of Worland to the airport. My first memory of an airline in Worland was Frontier Airlines, which was created in 1950. Frontier came about as an amalgamation of Arizona Airways, Challenger Airlines and Monarch Airlines and Frontier lasted until 1986.

When my brother and I walked to the airport, as we did frequently as young kids, we’d hope to time our arrival so that we could watch an airliner land and take off. The take-offs were exciting because the pilots would wrap their engines to a loud roar and then charge down the runway. But I especially remember the DC-3s landing. They’d usually come into the airstrip from the north, and then gradually slow down until reaching a suitable spot toward the south end of the runway. There the pilot would do a wheelie. That is, he’d use his large front tires as pivots, rev his engines, and swing the tail of the plane around a 180-degree arc. It was a thrilling event for a 10-year-old boy.

I remember another event associated with the Worland airport. In early 1973 I was preparing for my discharge from the army and already knew that I’d then go to Worland to practice law. About that time, National Car Rental decided to run a national ad campaign, to be presented in magazines (this was a time when people read a lot of magazines). The full page ad showed an aerial shot of the Worland, Wyoming airport, with the caption: “It’s Not Easy to Get to Worland, Wyoming.” The point of the ad was that Worland was the smallest community in the country to have regular air service, but even there, you could rent a car from National Car Rental. This ad had special resonance for me, because I had waited a long time to get back to Worland and it had not been easy.

Sad to say, after this summer it’s going to become harder for folks to get back home to Worland.

John Davis was raised in Worland, graduating from W. H. S. in 1961. John began practicing law here in 1973 and is mostly retired. He is the author of several books, the most recent of which is “The Trial of Tom Horn.”