TOP: BISHOPP FAMILY; BOTTOM: ©1982 COLUMBIA HELICOPTERS
new 18,000-square- foot facility at Anchorage
International Airport (PANC), creating new opportunities for external mainte- nance and aircraft modification. “Tommy was a
Running Alaska Helicopters was a Bishopp family affair, with Rex serving as president and Ruth as general manager. They are shown here in 1970 in front of a Bell 205A-I.
Equally, Columbia used Alaska’s fleet of light and medium helicopters to support its work. “In the early 1980s, we were operat- ing a combined 30 machines,” said Rex. The merger also allowed Rex to work
with Wes Lematta, the founder of Columbia Helicopters and yet another heli- copter industry pioneer. Lematta created the civil heavy-lift helicopter sector with the purchase of a Sikorsky S-61 in the mid- 1960s. He was also a partner in the first successful helicopter logging operation with Oregon lumberman Jack Erickson, who later created the Erickson Aircrane Company. “Wes was a good man and friend,”
recalled Rex. “Our families remain close.” The Boeing 234 also allowed Alaska Helicopters to expand its support of off- shore petroleum exploration. The two- tanked Chinook had the range to shuttle crews hundreds of miles to distant loca- tions, such as the Navarin Basin, an Arco base on St. Paul Island, and other explora- tion sites. “We operated the first commer- cial Chinook under our own certificate,” remembered Rex.
Alaska Helicopters and Columbia would
often trade aircraft, depending on the needs of a particular job. “We sometimes switched and repainted names as needed on the aircraft,” said Rex. Rex’s business partner, Tommy Craig,
served as the company’s director of main- tenance. In 1981, the company opened a
In 1982, Alaska Helicopters and Columbia Helicopters participated in a successful test to determine if a Boeing Vertol 107-II helicopter could tow a 220-ton hoverbarge across broken sea ice.
SPRING 2019 ROTOR 61
catalyst for this work,” said Rex. “He was a very
good helicopter mechanic. He always kept us flying and was very well respected in the industry. A lot of people and companies sought him out to service their helicopters.”
In 1982, Columbia and Alaska Helicopters participated in the industry-re- nowned hoverbarge tow famously captured by Columbia Helicopters photographer Ted Veal. Petroleum company Sohio wanted to know the feasibility of delivering supplies during spring and fall, when the ice pack is either forming or breaking up. (Tempera- tures in northern Alaska generally permit waterways to be safely used as ice roads during the winter.) Veal’s dramatic photo shows a Vertol 107-II, seemingly near verti- cal nose-down (it wasn’t), pulling the 220- ton barge through the broken ice of Prudhoe Bay. Over the years, Rex’s company became something of a family business. In addition to Rex serving as president and Ruth as
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