Evergreen Aviation history

By 1975, Smith had a fleet of 98 helicopters.

In 1978, the company bought 1,000 acres of land surrounding its base in tiny McMinnville and created Evergreen Farms.

Twice-weekly flights between Philadelphia and the Bahamas began in February 1979.

A new subsidiary, Evergreen Tours, was created in February 1980 to market tours and charters.

In 1982, the company entered into a more enduring contract, using helicopters to carry mail to remote outposts in northwestern Alaska.

In 1984, Evergreen acquired Airspur Helicopters, the Los Angeles area commuter helicopter service that Evergreen had previously been operating on behalf of Westland Inc., a subsidiary of the British helicopter manufacturer.

1987: Evergreen establishes an Express Mail hub in Indiana.

In the summer of 1989, Evergreen lost its Express Mail contract to Consolidated Freightways Corp.’s Air Train Inc. unit.

In 1991, Evergreen began refueling Hong Kong-bound aircraft in Khabarovsk, Russia, to avoid high landing fees in Japan.

Revenues were more than $500 million in 1992.

1993: The company enters the China market; JAL cancels its contract.

Plans for a $15 million expansion of the Evergreen Air Center were deferred by debt and a $78 million lawsuit in 1996.

In the spring of 1998, Evergreen added scheduled service from Indonesia to New York via Columbus, Ohio.

Evergreen announced plans to open a scheduled route between Anchorage and Adak in the Russian Far East in early 2002 under a two-year subsidy from the United States Department of Transportation.