Wakeman OH Warbirds?

[aircuda]

Hi all, I used to go out to a little airport near Cleveland in Wakeman, OH to visit a girlfriend around 1992. I actually got checked out in a Cherokee to take her flying there. There used to be quite a few old planes sitting around like Super DC-3's, several Twin Beech's, and Convairs. I seem to remember there was something special about one of the Convairs like it was a prototype or something. One of the guys said they used to fly A-26's out of there as well. It was a rather small airport and he said they used every inch of runway to get the planes off and make their own approaches in bad weather. Does anyone know what happened to the planes or have any pics of them? What were they used for, especially the A-26's? I looked at some satellite pics and saw nothing large there anymore. I do not have any pics as I had other things on my mind at the time....

[JimH]

I believe that was the Ortner brothers. Over the years they operated a cargo hauling business out of Wakeman. During the early 70's they operated a couple warbirds. From what I remember they had a Corsair, a P-51 (later owned by bob tulius) and a T-6. Dean lost his life in the T-6 doing an airshow routine at Shelby County airport not far from Wakeman. I vaguely remember seeing him go in...before he went flying he was dressed as a clown and I was one of the kids he gave candy too.

A couple years ago I was putting around in a Cessna and wandered over to Wakeman to shoot a couple landings. There was a hulk of a Beech 18 sitting by the runway but that was about it. There was a two part article in Warbirds International a few years ago that chronicled the brothers and thier business.

jim

[tom d. friedman]

Hi all, I used to go out to a little airport near Cleveland in Wakeman, OH to visit a girlfriend around 1992. I actually got checked out in a Cherokee to take her flying there. There used to be quite a few old planes sitting around like Super DC-3's, several Twin Beech's, and Convairs. I seem to remember there was something special about one of the Convairs like it was a prototype or something. One of the guys said they used to fly A-26's out of there as well. It was a rather small airport and he said they used every inch of runway to get the planes off and make their own approaches in bad weather. Does anyone know what happened to the planes or have any pics of them? What were they used for, especially the A-26's? I looked at some satellite pics and saw nothing large there anymore. I do not have any pics as I had other things on my mind at the time....

i live 5 minutes from the wakeman airport. the super dc -3 has been gone since 1997. the b-26 was an onmark conversion not flying & has been for sale in california for years. there is 1 beech 18 still their, it is derelict. as to the 2 convairs they were cut up for scrap in 1998, the significance of 1 of the convairs is that john f. kennedy leased that particular aircraft for his 1960 presidential campaign, & then it was bought by nasa. there is a mig 17 in polish markings stored in 1 of the t hangars, wings are off, it's owned by a dentist in cleveland. then there are some beech 18 fuselage carcasses in the weeds behind the main hangar. that place had alot of history to it. i wrote a 2 part magazine article about the ortner brothers in air classics a few years back. they were the original owners. it has since been owned by don paolucci when he bought it in 1980.

[aircuda]

Yup, that is it. I found your article on a website. It is very informative. I never realized the operation was that big. I thought it was just a "fly by night operation". How did DC-7's operate out of a 3800' strip or was the runway longer at one time? Also, Who operated the planes up until the 90's? Your article stated the company basically went out of business in the 70's. You would not happen to have any pics taken there in the early 90's would you? Sorry to ask so many questions but this really peaked my interest. Dave

[tom d. friedman]

the dc-7's & quite a few curtiss commandos flew in / out regularly. they had the largest non scheduled air freight service east of the mississippi river. andy died in an accident in a beech 18 flying in tennessee in 1976, he lost fabric on the horizontal stabilizer & augered in upon landing. dean as stated died in a t-6 airshow routine in shelby ohio in 1973, he failed to negotiate the power curve & hit the ground. the airport languished until 1980. as stated paolucci has owned the airport since then. after their deaths the ortner air service was in hock with the irs, liens, receivership hassles, etc, etc. paolucci bought it after the family solved all the legalities. paolucci operated the dc-3 & a beech 18 as mohican air service. he stopped doing that some years back, now just operates as a private fbo, wrenches on planes. in it's hey day that placed hopped!! airshows, flying cargo for ford to michigan, 30,000 turkey chicks to nelson rockefeller's ranch in arkansas (less than 10 died) flights up to canada & alaska for the military setting up the early dew line program of distant early warning against soviet nuke attacks. but, most notably the ortners flew radio equipment to president johnson's texas white house after jfk was killed, to run the country from their till things cooled down. 1 commando that survives flying is the comemmorative airforce's c-46 it is now china doll. the p-51 still flies, i forget who has it, as well as the corsair. legendary warbird guru walter soplata has a cockpit section from 1 of their dc-7's & a c-46 commando flight deck under his house. another local collector has an ortner c-46 flight deck as well flight. i can send you some pics, just pm me your email... p.s. they also had a curtiss robin owned by baseball pitcher star earl "early" of the cleveland indians, & purportedly flown by charles lindbergh!!

Last edited by tom d. friedman on Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[tom d. friedman]

when the 1973 oil embargo occurred, the ortners resorted to flying the beech 18's more & more. they became the work horses of the fleet, as operating the dc-7's & commandos & oh yes 1 dc-6 became cost prohibitive for fuel. those brothers are still legends here, i'm glad i could tell their story.

[tom d. friedman]

a sad story which occured out of wakeman in the late 60's ..... an owner of a b-25 bomber took a group of skydivers up for a drop. the ceiling was real low, due to heavy low clouds. the 25 pilot accidentally flew over lake erie not 10 miles away & gave the ok for the skydivers to jump while not knowing he was over the lake. the parachutists, numbering between 6 & 8 jumped to their demise, all drowning in lake erie. the tragedy made national headlines.

[tom d. friedman]

aircuda look for pm w/ pics. best, tom

[tom d. friedman]

aicuda did you receive my article pics ok??