Thursday March 28th, 2024 11:56AM

Company Airplanes And The Broiler Industry

The hullabaloo about the Big-3 automobile executives and their corporate jets brings to mind the early days of the broiler business, and the armada of planes of all kinds that were part of the business structure in the boom-times of the early agri-business poultry industry.<br /> <br /> The chicken business in the days shortly after World War II was well populated with ex-military fly-boys, and it appeared one of the necessary fixtures of any business was an airplane. Not only that, a goodly number of ex-military airplanes were available for a reasonable price. Jesse Jewell had a twin-engine Beechcraft that was piloted by Ed Jared. Charles Vantress has a twin-engine Aero-Commander that he flew out of a river-bottom pasture near his offices in Duluth. Jack McKibbon used his skills to pilot his company plane. Louie Chemell, the hatchery man, had three airplanes before going bankrupt. Most planes, however, were single engine models, and the Gainesville airport ran out of hangar space for the growing number of â
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