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Keith McCord ReportingA long-overdue tribute for a Utah man who played a major role in aviation in this state. His name is Art Mortensen, and today he was inducted into the Utah Aviation Hall of Fame.
Art Mortensen's aviation career goes back to the early days of flying. As a teenager, working on a farm in Payson, he looked up one day, saw a plane overhead, and decided then and there that he wanted to be a pilot.
He went to flight school and got his pilot's license in 1929. Ardeth "Art" Mortensen died in 1994, but today family and friends gathered at the Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum as he became the 20th Utah pilot inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame.
Rear Admiral Jerry Taylor, USN, Retired: "He is a very valid, certified pioneer of aviation."
In the 30's and 40's Mortensen was known as a "Barnstormer", one of those pilots who would fly to small towns, performing stunts with his plane, and giving rides to customers for a small fee.
Jeanne Mortensen Pack, Daughter: "He traveled and performed with Jimmy Lund's Flying Circus, where he wing-walked and performed aerobatics."
But before he learned to fly, he hung around the old Ogden Airport--a so-called "Hangar Rat".
Jeanne Mortensen Pack, Daughter: "He would buy the pilots a Coke or wash their airplaine. He would do anything that he could to enable him to fly with them, anywhere they were going, just for the experience of sitting in the cockpit with the pilot and watching him fly the plane."
In the late 30's, Art bought Utah Pacific Airways, a charter airline and pilot school. He operated it for 32-years.
He also organized and developed the Navy Cadet Training School, which trained more than 500 pilots who flew combat missions during World War II.
Rear Admiral Jerry Taylor, USN, Retired: "This one was to put the stick and throttle in the hands of young men and women who learned to fly, and became one of the great assets of our great country during World War II."
Art Mortensen was the first manager of the Ogden's Hinckley Airport. He took the job in 1943 for a dollar a month.
Mortensen also helped plan and develop 15 other airports throughout Utah. He's certainly a man who deserves to be in the Utah Aviation Hall of Fame.
