John Elgin was born in Belton, SC on February 13, 1932. He joined the Navy when
he was 18 and served during the Korean War aboard an ammunition resupply
ship for 4 years. achieving the rank of Petty Officer before leaving the Navy.
John’s older brother, Ray Elgin, came to Cody, WY in 1963, buying a B-17 and
starting Aero-Flite Inc as an air tanker business. In 1965, John moved his family to
Cody, buying into Aero-Flite with Ray and together starting Elgin Flying Service, an
all-weather charter service that also offered flight instruction and aircraft sales.
As Aero-Flite expanded, the company acquired two additional repurposed B-17’s.
In August 1967, as John and his co-pilot, Mike McCue, were taking off from
Kalispell, MT to fight a fire, the number 3 engine caught fire. Smoke quickly filled
the cockpit as they searched for a place to land. They jettisoned their load and
that helped to clear the smoke. At first, they were going to land in a farmer’s field
but there was a boy on a tractor working so they continued a turn toward another
open field and drug the wingtip on the top of a barn as they struggled to see and
remain airborne. They were able to land in the second field but could not see that
there was an open gravel pit at the end. As they rolled out, the aircraft dropped
into the gravel pit breaking John’s back and slamming his face into the yoke. Mike
was able to help John and both exited the airplane thru the left cockpit window.
The aircraft burned and was a total loss. The cause of the engine fire was due to
the oil screen being safety wired on backwards. At this point John decided he was
going to get his A&P and do his own aircraft maintenance.
In 1969 Aero-Flite bought two Vickers Viscounts (maxed out on pressurization
cycles) from United Airlines with the intention of converting the B-17s to
turboprops with the Rolls Royce Dart engines from the Viscounts. The first
conversion was completed in early 1970 by Aviation Ventures in Twin Falls, ID.
The lighter more powerful turboprops, along with the wing being much cleaner
because oil cooler and supercharger intakes where no longer required, gave the
B-17 a huge increase in performance. The goal was to get an STC for the
conversion from the FAA and then be able to sell that to other operators.
Unfortunately, the aircraft was lost fighting a fire in the Wind River Range and Ray
and copilot John Bastian were killed. The aircraft was uninsured and Aero-Flite
was unable to complete the second conversion, due to the financial burden, and
the STC was never obtained. John bought the rest of Aero-Flite and continued to
operate with their first B-17 until the mid-1970’s when it was sold and John
purchased a DC-4. John operated Aero-Flite until 1986 when he sold the company
and retired. The company still exists today and is a leader in the aerial firefighting
industry.
Elgin Flying Service was an all-weather charter service that also offered flight
instruction and aircraft sales. They were a Cessna and Champion Citabria dealer
and the first to offer new aircraft sales in northwestern Wyoming. John held a
CFII, MEI, A&P, and was an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE). Many of the
pilots around Cody to this day received instruction and their license from John.
