Bringing airplanes back to life
Clara City man, with help from his wife, has been rebuilding and restoring planes for nearly 60 years
By Scott Thoma
It’s difficult enough to put a scale model of an airplane together, let alone a real one.
Howard Kron of Clara City has been doing just that for nearly 60 years, rebuilding and restoring vintage airplanes.
“I’ve rebuilt over 100 planes over the years,” he said. “This might be my last one, though.”
With that, Howard pointed to the 1935 Stinson Reliant that he is nearing completion of in his hangar shop at his rural home outside Clara City. There were only 50 Stinson Reliant planes ever built and only five of that type of plane still flying. Two of those five were rebuilt by Howard.
The Stinson Reliant is a popular single-engine monoplane originally manufactured in Wayne, Michigan.
Howard and his wife Joyce recently returned home after celebrating his 80th birthday with his family at the annual Oshkosh Air Show, the biggest of its kind in the world, on July 22. The Stinson Reliant plane that Howard rebuilt several years ago and sold was one of the airplanes up for an award. Howard sold the plane several years ago, but he was invited to the show by the current owner to give a short speech and answer questions about the plane. This particular plane was once owned by Charles Correll, who played Andy from the famous long-running Amos ‘n’ Andy radio sitcom.
Although that plane did not take top honors in the Antique and Classic category among 100 planes, it was selected as runner-up on July 25. The plane that received top honors in that category went on to win the top overall prize in the air show. Criteria for each plane in the vintage category is that the plane must be fully restored to its originality right down to the types of screws used back then.
In all, antique planes that Howard has rebuilt over the years have won 14 awards, 11 of them at the Oshkosh Air Show.
Howard and Joyce’s two daughters, six grandchildren, and one great grandchild were on hand to celebrate Howard’s birthday at the air show. They were among an estimated 800,000 people that attended the air show.
The Stinson Reliant plane took Howard around 8,000 hours to rebuild and fully restore.
With the help of Joyce, the rebuilt airplanes come together with perfection down to the last detail.
“We have been married for 60 years,” she said. “We’ve worked together for 51 years. People ask ‘How did you do that?’ and I tell them God blessed us with each other. We love each other.”
Howard’s love for airplanes and flying came in 1960 as a young boy of 14 years old when he took an airplane ride with his sister at the Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie. The pilot even allowed Howard to briefly take control of the plane up in the sky.
“We flew around for about 30 minutes and I knew then that I wanted to be a pilot and work with airplanes,” Howard recalled.
After graduating from Clara City High School in 1964, he began taking flying lessons two days later. He soon fulfilled his dream of becoming a licensed pilot that same year, and eventually became a commercial pilot at age 20.
On April 15, 1975, Howard and Joyce began working together at his business called Howard’s Aircrafts at the airport in Olivia. He did general maintenance at first and then got into the restoration process. Four years later, he then took over operating the airport in Montevideo. He and Joyce left Montevideo in 1999 and moved to their current rural residence that has been in the family for 122 years.
“I would locate and buy a wrecked airplane, fix it up and sell it,” he said. “After I rebuilt a few of them, word got around and I was being contacted to rebuild more and more planes.”
Once Howard got into completely rebuilding an airplane that had been damaged in a crash, Joyce began working with him stitching the fabric covering an airplane wing’s ribs. Rib stitching is the process of mechanically securing fabric covering to the wing’s ribs so the fabric stays in place under lift forces. It’s a critical step in aircraft covering and must be done correctly for safety reasons.
“I’ve probably hand-stitched about 40-45 planes for Howard,” she said, proudly.
Howard measures, cuts and pieces together the ribs for the wings, making sure the holes are drilled in the precise locations, about 2-3 inches apart. Joyce then threads the waxed polyester lacing cord through the holes in the rib, starting at the trailing edge and moving toward the leading edge, using the correct knot to secure the cord to each rib.
While Joyce is working on the laborious job of stitching the rib covering, Howard is rebuilding the rest of the airplane. Sometimes the plane he is rebuilding has been so damaged that it resembles a pile of scrap iron.
Planes acquired by the Krons have come from all over the country. His reputation for doing quality restoration work continually led to more people contacting him.
The first plane Howard restored was a 1941 Stearman that started out as a “pile of junk” and was soon transformed into a beautiful flying machine.
If some of the planes Howard would rebuild no longer had parts available, he would make the part himself in his shop. The various parts of the plane, including the wings, are painted in a separate room inside the hangar.
One of the rebuilt planes Howard is most proud of is a 1941 Triple Nickel. He totally rebuilt the plane, finishing the work in 1992. That plane went on to win three awards at the Oshkosh Air Show. The Triple Nickel name came from its serial number 53‑555 — read as “five‑three‑five‑five‑five,” which in military slang became “Triple Nickel.” Howard also inserted three oversized replica 1941 buffalo nickels in the tail of the plane.
Because he has been dealing with a back issue, Howard hasn’t flown or been in a plane since July 10, 2022. Still, that hasn’t stopped him from working on them.
Howard also has a 100-foot wide by 2,400 foot-long runway at his residence.
“After I rebuild a plane, I would take it up for a test ride to make sure everything was in working order,” Howard said. “The last four planes I’ve built, I wasn’t able to test them because of my back, so the person I built the plane for would test them for me.”
He then pulled out his old log book and opened it up to reveal the many hours he has spent in a plane over the years.
“I miss being up in the air,” he said.
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