Chalk's Flying Service Hits the Big 5-0

Описание: 1969: Celebrating Half A Century Aloft

July 1969 was a busy month for WTVJ reporter Jim Loy. In addition to covering preparations for the launch of Apollo 11 upstate, Loy buzzed by Watson Island to cover the fiftieth anniversary of Chalk's Flying Service, begun as a "one-man operation with an umbrella, a desk and one amphibious airplane."

Arthur Burns "Pappy" Chalk started flying out of Miami in 1917; after serving in World War I he established regularly scheduled service between Miami and Bimini in 1919 as Chalk's Flying Service. Chalk liked to boast that his was the first international airline, having begun service a month before Avianca.

At first Chalk's was located on Biscayne Boulevard. In 1926 the airline relocated to Watson island, where it operated for seventy-five years.

Loy's story includes an interview with "Pappy" Chalk, who had sold his airline in 1966. Chalk died in 1977 at the age of eighty-eight.

Photo: Chalk's Grumman Mallard; Aerogem Photograph by Nigel P. Chalcraft, reproduced from a postcard.

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This clip is derived from news video in the WTVJ Collection. Accession number TVN1249-4385-06; airdate July 17, 1969.