The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1939-09-21
FOREST PILOT
VETERAN FLYER
Stunts for Movies, Sets Worlds
Endurance Record During
% Years in Air.

Merle A. Moltrup, new airplane pilot
for the U. S. forest service, has SER
vice record las long as your arm" ana
dating back to a period not SO many
wears following the invention of the
flying machine"
Moltrup will be stationed in Ely and
will pilot the forest services Stinson 4
passenger cabin ship. The plane, pow
cred by a go horsepower Lycom1ng
engine, is expected to arrive here some
time within the next few days.
The Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania man,
who commenced his experiences with
aircraft back in 1916, spent the past
summer as a pilot for private party in
northern Canada.
He is a member of the Col. Joseph
Thompson post, American Legion, at
Beaver Falls. During the World war
he was stationed with the testing and
proving department of the air service
and served at Wilbur Wright field,
Dayton, Ohio, and Langley field, Nor
folk, Va.
When he first started to fly, pilots,
if they kept records at all, listed their
time in the air in minutes and not in
hours he said Now he doesn't know
Just how long he has been aloft but he
does have a record of $4,000 hours
Cnot quite ~ years. in the air mail
service That time was compiled during
the period 1926 to 1887.
Incidentally, during national air mail
week in 1887, Moltrup flew the shortest
official route in the United States, to
which considerable publicity was given.
His flight lasted exactly 80 seconds and
was from one Pittsburgh airport to
another, with highway just separating
the two.
Moltrup, who seems quite uncon-
cerned about his long period of service
behind the stick" survived three and
one-haf years as stunt flyer in Holly
wood following the World War. In 1925
he participated in the International
Air races at Mitchell Field, Long Island,
plotting a high-Speed commercial ship,
and the following year he entered the
races at Model Farms Field, Phila-
delphia.
For few short hours in 1928 he and
another pilot, Jack Little, held the
worlds endurance record in flight
sponsored by the Buffalo Evening News.
They were using specially built Stin-
son cabin plane in which Eddie Stinson
himself had set non-refueling record
a short time before.
They were in the air 1884, hours be-
fore they came down, but their mark
was beSted few hours later by other
endurance flyers.
During his air mail service days,
Moltrup was chief pilot for Pennsyl-
vania-Central Air lines. He also pi-
loted plane carrying mail for Eastern
Air Lines between New York and
Florida and for Colonial Western Line
on the Cleveland-Albany run.
He flew the first mail from Pitts
burgh to Cleveland, Cleveland to Al
bany, and Richmond, Va, to Jackson
vile in days when this service was in
its swaddling clothes.
Moltrup holds every type license ex-
cept that granted to tranS-oceanic
clipper pilots. He is a member of the
Air Line Pilots club and a charter
member of the Aero Club of Pittsburgh
The plane will be used within the
various parts of the Superior National
Forest, supplying a need that has
existed for long time, forest service
officials here say. Many parts of the
forest are accessible only by travelling
circular time-consuming routes They
can now be reached in few minutes
by plane.
The forest service has a project
pending that will provide seaplane
dock on Shagawa lake. A hangar may
also be constructed at the site.