NEW BOOK

 

My book is now PUBLISHED - The WW2 Airplane Crash and my High Arctic Expeditions, available now on Amazon for $12.95 USD - AMAZON LINK - ORDER BOOK

Randy Swift Day Flight - VISIT TO LITTLE BOHEMIA; SITE OF THE 1934 DILLINGER SHOOTOUT WITH G-MEN

Join Me in the Cockpit - Flight Home from Minneapolis

Pratt & Whitney PT6A Installation

Here are some images from last week up at Wipair.

.

Seaplane Arctic Expeditions - The Doomed Franklin Mission of 1845

Presentation at the Chicago Yacht Club

Seaplane Float Manufacturer - Trip to Wipair

Trip to check out to see how the annual process is going 

on our Cessna 208 Caravan Amphib.

Located at Flemming Field (KSGS) in Inver Grove Heights, a township in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area of Minnesota, Wipair, Inc. is the world leading premier float manufacturer for seaplanes.

Ben always had a strong interest in aviation long before he began working on Wipline floats. As a child, he built his own glider in the backyard of his parent’s home. Out of concern for his safety, his parents dismantled the aircraft before he could take it on its maiden voyage.

Ben eventually moved to California to work for Douglas Aircraft for a period of time. He was drafted into the Army Air Forces of the United States before Pearl Harbor and spent time working in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he developed a pre-oiling system to help the performance of the bombers. He was awarded several decorations by the military for this engineering contribution.

After WWII, Ben returned once again to his roots in Minnesota and continued his career in aviation, with empasis on innovation, and then founded the company in the 1959 by putting all of his ideas for improvement together and built a new revolutionary float design. 

Ben’s son Bob began working at Wipline Inc. in 1970 after receiving his aeronautical engineering degree from U of M and spending a few years working for Honeywell.In 1974 Bob expanded our range of services by founding Wipaire, Inc performing maintenance as a certified Cessna service center at Fleming Field.

Wipline Inc and Wipaire Inc came together in 1979 when Bob purchased Wipline Inc from his father. The 80’s kicked off with the introduction of the Wipline 6000 Float for the de Havilland Beaver and they skyrocketed from there to many more makes and models.  Wipaire celebrated 55 years of building Wipline floats in 2015. 

Today Wipair dominates the world as the top float manufacturer in the world.

Cessna 208 Caravan Trip To Grand Geneva Resort Airport

Day adventure flight - N188SF Caravan Amphibian; takeoff from Waukegan Airport 

in Illinois near Chicago, short enroute flight and landing at 

Grand Geneva Airport in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.