The 5J Airlines Founding Crew

1948, he would finish flight school in secret from his parents and begin working for Lynwood Transcontinental, Lynwood’s biggest airline at the time, as a copilot to gain experience. After a year and a half of flying for LTC, he would leave the company and start trying to gather funds to launch his own airline. He had saved every penny he made working for Transcon, so he would find some smaller sized investments from people, mostly the 4 friends he made in the aviation industry. The four friends he would start the airline with were Preston Friedman, Mark Cohen, Paul Reagan, and Francis Bernardone. All four of them were interested in aviation and the industry in some way, and all of them helped James by pitching in cash for the airline’s start. Preston Friedman would pitch in the most, giving him the loan on the promise that James “better not fold on this”, which he accepted. 

On January 28th, 1950, