Monday, September 16, 2013

Aviation business began seeding fields in SE Texas in 1946

SOUTHEAST TEXAS TALES

When the Mitchell family shows up at their corporate headquarters, a small collection of tin-roofed buildings on Texas 124, they're continuing a nearly 70-year tradition responsible for seeding the roots of a multimillion-dollar industry.

Two former fighter pilots, one military surplus training plane and a pair of rice-farming brothers revolutionized how growers on the Texas coast would plant their crops when they founded M&M Air Services in 1946. It led to bigger yields and spurred a boom in agriculture aviation - just a seedling industry before the company came along.

It all started with a Stearman biplane.

In the 1920s and '30s, agriculture aviation was already an established business in the country, and planes had been used at least as far back as 1929 to seed a field in Jefferson County, according to Texas Rice, a publication of Texas A&M University.

But no one had tried to plant a rice field from the sky until K.W. "Kinky" Shane and Gilbert Mapes brought the idea to rice farmers N.W. and Fields Mitchell.

Shane and Mapes talked about the idea before World War II broke out, but the conflict derailed their plans, and the two men joined up as pilots in the U.S. Army and Navy.

When the war ended, the government put their surplus training planes, the 220-horsepower prop-powered biplane the Stearman, up for sale. They weren't available to the public, but the two men's military experience allowed them to get their hands on one.

The Mitchell brothers saw the need for aerial planting, which would help beat the grass that competed with the rice seed. The four teamed up.

The Stearman's forward seat and instrument panels were torn out and the men, using common tools found on any farm, a little wood and a rain gutter, built a hopper and seed delivery system.

On an April morning in 1946, Shane climbed behind the stick of the biplane loaded with hundreds of pounds of sprouted rice seedlings. He cruised over a field at the present-day intersection of Major Drive and Walden Road and dropped the seeds.

M&M Air Services boomed. According to the Texas Rice article, the innovation spearheaded in Southeast Texas led to a bumper agricultural aviation industry in Texas.

George Mitchell, the son of founder Fields Mitchell, said he remembers when the company bought an additional 42 Stearman planes for about $55 each or $638 each in today's dollars.

In 1948, the Mitchell brothers bought out Mapes' stake in the company, and it's been a family business ever since.

George Mitchell was the second generation of the family to run the company and the family staffs each portion of the business today.

But things have changed since 1946, and the company has been forced to adapt to stay afloat, Mitchell said.

The Stearmans aren't in the skies anymore, replaced by turboprop planes that are much quieter than their predecessors. Instead of poring over maps before heading out, pilots take advantage of GPS technology.

And planting isn't as big a part of the company's business anymore.

M&M diversified its services years ago, to include firefighting operations, planting and fertilizing and seeding.

David Mitchell, a vice president and operations manager for the company, said they still do business with families in the area with whom they've worked for decades.

Over the years, the company has managed to keep in the sky through some tough times. When agriculture suffers, so do they.

Some rice farmers have reverted to the old ground planting method, but there's a place for pilots still.

In an odd turnabout, planting by air has picked up some speed among organic rice farmers, said Mark Mitchell, also a vice president and operations manager.

Southeast Texas Tales is a weekly Enterprise feature that examines regional history.

Story and Photos:  http://www.beaumontenterprise.com