Alva Review-Courier -

The story of the Kinzie family in Alva, Oklahoma, spans over a century. With innovation, ingenuity and hard work, the Kinzies have established a long-lasting legacy with far-reaching effects.

Guy Kinzie came to Oklahoma from Indiana in 1905 when he was nineteen years old.

Kinzie was Wayne Kinzie's father, thus the forerunner of Kinzie Industries and Plane Plastics.

Guy Kinzie started his own business, Alva Brake and Electric, in the building that is now the Honda Shop owned by Neal and Jim Henderson. The family's living quarters were next door where Paul and Dr. Liz Kinzie reside currently. Their son, Spencer, is the fourth generation Kinzie to live in this house.

Wayne worked during the summer for Autmer Gallon, plowing at night. Kinzie didn't like seeing an extra tractor sitting idle, so one night he figured out how to wire the steering wheels of the tractors, so he could run back and forth between them at the corners, the first tractor would follow the furrow until one night it jumped the furrow and plowed across new ground before Kinzie could get it stopped. The next morning Gallon said, "You are going to have to quit plowing at night because you went to sleep." When the truth came out, a halt was put to the double tractors with one operator escapades.

Kinzie credits several men for helping him along the way. Kenneth Crisp, Alva airport manager in the 1950's, was one of his mentors. Wayne had been able to save eighty dollars one summer. With these savings, he started taking lessons at the airport and soon his money was gone. Crisp continued to let him work around the airport in exchange for lessons and thus he was able to continue until he earned his pilot's license.

While still in college Kinzie purchased two damaged aircraft in Wichita, Kansas. One belonged to his uncle and the other, damaged in a tornado, belonged to a friend.

About this time his father Guy passed away and Wayne's brother Lynn moved back to Alva to help with the business. Together they completed making one airplane out of the two in their dad's shop. They sold the airplane for enough to purchase a lawn mower and bicycle shop.

They added Cushman Eagle Scooters, and soon Cushman scooters were running all over Alva. In the late fifties, a group riding unicycles came to the Northwestern homecoming parade in Alva. Wayne was quite intrigued with them and bought one. The brothers learned to ride it, and were able to improve it quite a bit, making it stronger and taller. Soon they were making and selling them. For years, Wayne rode the 7-foot one during the NWOSU homecoming parade.

Wayne met Earl Hellman at the airport when he would refuel his plane and soon he was doing farm work for Hellman. While plowing for Hellman at night, Kinzie found he needed something to pass the time and help keep him awake. He went to the salvage yard and bought a car radio, then placed it inside a housing he made. Upon attaching it to the fender of the tractor he had a radio he could hear quite well over the noise of the engine. The neighbors were able to hear it also, in the night as they plowed, and they all wanted one too. The Kinzie boys made and sold quite a few tractor radios until they became available on the commercial market.

Starting the Aircraft Business

From the first restoration, Wayne had caught the fever to keep restoring airplanes.

Wayne continued to farm for Hellman and one day at the dinner table Hellman said, "Wayne, why don't you quit talking about rebuilding airplanes and do something about it?" Wayne just happened to know where an airplane was for sale, so Hellman went to the bank to borrow the money for the brothers to buy the plane. The lady banker, Gertrude Myers, said, "Sorry, I don't think that sounds like a business that will work."

Stunned but not defeated, Kinzie gathered up prominent Alva businessmen Jim Devery, Bill Hackett, and Del Brunsteter, and they all went to see Myers. Seeing three successful busines men vouching for Kinzie, she decided to loan the money. The Kinzie boys were in business! They bought equipment and tools from an army surplus store in Wichita and started to work.

Wayne and his brother, Lynn, started repairing airplanes that had crashed or been damaged by storms, hail, etc. When they went to get the first wrecked plane, they had only a pickup. They designed a system so that both wings were put over the cab of the pickup with the tail and the engine placed in the bed of the pickup. The fuselage was pulled behind the pickup, towed on its own wheels.

After finishing and selling this airplane, Wayne had gained enough confidence to return to the bank alone. Myers looked at him and queried, "Where are your buddies?" as she wrote the loan. The fledgling businessmen started rebuilding the planes in Earl Hellman's barn.

The next important part of the Kinzie business equation was the help of the Alva Industrial Foundation. A group of businessmen had pooled their money to be able to help bring industry to Alva. This organization built a large building at the Alva airport and leased it to the newly formed Kinzie Industries. With much success, the Kinzies were offered the chance to buy the building from the Alva Industry Authority and they did just that. After that purchase, they expanded the work space to meet the needs of their growing business.

Kinzie Industries seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Insurance adjusters were having trouble finding places that would make repair estimates on wrecked airplanes or buy them for restoration. Wayne's wife, Beverly, was a critical player in the business. She designed postcards that she mailed to many insurance adjusters to spread the word about the Kinzie Industries.

The estimate requests and jobs came rolling in. Wayne would break down the estimates into sections and have a total amount for each area. At the end of the estimate he always wrote, "It is not certain that every part listed will be needed, but neither is it known additional parts not listed might be required. However, the total price will be what the estimate states." The insurance adjusters liked and appreciated the last statement and began to send much business to Kinzie Industries.

