ATE Chapter Four

The Airway To Everywhere

CHAPTER FOUR

Corinth, Mississippi born Roscoe Turner ran away from home when he was 16 because he was interested in speed. His father had told him early on "You'll never be worth anything if you keep fooling around with things that burn gasoline instead of oats." He became an ice truck driver then a taxi driver before landing a job with the local Packard and Cadillac dealers. He went on to become an expert mechanic.

Roscoe tried to enlist in the aviation section of the Signal Corps prior to WWI, but was turned down because he didn't have the required two years of college. After the US entered the War, Roscoe joined the Ambulance Corps and was sent to France where he spent a year before transferring to the Aviation Section, but the war ended and he never saw combat.

Turner and a partner (Harry J. Rusner) formed the Roscoe Turner Flying Circus in 1919 and barnstormed the Southern US until 1922 when he returned to Corinth and opened an auto repair business. Roscoe had been a wingwalker during this period.

He bought a Curtiss Jenny and taught himself to fly. Roscoe kept his name in the news by offering rides in the Jenny and performed at local fairs. In 1925 he formed the Roscoe Turner Flying Circus and barnstormed the south again. Roscoe managed to purchase a big Sikorsky S-29A so he could start passenger service. Roscoe worked tirelessly, but was always besieged by creditors. He operated air taxi service & aerial photography as well as some instruction. He flew the big Sikorsky as the First Flying Cigar Store. He was always looking for new business.

Howard Hughes was filming a WWI movie called 'Hell's Angels' and he hired Roscoe to convert the Sikorsky into a German Gotha Bomber. Roscoe flew the airplane in all the scenes but one in which another pilot crashed the airplane. It was a total loss.

Roscoe's flew a double transcontinental flight of 1929 in a Lockheed Vega. This was encouraged him enough to buy a Lockheed. He managed to get a sponsor and entered the 1929 Cleveland Air Races. He only came in third, but he because of his neat uniform and flamboyant personality, he got lots of publicity.

If predecessors count, then perhaps Nevada Airlines should be included in this story. Nevada began service between Los Angeles and Reno and between Reno and Las Vegas on 15 April 1929. Know as the 'Honeymoon Express", the fleet consisted of 4 Lockheed Vegas. The Chief Pilot was Col. Roscoe Turner of Air Racing fame. The airline was owned by Ray Boggs, Ben S Hunter & Carl Squier.

Roscoe Turner was an egotist. When he became Manager of Operations, he stepped up the time schedule so that the line could be called the “fastest in the world”. One of these fast Lockheed Vegas was Wiley Post’s “Winnie Mae”. It was souped up to be a showpiece and record setter. Roscoe added big wheel pants, an engine cowling and spinner. He renamed the Vega “Sirius”. Colonel Turner flew “Sirius” from Los Angeles to New York City in 19 hours, 53 minutes with four passengers aboard. He refueled 4 times enroute. In the 1929 National Air Races at Cleveland, he flew the Vega in a 50 mile pylon race and came in third behind Doug Davis’ Travel Air Mystery S monoplane and an Army P-3A.

It was also 1929 when Roscoe Turner acquired the honorary rank of Colonel with the Nevada National Guard. The title was retained as in the custom of British Officers, but for Roscoe, it was another ego trip. The record of Nevada Airlines was exceptional. It operated for nearly a year, flew 1000 miles a day, never had a forced landing and never injured a passenger. It was the stock market crash of ‘29 which caused the airline to file bankruptcy on December 12, 1929 and Lockheed repossessed the 4 Vegas.

In 1930 Roscoe adopted a lion cub and named him Gilmore. the lion was his sidekick and went everywhere with him. He won both the Bendix and Thompson trophies and set new speed records 1933. In 1934, he flew the London - Melbourne race in a Boeing 247D. He only came in second, but true to form, he made the cover of Time Magazine. This Boeing 247D is on permanent display at the National Air & Space Museum.

Roscoe landed a daily radio show on NBC in October 1936 called Flying Time. He won the Thompson Trophy again in 1938 won $22,000.00 and became the only two-time winner. He also received the Allegheny-Ludlum trophy for setting the world's lap record of 293 miles per hour.

Roscoe moved to Indianapolis in 1940 and started Roscoe Turner Aeronautical Corporation. RTAC operated 16 airplanes. They ran a flying school, an overhaul shop, and a sales and service facility for Waco, Stinson, and Taylorcraft type aircraft.

It was early in 1947 when Roscoe Turner filed for a local service certificate to serve ten cities in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky. A Certificate to carry passengers was issued 3 September 1947 by the CAB, but was reissued on 8 February 1948. Once the certificate was granted, Roscoe contacted two successful aviation men from Miami and offered them a partnership in the airline. Paul and John Weesner provided the capital and aircraft enabling the airline to start operating. The Weesners, however owned 75% of the corporate stock.

Service still had not begun when the name was changed to Turner Airlines on 31 May 1949. Their pre-inaugural flight was November 10, 1949. On board were Members of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce and the Indiana State Aeronautics Commission. Two DC-3's sat on the Weir Cook ramp that bright clear day waiting to welcome the 21 VIP's aboard. Once they were aboard, the airplanes were cleared for take-off. They would land enroute at Kokomo and South Bend, Indiana and Kalamazoo, Michigan on the way to a destination of Grand Rapids. The flight consumed a little more than two hours.

The first revenue flight took place on 12 November 1949 with a Beech Bonanza. They operated two Douglas DC-3’s and two Beech Bonanza’s in the beginning. There were 25 employees and they were certificated to serve eleven Midwestern cities. The routes radiated from Indianapolis to Lafayette, Kankakee, Chicago, South Bend, Kokomo, Connersville, Cincinnati, Louisville, Bedford and Bloomington, Indiana, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids. Total route mileage was 655 miles.

By January 1950, service had been extended to Grand Rapids, South Bend, Kalamazoo, Kokomo, Connersville, Cincinnati, Chicago, Lafayette and Indianapolis. Turner was also certified to serve Kankakee, Illinois, but the airport was never completed and service didn't begin. The second DC-3 had arrived in Indianapolis on the eve of the pre-inaugural flight. Turner purchased 3 Beechcraft Bonanzas for use on the Indianapolis-Connersville-Cincinnati route and the Indianapolis-Lafayette-Chicago route. The single engine 4-place Bonanzas were used for less than two years during the period when Lafayette and Connersville airport were not certified for DC-3 service. One of them was written off on the way from Cincinnati to Indianapolis, but nobody was killed. An additional DC-3 had been added by mid-1950.

Turner had been known as ”The Lake Central Route” in the beginning and the name was changed to Lake Central Airlines by vote of the stockholders in December 1950 and Roscoe finally sold his 25% to the brothers Weesner in 1952. He left the airline, but continued on the dinner circuit as a speaker.

By 1958 he had become a millionaire running his Sales, Service and Charter company. He continued to fly and give lectures, but regardless of his drive, his health began failing by the late 60's when it was discovered he had bone cancer. He died on July 23, 1970 at the age of 74. He had started a museum previously at Indianapolis Weir Cook Airport and in 1972 the items in the Roscoe Turner Museum were sold to the Smithsonian. I interviewed Madonna Turner in her home and then at the Museum in 1972 while the Smithsonian people were there disassembling the Laird Racer and packaging 'Gilmore' the lion for a final trip East.