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Ozark Air Lines During the early years of the '60's |
OZARK AIR LINES
: The SixtiesOZARK AIR LINES entered the sixties serving 34 cities in nine midwestern states. Over the decade the line would more than double its passengers loadings, reach the east coast and join the jet age.
Ozark steadily continued its growth as a local service provider as small towns like Moberly and Kirksville Missouri, Sterling and Galesburg Illinois were added by 1961. Several bigger cities and states in the region also joined the schedule, Sioux Falls (and South Dakota) in 1962, and Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1963. Some low-traffic small towns were destined to lose service in the same period as Danville and Cairo, IL were dropped. Freight-only "Cargo-Getter" service was introduced between St Louis and Chicago, initially in DC-3s and later in Fairchilds as Ozark widened its markets.
The airline's aircraft fleet went through major changes through the decade, as the workhorse Douglas DC-3s continued in operation until the last official flight on 26 October, 1968. Six Convair CV-240 aircraft were operated from 1963 to 1965, when they were sent to New York regional carrier Mohawk Airlines in a unique sale/trade agreement that brought 15 Martin 4-0-4s to Ozark. 21 new Fairchild FH-227s turbo-props were ordered in 1966 to become the airline's standard "small town" equipment and would replace the Martins, original F-27s and the last of the DC-3s by the end of 1968.
Ozark had announced early in the decade that it was looking for turbo-jet powered aircraft, and briefly flirted with ordering British BAC 1-11 types in 1961. It would not be until 1966 that jets actually arrived in Ozark green and white, when three Douglas DC-9-10 aircraft started service. The arrival of the DC-9s signaled that Ozark was ready to break out of its mold as a midwest, local-service airline and spread its wings to the coasts.
Delivery of T-tailed Douglas twin jets allowed service to Denver, Colorado from October, 1966. In April, 1969, the line was authorized to begin flights to New York/LaGuardia (LGA) and Washington National (DCA) from Peoria and Champaign Illinois. The 661 mile PIA-DCA leg became the longest on the airline's route structure, and was advertised as a by-pass for crowded Chicago/O'Hare. Three daily flights to the east coast were soon reduced to two due to low traffic levels, but Ozark finally had a presence in these critical east coast cities. Texas was added to the timetable in October, 1969 as service from St Louis and Tulsa was inagurated to Dallas' Love Field.
On 27 Dec. 67 Ozark suffered its first major mishap when two year old DC-9-10 N974Z crashed at Sioux City IA. Flight 982, enroute to Chicago, was departing SUX in freezing rain and crashed into the trees and snow immediately after take off. Although the starboard wing was sheared off on impact, the four crewmembers and 62 passengers miraculously escaped with no serious injuries.
Merger was on Ozark's mind in the sixties, as in 1962 and again 1966 the company told the Civil Aviation Board (CAB) that it was talking with Central Airlines about combining forces. Central was another local-service airline operating in the OK/TX/KS/CO/AR region with Convairs and DC-3s. The 1966 proposal planned to retain the Ozark title as the combined name and would have added 41 cities and three states to the route map. In both cases talks were halted prior to consumation and the airlines went their own way. Central would merge with Frontier in 1967, while OZ would enjoy almost another twenty years of independence.
GO GETTERS GO OZARK AIR LINES!
| Total A/C Fleet | DC-3 | Martin 404 | F-27 | FH-227 | DC-9-10 | DC-9-30 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | 43 | 21 | 15 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1969 | 38 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 8 | 9 |
| 1964 traffic: 185,828,000 revenue passenger miles, 961,639 passengers carried. | |||||||
| 1969 traffic: 578,208,000 revenue passenger miles, 2,277,000 passengers carried. | |||||||
Rich Morgan who has taken an interest in the history of Ozark Air Lines
and the writer of this article on Ozark History from the '60's.
Rich, provided the following information about himself and how he became interested in our airline.
"I've been writing at the amateur level for over 20 years, and have over 15 articles printed so far in railroad historical and professional Navy
journals. Most of my work has appeared in the Navy historical/professional journal "The Hook", which is published by the Tailhook
Assoc. (yes, THAT Tailhook Association...).
I'm not from the region originally, but went to Mizzou 1974-78, met my wife there, and have taken the Kansas City area as my adopted home
since then. OZ was the "home line" at Columbia, so that's why it still interests me. I only wish I'd spent a lot more time shooting
pictures down there! I spent 16 years in the Navy flying EA-6B Prowlers, and have lived in the Northern Virginia area since 1995
only because that's where the job is. I work in the Pentagon, where I have access to the library and back issues of "Aviation Week"
and "Wall Street Journal", which has allowed me to develop a surprisingly large file on Ozark.
Copyright © 1997 IIDBS L.L.C. All Rights Reserved.