116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Time Machine: Ozark Air Lines
Regional carrier served Cedar Rapids from 1957 to 1986
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Ozark Air Lines, the nation’s “youngest” airline, made its first appearance in Cedar Rapids with a north-south route April 28, 1957.
The Civil Aeronautics Board required the airline to offer a minimum two flights per day each way between Moline and Minneapolis, with stops at Cedar Rapids and Rochester, Minn. Instead, Ozark inaugurated the service with three flights per day.
Paul Rodgers of St. Louis, the airline’s director of public and interline relations, said the company was optimistic it could add that a fourth flight would be added soon.
Ozark handled mail, express and freight as well as passengers.
The new airline attracted good and bad publicity. Among the stories:
- An Ozark pilot spotted a “flying saucer” near Chanute, Kan., in 1952.
- Ozark transported Miss Universe Carol Morris to her home in Ottumwa in 1956.
- Marilyn Monroe flew from Chicago to Champaign, Ill., so she could attend the Bement, Ill., centennial in 1955 because she was interested in Abraham Lincoln.
- Ozark stewardess Betty Lou Tracy shot her lover, Larry Keil, an Ozark superintendent, in 1952.
The first flight
“The day Cedar Rapids had waited and worked for more than 10 years passed with little fanfare Sunday (April 28),” The Gazette reported in 1957. “There was a brief flurry of activity at Municipal Airport as Ozark Air Lines inaugurated the long-sought, north-south air service, but there was no formal program, and probably not more than 100 spectators showed up to see the first flight go through.”
The first flight landed at 9:24 a.m. and pulled up to the administration building. Passengers were welcomed by Cedar Rapids Airport Commissioner Don Hines.
Eleven minutes later, the plane – carrying the commissioner, Chamber of Commerce President Harry D. Durham and Gazette Editor Harry Boyd – took off for Rochester, Minn.
Also on board was Mrs. J.W. Meader, a resident of the Home for Aged Women, who had just celebrated her 86th birthday and was taking her first plane ride.
Passengers were given a package containing a booklet, “You’ll Like Cedar Rapids,” and a Cryovac bag containing National Oats popcorn, a box of Quaker Puffed Wheat and a package of Penick & Ford My-T-Fine pie filling.
The pilot for the first flight was Ozark founder Laddie Hamilton.
At the end of its first year serving the city, Ozark had flown 12,321 passengers to and from Cedar Rapids, boarded 47,459 pounds of air mail and handled 105,795 pounds of air express and air freight.
More flights
In March 1959, Ozark started two new flights through Cedar Rapids, one a Chicago-to- Milwaukee flight and one from Milwaukee to Des Moines.
A number of dignitaries and famous people flew Ozark. Notable among them was U.S. House Speaker Sam Rayburn in December 1959.
Rayburn’s flight from Des Moines to Cedar Rapids was canceled because of fog, so he came by car, arriving shortly before he was scheduled to speak. His baggage didn’t arrive until later in the evening. His departure the next morning was delayed, so Linn County Democratic Chairman Robert Connet gave Rayburn a tour of the city.
“He fell in love with what he saw of our fair city before departing the next morning for home,” Gazette political writer Frank Nye wrote.
Jets arrive
The jet age began in Cedar Rapids with the arrival of Ozark’s new jet-powered F-27 luxury airliner in September 1959. By 1964, it had six F-27 flights a day.
As Ozark celebrated eight years in Cedar Rapids in September 1965, it also marked its 15th birthday as a carrier based out of St. Louis. It served 58 cities in 11 states.
Ozark’s ties to Cedar Rapids were enhanced in 1966 when it ordered electronic systems from the Collins Radio Co. for its 21 jet-prop airliners. The order totaled $2 million.
The first 78-passenger DC-9 arrived in Cedar Rapids from Chicago on Aug. 1, 1966, and left again for Kansas City. The flight took a half-hour less than the F-27 turboprops.
End of Ozark
By 1980, business and commercial travelers were insisting on jets. But the next year, when Civil Aeronautics Board subsidies disappeared, Ozark pulled out of all Iowa cities except Cedar Rapids and Des Moines.
In 1986, Trans World Airlines stepped in to buy Ozark after Ozark’s shareholders voted to accept TWA’s $250 million offer. TWA was the country’s fourth-largest airline. Regional carrier Ozark ranked 18th.
The Department of Transportation OK’d the merger in September, and the Ozark planes with the distinctive three-swallow logo disappeared from Midwest airports.
In 2001, TWA merged into American Airlines.
A small, regional airline carried the Ozark name in 2000, but it lasted only until 2001.
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