Recently, I found an old aviation poster, rolled up in a corner. It’s a reminder of the days I had a love affair with aviation, writing about its history in self-published magazines, and actually learning to fly at the old Fairfax Airport in Kansas City, KS.

The poster features Ozark Air Lines in 1985, the year before Trans World Airlines, then an important Kansas City institution, absorbed them. Ozark had a brief startup in 1933 with flights between Kansas City and Springfield, but that effort only lasted a year. A decade later it resurfaced, taking over from the failed Parks Air Transport.

For the next four decades, Ozark expanded its operations, eventually acquiring 80-passenger DC-9s and serving 90 destinations from its St. Louis hub. In 1985, not long after my poster was printed, it merged with Air Midwest, changing its name to Ozark Midwest. The following year, the airline was bought out by TWA.

I had one encounter with the airline in the early 1960s. I was learning to fly at the old Fairfax Airport in Kansas City, KS, and attempted a solo cross-country round-trip flight to Columbia Regional Airport. It was a clear and sunny day, but windy, when I took off early in the morning in the flying club’s ancient Cessna 140 tail-dragger (My instructor, Bill Cliff, said later if he hadn’t overslept, he would have grounded me because of the wind conditions).
The Cessna’s normal top speed was a bit over 100 mph, but with a 40-mph tailwind, I zipped to Columbia in record time. I intended to land on their main east-west runway, but to my dismay, an Ozark DC-3 was parked there, awaiting passengers. I decided to land on the grass strip running north south, “crabbing” into the wind and holding my breath as I executed my first (and probably best ever) cross-wind landing.

On the flight back to Kansas City, the headwind slowed me to a crawl, as I watched vehicles outpace me on the newly built interstate. Slowly crossing over North Kansas City, I radioed the tower and got OK’d for a direct landing on Fairfax’s east-west runway. As I approached, a Boeing 707 airliner appeared to my right, heading for Downtown Airport. It looked blimp-sized as our flight paths began to converge. I had to circle and make another approach, losing a lot of distance as I fought against the strong headwind, but I managed a successful landing.

It was one of my most exciting days as a student pilot — I eventually took my check-ride at Downtown Airport, and got my license, although my “flying career” only lasted a few years. And it was my first – and only – encounter with Ozark Air Lines, whose parked plane nearly ended my flying before it started.

Ozark used many clever marketing plans to promote business, and the “sweepstakes” theme may have been an offer to combine flights with Mississippi River cruises. My research efforts came up empty.

My poster is unique, as it’s one of the last to be issued under the Ozark Air Lines brand before the company absorbed Air Midwest, and a year before it was absorbed by TWA. But its value may be limited. Many flying-themed posters are available online, with prices as low as $19.