The brothers built a semi-trailer that would haul four wrecked airplanes at a time. Their first trip was to Florida right after a big hurricane. They bid on 12 aircraft and purchased seven planes, ultimately requiring two trips to Florida.

Bob Reneau was another player in this story. Reneau had an installment loan company and would loan spare money to buy the wrecked planes. Wayne told him, he had bid on twelve and would probably get three. But when he purchased seven instead of three, Reneau said "That's great Wayne, what are you going to use for money?" With a smiling nod and a wink, Reneau said "Yes." Reneau was very helpful in providing money for growth.

Helicopters Enter the Picture

One summer day, Wayne was outside on the airport grounds and heard a different sound in the distance. He knew it was a helicopter, but it had a different, very distinct whine. Shortly thereafter, a beautiful turquoise machine landed to get fuel. Everyone ran over to see what it was and they found it to be a Hughes helicopter, manufactured by Howard Hughes in Culver City, California. Don Nichols was piloting the Hughes helicopter, on his way to Wichita to establish a helicopter dealership at the Beech aircraft dealer. Don would also come into play later in the Kinzie story.

Later, the Beech aircraft dealer in Wichita called Wayne and said he was going to have a helicopter with two pilots flying pipeline construction for Panhandle Eastern around the Alva area. He asked if Wayne would help service and take care of them. Kinzie agreed and thus began another new chapter in Kinzie Industries. These two pilots encouraged Wayne to quit fooling with airplanes and to start repairing the Hughes Helicopters.

Listening to those two pipeline pilots, Wayne heard about a wrecked Hughes helicopter in Phoenix. He caught a commercial flight to Arizona and bought it. Luckily, he located a moving van for a fee of $75 that was willing to haul both Wayne and his disassembled copter back to Alva. He restored the helicopter and went through checking everything concerning the copter; but all on the ground.

The Kinzie brothers still weren't certified to fly helicopters, and there was no one around who could teach them. This is where Don Nichols of the turquoise helicopter reentered the picture. He offered to come to Alva to help Wayne calibrate and adjust all areas of the restoration. Nichols then did the test flight to make sure it was ready for market. That helicopter sold to the Cessna dealer in Santa Fe, who was starting a flight school for helicopters.

Wayne did a follow up visit to Santa Fe to check on the helicopter they had sold. While there, the dealer was aware the boys were still not certified to fly, and had another helicopter ready to fly. In about an hour, he taught him to lift, hover and set down. Wayne still needed more lessons on how to take off and land, plus what to do in an emergency.

Warren E. "Bud" Nichols, who was a high school friend and classmate, just happened to be in Alva. He stopped by to visit and renew old acquaintance with Wayne. As luck would have it, he turned out to be a helicopter instructor in the navy and offered to give Wayne lessons. Wayne took about three hours instruction and was finally able to take off, land and fly.

The Kinzie boys contacted an instructor in Tulsa to continue the training. Wayne flew the helicopter to Tulsa and Lynn drove his car. When the instructor came out, he said, "This is the first time I ever had someone fly in to take lessons to learn how to fly." Both boys soon got their official license and were able to fly and check the machines they were repairing.

Test Flight Stories

Test flights, flying an aircraft after repairs, can be a hair-raising experience. Following are stories about test flights Wayne has made:

Wayne brought a wrecked plane from Cleveland, Ohio, and when preparing the plane for transport to Alva, he lightly screwed in the spark plugs to keep the engine clean. After going through the shop, but before the engine had been checked out, he took off for a test flight and heard a loud "bang." Before he knew what it was, another one happened. It was blowing out the spark plugs.

He had to set the plane down immediately, so he landed on the blacktop going into Cherokee, parallel to Highway 64. He taxied into a yard where the farmer was working on his combine. He asked the farmer to make a phone call for him, and the farmer said, "Go do it yourself, the house is open," going back to his combine and never asking why an airplane might be taxiing up to his front yard.

Another time the Kinzies rebuilt a plane that had crashed because the control cables were wired backwards. After running it through their shop for rebuilding, Wayne taxied to the end of the runway for takeoff. One of the guys came running out and flagged Kinzie to hold. "Wayne, did you check the controls?" Oh no! They were still backwards! So the aircraft was rolled back into the shop to fix that "minor" detail!

One day, Wayne was test flying a helicopter after it had been run though restoration. In takeoff it had motor failure and hit the ground behind Paul Wheat's Western Wear. Paul looked out in time to see Kinzie crawling out of a pile of wreckage.

Another time, Kinzie was pulling a helicopter on a trailer during an ice storm. He was almost home when an oncoming pickup slid into him directly in front of Paul Wheat's store. There was much damage to both vehicles and passengers. Paul heard it and came running saying, "The next crash I hear, I'm not looking out either door because, Wayne, I think you have used up all your luck."

Kinzie flew approximately three hundred airplane test flights and about three hundred helicopter test flights. To this day, he wonders who his guardian angel might be.

