Idaho commercial aviation pioneer
Albert “Bert” Zimmerly was born in 1907 near Vancouver, Wash. His older brother Fred learned to fly in 1928 and gave Bert flying lessons, leading to his license in 1931. In 1934, the brothers purchased an aviation fixed-base operation (FBO) in Lewiston, Idaho, and began operating Zimmerly Bros. Air Transport Service, which offered flying lessons, service and repairs and operated charter flights for passengers and freight to remote backcountry airstrips, contract flights for the US Forest Service, and air ambulance services in the sparsely populated, densely wooded areas of the Pacific Northwest. In 1938, they relocated across the Snake River to a larger airport in Clarkston, Washington. Their fleet consisted of an assortment of small aircraft and a larger TravelAir.
In 1939, Fred left the company to join Northwest Airlines, returning to help his brother whenever he was furloughed by Northwest, which apparently was fairly often. Bert flew most of the flights for the company, and during fire season was especially busy. A typical day might include 10 hours of flying, airdropping bales of hay for the mule packs of the firefighters, airdropping hot lunches and ice water to the crews on the fireline, and delivering pumping equipment and other supplies.
When America entered World War II in 1941, Zimmerly was awarded a contract by the War Training Service for pilot training for the US Navy, and by war’s end Zimmerly had graduated over 1700 cadets. As the war progressed, Zimmerly realized the potential for an airline service to link Idaho towns poorly served by ground transport, and launched Zimmerly Airlines on an “experimental” basis in 1944.
Scheduled service between Pocatello and Coeur d’Alene (withintermediate stops in Burley, Twin Falls, Boise and Lewiston) began in 1945, using a small fleet of Boeing 247Ds, acquired from Canadian Pacific and Pacific Northern Airlines. In 1946, Zimmerly acquired the assets of Empire Airlines, a company existing only on paper, in part because Bert Zimmerly liked the grand-sounding name, but probably also because Empire had rights to serve cities in Washington, and later that year the airline, now renamed Empire Air Lines, was awarded a Federal Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to serve a series of airports in Idaho and Washington.
In 1946, Bert Zimmerly, seeing a need for larger aircraft, placed an order for three of the proposed Boeing 417 twin-engined airliners, but Boeing canceled the project, and Zimmerly was forced out of the company he had founded. In 1948, Empire would instead acquire war-surplus C-47s.
Zimmerly returned to his Zimmerly Air Transport FBO, where he resumed flying until his death in a weather-related crash in 1949.
His wife Edna continued operating the FBO and appeared in a full-page advertisement for Chevron in 1950. She sold the business in 1953. Fred Zimmerly enjoyed a long career at Northwest Airlines, retiring in 1970. Empire Air Lines continued in operation but struggled financially, eventually merging with West Coast Airlines in 1952. Bert’s son Bert, Jr., and grandson Steven, became corporate pilots.
In 1992, Albert Zimmerly, Sr. was inducted into the Idaho Aviation Hall of Fame, and he is an honoree on the Wall of Honor at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Virginia.
