Aviation in the Rio Grande Valley used to be a small business, but it had a helping hand in taking off with McCreery Aviation in McAllen. 

The business was started 75 years ago by “Mac” McCreery.

"Aviation was really young after the war, there were a lot of pilots coming out of the military so general aviation was prime to grow during that time,” Bob McCreery, president and owner of McCreery Aviation said of his father, Mac. “So he saw the opportunities and gave it a shot and worked out good for them.”

Mac was based in Harlingen during World War II as a gunnery instructor and a flight instructor. When the war ended in 1945 he liked the Valley so much, he decided to make it his home, Bob McCreery said.

"He opened a little flight school in Mercedes at Rebel Field so he started over there and was teaching people to fly and did that for a year or two and saw that McAllen really had some potential," Bob McCreery added.

So in 1948, Mac opened he opened up a company in McAllen that started as a flight school. It grew into other services like maintenance, selling airplanes and fuel, Bob McCreery said. 

"We do a lot of stuff to support private airplanes so we have hangars along the airport where we store airplanes,” Bob McCreery said. “We have someone who sells airplanes for us, we service them, and do all of the handling of all of the private aircraft."

This includes a charter service, maintenance and avionics department that services aircraft from their flight school and privately owned aircraft. 

"Believe it or not our flight training was very, very busy last year, I think people had time on their hands,” Bob McCreery said. “They wanted to do something and get out, and we were able to do flight training in a safe manner."

McCreery Aviation is celebrating a huge birthday of 75 years. In that time, the industry has grown tremendously. 

Bob McCreery said they couldn't have done any of this without current and past employees and customers, including the McAllen airport.