Layton Bennett, an iconic figure in regional aviation history, died Saturday in Seattle at age 96.

Bennett pioneered reliance on wheeled airplanes over water in Southeast Alaska, trained legions of pilots and operated an airline for 52 years.

Airline sources, former employees and family members this week said Bennett used willpower, creativity and advances in airplane technology to carve out his chunk of an industry that changed dramatically in his lifetime.

At its peak, his namesake L.A.B. Flying Service had 55 employees, over 40 planes and offices in eight Southeast communities.The company was one of Alaska's oldest continuously operated airlines when it was grounded by the FAA in 2008 for maintenance and compliance issues.

"(Bennett) could be loud and boisterous and hard to understand but if you actually listened to his message, he was dead-on so many times it was unbelievable," said Rich Campbell, a former pilot and mechanic for L.A.B. who is now lead mechanic at Alaska Airlines' Seattle hangar.

Bennett's skill as an aviator was matched by his business acumen, Campbell said, a rare combination. "He was able to keep the cycle of money inside the business. He had a smart business sense," Campbell said.

Sam Wright, a commercial pilot flying out of Haines since 1988, described Bennett as a "legend" and "genius," for the longevity of his airline and how he made it profitable. Although they tend to do better in Alaska, many airlines don't last five years, he said.

"For his business to have lasted as long as it did, and for him to survive all of that and keep going, he was just an amazing guy," said Wright.

Wright said Bennett wisely bought Piper Cherokees, planes that were comfortable, stable in rough weather and required little maintenance. He built bunkhouses for young pilots hungrier for flying time than they were for pay. He put in his own airport fuel tanks to reduce costs and adopted as his company's colors the manufacturer's paint job, saving him the cost of repainting his fleet of aircraft.

But Bennett was a pilot for nearly 40 years and ran L.A.B. nearly 25 years before the company became a commercial success. "It was persistence over pure genius every time. He had a way of outlasting his competitors. He had that kind of willpower," said son Eric Bennett, a retired Alaska Airlines pilot.

Layton Alden Bennett was born in Woodland, Wash. on April 12, 1919, the son of a sawmill foreman and the second of three children in his family. That his mother was a devout Methodist and president of a chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union may explain why Bennett was a lifelong teetotaler, family members said this week.

Bennett earned an Eagle Scout badge in high school and also became a ham radio operator, a skill that helped him land a job in McGrath, Alaska in 1939 as a radio operator for Pan Am, sending weather reports by Morse code. He met early bush pilots and developed a passion for flying, family members said.

In 1942, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, predecessor to today's Air Force, and became a flight instructor. Pressed by the need for manpower, he trained pilots on the Army's short deadlines and later told family that some of the pilots had so few hours of flight time they were sent off with little chance of surviving a war zone.

Training in San Antonio, Texas in early 1943, he met Agnes "Lou" Wilder, a radio operator for the Civilian Aeronautics Administration. On their first date, they went to see the Alamo at night. On finding it closed and gated, they jumped the fence. "She went over it like a gazelle," Layton said during a community tribute to the couple in the mid-1990s.

Lou's assistance and support was critical to Bennett's later success in business, family members said.

Six weeks after their marriage, the Bennetts shipped off to Phoenix, where Layton worked as a fighter pilot instructor. He later became a B-17 captain and co-pilot of the B-29, the largest bomber flown in World War II. He was stationed stateside.

With the war's end, the couple returned to Alaska in 1946, each finding jobs with the CAA as radio operators in Gulkana. They earned enough to start L.A.B. Flying Service and moved to Anchorage, where Bennett purchase a Piper Super Cub, started a big game guide service and ferried mountain climbers to glaciers.

But regulation changes coming with statehood eradicated his guiding business.

In 1958, with a family that included three sons, Bennett moved to Haines after winning a contract with the U.S. Army to patrol the eight-inch pipeline connecting the Army's fuel tank farm on Lutak Inlet to Air Force bases 600 miles away in Fairbanks. "That was the only reason we moved to Haines. That was the only job he had – to fly that pipeline," said Eric Bennett.

The job's hazards included flying at low elevations and in weather that could range from 40 degrees F. in Haines to minus 55 F. two hours north on the same day. Forced landings due a frozen fuel line or low ceilings weren't uncommon, said son Eric.

