Airport Of The Month – International Falls

Charles Lindbergh was an environmentalist. After his many accomplishments in aviation, he became an enthusiastic steward of the planet. In 1969 the proposed Voyagers National Park had his attention and Mr. Lindbergh traveled to International Falls to see for himself. He called Einarson's Flying Service to rent an aircraft. Francis Einarson took the request and said, "Who is this?" Charles Lindbergh was the reply, to which Einarson said, "Yeah, and I'm Jimmy Doolittle."

That got sorted out OK, but Einarson insisted Lindbergh have a check out in the PA-18 float plane he was going to rent. "Only 20 minutes" turned into a three-hour flight.

Too bad the Super Cub didn't have a voice recorder, because it could have captured the most interesting conversation in the history of flying.

While the two famous aviators were flying around up north, executives at North Central Airlines were contemplating changing from propellers to jets.

Their new aircraft would be the DC-9, and that would require a much longer runway at what would become "Einarson Field." It was determined that 6,500 feet was the minimum runway length needed, so International Falls and Koochiching County decided to "build it and they will come."

In the far north, asphalt cement Cconcrete (ACC or bituminous) is the desired paving medium. Even at 20 below the sun will warm the surface of "blacktop" enough to melt ice. The bad news was a lot of gravel would be needed and Koochiching County doesn't have much of that. To overcome the problem, it was decided to use "full depth pavement." Instead of the traditional layers of sand and gravel topped with a bituminous surface, the "new" runway and parallel taxiway at International Falls had 27 inches of ACC when it opened in 1979.

Like everything else, pavement shrinks when it gets cold so runways experience "contraction cracking." Since International Falls is the "Ice Box of the Nation" and the shrinkage is proportional to pavement thickness, cracks that could swallow a cat or a person's foot soon developed. Over the years attempts to ameliorate the situation included filling with bituminous and the use of high-tech joint fillers. Sawing intermediate joints combined with a new surface using "polymer modified asphalt" was partially successful. Except for cracking the pavement had performed well, but after 40 years a complete reconstruction was necessary.

In the interim North Central became Republic then merged with Northwest and airline "deregulation" happened. Skipping the details, the impact on INL was the DC-9s being replaced by a "commuter airline" ironically flying turboprops. The commuter flew as "Republic Express" then "Northwest Airlink."

Mesabi Aviation was contracted to provide the commuter service. After the turn of the century, Northwest Airlink decided to repeat history by converting to an all-jet fleet. Service to INL would now use the Canadair CRJ which has a striking resemblance to the DC-9, but lacks the takeoff performance of the old Douglas Jet. Therefore, another

runway extension was required bringing the main runway at INL to a length of 7,400 feet. The newest 900 feet was traditional pavement on aggregate and proved more durable so when the reconstruction began in 2020 a similar design was used to replace the older 6,500 feet.

When it was finished, the reconstructed runway and taxiway consisted of two feet of aggregate subbase over a geotextile fabric layer, topped with an eight inch gravel base and five inches of ACC. The parallel taxiway was done first and widened to 100 feet to allow it to be used as a temporary runway.

The runway was completed in 2021 and is now open for business. A follow-on project at a later date will resurface the extension.

Like Lindbergh, Francis Einarson was an aviation pioneer. He developed many techniques for cold weather flying and had the first air ambulance dedicated to transporting prematurely born infants. Both pilots are enshrined in the "Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame."

Lindbergh was a little shy. Francis Einarson knew how to tell a story so he asked the other great aviator to pose for a photo. Lindbergh agreed, but only if it wasn't published until after he'd left town.

Francis Junior and Thor Einarson joined the famous duo for the picture. Francis Junior would later be chief pilot for Mesabi Airlines. Thor took over the family business and succeed his dad as manager of the airport.

Also, like Lindbergh, the Einarsons are environmentalists and own a farm that has received awards for practices friendly to the ecology of Koochiching County. Einarson Flying Service also supports the "Wounded Warrior Project" and a percentage of their fuel sales are donated to that worthy cause.