CallAir Museum to open Saturday
By News Release on Aug 7, 2008 in Afton
The CallAir Museum, located in the new Afton Civic Center, will celebrate its grand opening on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008 at 11 a.m. The museum will portray a living history of CallAir airplanes.
A look back in the past shows that a man named Reuel Call, his uncle Ivan Call, and his brother Spencer Call sat down to design an airplane that would perform well in high mountain valleys.
“Their task was daunting, and they picked a tough time to accomplish it,” wrote Bill Call. Following a rough start in 1942 and in the middle of World War II, the legendary CallAir cabin plane was created and was designed as a mountain plane.
Early on CallAir’s history, Barlow Call came to Star Valley and brought many flying skills that would really show what the CallAir aircraft could do. He used the plane for hunting, ferrying, and measuring snow, like the CallAir airplane, Barlow Call has been named a legend of Star Valley.
The CallAir Aircraft factory had be flexible in order to stay afloat, so in the early fifties Herb Andersen was hired as the new plant manager and he brought with him efficiency and discipline and a new marketing plan. During Andersen’s management, CallAir discontinued its cabin plane and began manufacturing a new crop-duster plane.
CallAir changed owners in the sixties with new owners being Doyle Child and Ted Frome. The new owners then replaced the previous crop-duster plane with the CallAir A-9. It was a success from its beginning with as many as 850 manufactured and sold in subsequent years.
Following that, a still-bigger spray plane was designed, the B-1. About 35 of them were built in Afton.
From that point on the company progressed to make many different types of aircrafts and today manufactures the famous Pitt Special Acrobatic Biplane and the rugged upper-winged Husky.
The CallAir factory has over the years employed literally hundreds of Star Valley residents. Star Valley is and will long be known as the place in the Mountain West where airplane manufacturing has thrived for more than 70 years.
Loading ...
billie miles | Sep 2, 2008 | Reply
I flew to the factory in the early years to ferry an A-9 back to Ar. for my boss. I flew this plane for 2 years and then moved up to the B model. I have about 9000 hrs in Callairs. Tough & rugged, could carry the 215 gallon hopper full. I had Ag-Cat pilots to look in the hopper to make sure I was not lying. Worked rice and cotton. Loved the machine.
Dirty Bird / Billie Miles
Carey Petersen | Feb 4, 2009 | Reply
These airplanes have a special place in my heart as my Father worked as a part of the company for many years. He loved CallAir!
wayne white | May 5, 2009 | Reply
I HAVE PURCHESSED A BASKET CASE A5 AND AM LOOKING FOR SOME INFORMATION ON IT TO HELP WITH THE RESTORATION. AMY INFO WOULD HELP . THANKS
Gary Scott | May 10, 2009 | Reply
This would be an interesting feature or magazine article for someone to pick up. I have a friend, whose name shall be undisclosed for the time being, who was employed as a teenager by Reuel Call. He was able to save enough to purchase a CallAir duster. As yet I do not know the model. He flew it for a couple of years for fun, exploration and a few bucks dusting. He’s very taciturn, so it’s like pulling teeth but always fascinating to get details from him.
Reuel Call impressed him greatly, and he was baptized into the LDS church in his teens. When he wanted to serve a mission, and lacking support from his Catholic family, he had to sell his VW and the plane to get enough money.
Spencer Call was the buyer.
My friend served in the SE US and eventually married a girl from here. I learned much of this because I was home teacher to his father in law, who passed away just last month at a very advanced age.
Forgive me for being reticent; I value this man’s friendship and privacy, but feel the story needs to be told, and eventually to make it into the archives of the Church. I’m qualified to authenticate this fantastic tale. I’m a retired US naval aviator with over 5000 pilot hours in 33 types.
Someone who is qualified to write the story may contact me by this email or at 864-497-7484, which today is out of service, but I hope to restore it Monday 11 May. Alternative fone: 864-497-6201, my wife’s.
As far as I could guess, MrX is the only person who sold his AIRPLANE to serve a mission.
Tom Arnold | Jun 7, 2009 | Reply
Hello Wayne White,
Please contact me at: tearnold@alluretech.net
or 307-232-9195
I have a number of cabin models and am restoring them one at a time and probably could help a bit as I learned the hard way how not to do a couple of things! They are a neat airplane but it amazes me to think they were considered a “mass produced” airplane as the detail labor involved is closer to a home built. Looking forward to hearing of your project.
Yours
Tom Arnold
Casper WY