Tragedy Strikes

Wilbur May was a prominent flying rancher who lived northwest of Alva, who owned his own plane, and had a runway on his ranch. May would stop to chat with the Kinzies when he flew into Alva. He was interested in learning more about helicopters. May invited the Kinzie boys to bring their helicopter and spot for the hunters and their dogs, who were hunting coyotes that were killing baby calves. Lynn agreed to fly the helicopter out to the May ranch on the following Saturday morning. While looking for coyotes close to the homestead, they clipped a high line, causing a horrific accident and fire. Both Lynn Kinzie and Wilbur May were killed by this tragedy.

After Lynn's death, Mr. Wisdom from the bank went to see Wayne and told him to come see him when he got his wits together. "I did, and it wasn't good. I had lost my brother and a helicopter with no insurance." Mr. Wisdom suggested that they both should probably take their whippings and go home. Wayne said, "No! There are fellows who helped me and patted me on the head when I rode my tricycle in Pop's shop, and I don't want to let them down. I would like to try." Wisdom said, "If that's the way you feel about it, I'll help you all I can." And he did! Later Wisdom made the comment: "Wayne can get smacked down, yet pick himself up and go again."

Branching Out to Make Parts

The Hughes Company was difficult to work with and wasn't customer oriented. Kinzie found hardly anyone was repairing Hughes helicopters. He also learned that Hughes parts were overpriced, and some rarely available. Kinzies began making their own parts. They had to send blueprints to the FAA for approval, so they could make and sell the part. Wayne's son, Paul, did all the drawings and got the approval to manufacture the parts. That meant they were able to sell the helicopter parts for half of the Hughes price.

The Kinzies had been buying plastic parts from an FAA engineer who was making the parts in his garage for himself and Kinzie to sell. One day, he alluded to Wayne that he was going to retire and had hoped his son would take over his plastics business. He then said his son had no interest at all, and asked Wayne if he would care to buy the business. Wayne responded "Well, yes, I would!"

Kinzie had purchased a Cessna plane out of Alaska for personal use. The interior looked like a hungry polar bear had ripped it apart. It was in shambles. He soon realized there was no place to get the plastic interior replacement for the plane, and if you ordered one, the waiting time would be six weeks or more. Realizing the need for interior replacement parts, Plane Plastics business was formed with Paul Kinzie at the head of it, and they began to manufacture parts.

They started with small Cessna planes and manufactured interior parts. Once again, Beverly mailed brochures to all Cessna plane owners describing what Plane Plastics had to offer and what different models were available. Orders came flooding in.

Kinzie was called to look at a wrecked helicopter in Wichita. When he walked in, he immediately recognized the numbers across the front. It was the first helicopter he had rebuilt and sold. He was quite excited and purchased it on the spot. Paul oversaw restoring it back to the way it originally left the factory. It is now displayed in the Kinzie museum at the Alva Airport.

Kinzie Industries also made industrial spraying kits for helicopters, and developed a truck unit that was made so the helicopter could land on a platform on top of it, and refill the tanks for another round of spraying. For many years Kinzies leased out four helicopter and truck units with good pilots to such companies as Green Giant in Illinois.

Another item that Kinzies developed was a wire cutter for helicopters. They found the wire cutter on the market was flimsy. It is an apparatus to attach to the front of the helicopter so that if it hits a power line, it would probably cut it.

Local Impact, Worldwide Reach

Wayne and Beverly's family consists of Paul, Mark, Tim, and Teresa. They all worked in the business while growing up and by the time the children graduated they had been in all fifty states due to travel for Kinzie Industries.

In the year 2000, Plane Plastics sold to Vantage Plastic that is the parent company of three companies, with Alva being one of them. The second company is a Plastic Molding and Composites' plan, located in Santa Fe Springs, California. The third company is a machine shop in San Diego, California.

The parent company loves the Alva entity. It is the largest manufacturer of aftermarket replacement plastics for general aviation, small privately owned aircraft. They sell all over the world and ship approximately 130 to 150 parts or packages daily. Plane Plastics is now an ESOP facility meaning it is employee owned.

It is important to realize that all money coming into Vantage Plastic is from outside of the Alva area.

The dream that Wayne and Beverly Kinzie had for a manufacturing plane plastics plant is alive and well.

Kinzies demonstrate how a helicopter can land on modified truck to take on another load of agricultural spray instead of going back to an airport.

Sonja Williams, director for Woods County Economic Development, says the impact of Vantage is immense to our area. "They try and buy everything locally, and a lot of their business is not from Oklahoma and that certainly is advantageous for us and for the state. "Vantage spends at least $1.25 million in Alva each year and last year had $3.8 million in gross sales." Asking if there was any chance the parent company might pull out of Alva, the answer was an emphatic no! If anything, expansion might be in the future.

An article in the Enid News, on August of 2017 stated that the annual economic impact total of Alva's general aviation airport is $6.3 million to Alva and the surrounding area.

Innovation, hard work, perseverance, honesty and dedication are some of the words that defined Kinzie Industries and Plane Plastics. The Kinzies have certainly left a gift to Alva to develop, grow and continue for years to come.