Aero Union
| Private | |
| Industry | Aviation |
| Founded | 1961 |
| Founder | Dale Newton and Dick Foy |
| Defunct | 2011 |
| Headquarters | Chico, CA, USA |
|
Key people
|
Terry Unsworth, President Brett Gourley, CEO |
| Website | http://www.aerounion.com/ (defunct) |
Aero Union Corporation was an aircraft operation and maintenance company based in Chico, California, United States. They were known for operating fire fighting aircraft, training crews in aerial firefighting and making custom designed fire fighting systems tailored to specific aircraft requirements. After years of controversies regarding the operation of the company and the safety of their planes the U.S. Forest Service canceled its contract and the company was forced to shut down operations soon after.
In 1960 Dale Newton and Dick Foy participated in their first fire season with a surplus B-25 Mitchell. Newton & Foy operated for that season under the name Western Air Industries. The following year they purchased their first two B-17 Flying Fortresses and changed their name to Aero Union. In 1962 the company moved their operations from Redding, California to Chico. Between 1975 and 2000, the company used Douglas C-54 aircraft as tankers and as general support aircraft, nine being in use in April 1990.
In June 2010 Aero Union announced plans to move the majority of its operations to McClellan Airfield (formerly McClellan Air Force Base) just outside Sacramento. Reasons stated for the move include needing larger, more consolidated facilities, access to a larger labor pool and being closer to its primary customers. A smaller scale Chico operation continued to be maintained for several months to provide additional storage and flexibility. The relocation began in September 2010 but ended abruptly with the closure of the company.
Aero Union was one of the contractors involved in the U.S. Forest Service airtanker scandal. With the grounding of the U.S. Forest Service's aging C-119 Flying Boxcar fleet in 1987 (some of which were operated by Aero Union) due to safety concerns the Forest Service found its aerial fire fighting capability greatly reduced. In order to quickly replace the retired aircraft and modernize the fleet the USFS, organized a deal with the Department of Defense and the General Services Administration to exchange the grounded planes with more modern C-130A Hercules and P-3 Orion aircraft. The unpublicized exchange program eventually allowed six different contractors to acquire twenty-eight aircraft at no cost, without a bidding process or public access. The exchange of these aircraft was found to have been illegally carried out by the USFS and instead of merely allowing the contractors to operate the aircraft many of their titles were transferred, effectively giving many of the aircraft away for free. At least four of the planes transferred were dismantled for parts by Aero Union and TBM. Aero Union exchanged planes with the USFS, with the government retaining the titles and ownership, and was charged with maintaining and operating them for firefighting duties. Instead Aero Union dismantled some of their planes and sold the parts for a profit. Aero Union made an out of court settlement with the government over its actions but this was later challenged in court.
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Wikipedia