"He did some hairy stuff. It was hardcore bush flying. Layton really defined himself as a pilot during that time," Eric said.

The job ended in the early 1970s when use of the pipeline was discontinued. Bennett went to work on developing an airline in an era when commercial air service in Southeast was provided by Juneau-based Alaska Coastal Airlines, a company that had dominated the region for decades, using amphibious aircraft, including war surplus.

By the early 1970s, the company had switched to flying Twin Otters, then petitioned the government to allow it to discontinue service, saying it could no longer compete with smaller, six-passenger craft like ones flown by Bennett, who was then a charter operator.

Coastal's move looked like an opening for L.A.B., but in the mid-1970s the Alaska Transportation Commission awarded its only scheduled airline certificate in Lynn Canal to Southeast Skyways, a Juneau company. The decision was a blow to Bennett, but he countered it by winning the bid to deliver U.S. mail on the same route, a separate contract.

With the mail contract and charter passengers, L.A.B. had a foothold. "That helped establish us as a scheduled airline," Eric Bennett said.

Deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 allowed L.A.B. Flying Service to officially provide scheduled service. Southeast Skyways changed hands several times, eventually becoming Wings of Alaska as Bennett extended service to other Southeast communities, including Ketchikan.

By then, passengers who had traveled for decades on amphibious aircraft had finally accepted single-engine, wheeled aircraft, Eric Bennett recalled. "It took years and years for people to embrace them."

Amphibious aircraft could carry more passengers and fly safely in the most marginal weather, but their size, age and constant exposure to salt water made them expensive to maintain, Eric Bennett said. Smaller, wheeled planes could deliver passengers faster and cheaper, and with mechanical improvements that arrived in the early 1960s, as safely, he said.

"They were where the money was and Layton was all about the money. The fact that (other Southeast airlines) joined up and did what Layton did pretty much validated his decision."

Layton also expanded the business by recruiting young, ambitious pilots from the Lower 48, typically bright ones that were college-bound, his son said. Perhaps relying on skills gained as a military flight instructor, "he had an ability to train them into clones of himself, and do that fairly quickly."

Bennett's own flying exploits were legendary. Besides tales of daring bush takeoffs and landings came reports that he would fall asleep while piloting routine flights. Eric Bennett said the sleeping stories stemmed from his fathers' flair for the dramatic. "He used to pretend he was sleeping. He'd fall asleep with one eye open, let me tell you...To fly 40,000 hours over the course of 64 years in single-engine planes in Alaska, you have to have something going for you."

Layton learned how to fly a helicopter at age 68. Due to health issues about 10 years ago, he lost his driver's license and pilot's license, but he flew planes until he was 91, legally taking the controls when accompanied by wife Lou Bennett, also a pilot. "They flew on my mother's license for years," Eric Bennett said.

Pilot Wright said this week that Bennett's legacy stretches far from Haines, to the pilots that he trained. Some now work for industry agencies such as FAA. "The airline industry is full of L.A.B. pilots. There's probably one who flies for every airline in the United States, if not five of them."

Sons Eric and Bart became Alaska Airlines pilots. Son Lynn Bennett was a pilot and mechanic for L.A.B. during most of the company's history.

Irascible and iron-willed at work, Bennett was also a good father, Bart Bennett said this week. "He was the best father I could possibly have. He loved exciting, fun things, like airplanes and hunting and motorcyles. Every fun thing I've ever done he was a part of."

Layton Bennett was a longtime member and donor to the Haines Sportsman's Association. He also designed and produced a survival knife that contained a cigarette lighter and fishing line in its handle. For decades he donated flights to local groups and causes.

Annette Smith worked for the airline when Bennett's office and home were located in a Second Avenue home later known as "The Swamp." She remembered an episode when a salesman selling men's suits came to the office door.

"Layton went into the back and came out with three suits he tried to sell the salesman. He could sell anything to anybody," Smith said.

Bennett is survived by wife Lou; sons Eric of Seattle, Bart of Bellevue, Wash. and Lynn of Juneau, and by nine grandchildren.

He'll be interred at the Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, Wash. Family members this week said they were considering a summertime memorial service in Haines, but no date has been set.