by Steve Ottaviano, JAARS Aviation Operations

Recently I had the privilege of viewing two of the world’s Ultimate Flying Machines. While I was in Orlando making a flight to Wycliffe’s offices, I had the time to make the 40-mile drive to witness something for the first time. I parked my car on the waterfront in Titusville, counted down with the crowd, and cheered with them as the space shuttle Discovery lifted off with a blaze and a mighty rumble that shook me to the core. I don’t suppose there’s one pilot on this earth that doesn’t look at the occupants of those mighty machines without a little bit of envy, wondering Have I got what it would take to fly that? Man’s crowning achievement in flight—hurtling out to space and returning again under control. Amazing, inspiring.

Soon after I got to see the second machine—much humbler and smaller, though. It was sitting on the ramp in front of the JAARS hangar after arriving from the jungle of Peru. Her name is "Millie," a nickname she earned years ago when the Peruvian government designated it "OB-1000." The Spanish "mil" for one thousand eventually turned into the moniker Millie. Since her arrival in 1975, she spent most of her time on pontoons, plying the skies of the Amazon, landing on rivers, lakes and swamps.

So what makes Millie such a special flying machine? Certainly not her visual appeal or phenomenal flight performance. It’s a little squat, two-tone blue on white, with a very spartan tan interior. The seats fold up if you want to make more room for cargo . . . or a stretcher. She moves at about 120 m.p.h. through the air. But for 25 years, and over 8,000 flight hours, Millie carried the most precious cargo in the world.

During lunch break today I climbed up into her cockpit, running my hands over the control wheel . . . remembering. There was the Ticuna New Testament dedication when we carried loads of people and cargo out to the village of Cushillococha on the Amazon, and, of course, boxes of precious copies of God’s Word.

And now she’s back in Waxhaw. The work in Peru is being finished, the need there for her modest capabilities has ended. What’s in store for this ultimate of machines? Perhaps a re-fitting where the JAARS mechanics and machinists will make Millie like new again and then send her on to another part of the world. Or perhaps it’s time to sell her off and use the cash to purchase another asset that will go on to support the work of Bible translation.

You see, even though in the eyes of men these machines don’t make much of an impression, to me they’re the Ultimate Flying Machines. And in the silly sentimental eyes of this pilot, if any machine deserved God’s approval and the awe of the angels of Heaven, it’s little Millie and the fleet of others like her with which she’s so faithfully served.