Meet Charles Jay

When Charles Jay got out of the U.S. Air Force in 1990, he became a self-described wanderer. “I drifted around the world teaching scuba diving lessons,” he said. “It helped pay for my habit of deep-wreck diving.”

On a gig as a commercial diver in Florida, he became fascinated by the airplanes and helicopters flown by students from nearby aviation schools. When his father had a heart attack, Jay left the Sunshine State for the plains of Yates Center, Kansas, to help with the family farm, so both diving and thoughts of airplanes were shelved, at least for a while. In Kansas, a job with Cobalt Boats led to a new passion for Jay, one that spilled over into aviation.

“Molding boats from composites was an art form I fell in love with,” Jay said. When Cobalt began taking orders for composite test samples, Cessna Aircraft was the first in line. “I created a sample they loved,” Jay said, “and went to work for them not long afterward.”

Cessna reimburses its employees for flight training expenses, which made working for the company even sweeter for Jay. “For a while I’d do anything just to be flying,” he said. He soloed in a Cessna 172.

Wanderlust knocked again when Jay received the opportunity to interview with Scaled Composites, then owned by Burt Rutan. “Because I worked with composites, Burt Rutan was a hero of mine,” Jay said. The six-hour job interview went so well that the company told him they’d be mailing him an official offer. “A week later,” Jay said, “I read that Northrop Grumman had bought out Scaled Composites, so I didn’t get that job offer."

Jay has been on the project for more than two years but isn’t in any hurry to complete it. The process is as rewarding as having a finished airplane, he says.

Afterward, Jay began his own composites business in Kansas, where he manufactured, among other items, aircraft parts. He sold the business a few years later to wander again.

Jay is currently working on a Wittman Tailwind, an airplane he likes for its speed in relation to its relatively low horsepower. The plans for the 1950s-era “rag-and-tube” Tailwind consist of pencil and paper drawings with handwritten instructions and imprecise construction plans, which frequently include calls to those who have built that type of airplane before him.

Jay has been on the project for more than two years but isn’t in any hurry to complete it. The process is as rewarding as having a finished airplane, he says. When he does finish it, Jay plans to have an A&P check the Tailwind out before he flies it.

“I don’t mind diving into the ocean,” he said, “but I don’t like the idea of falling out of an airplane.”

Sheila Harris is a writer from Southwest Missouri.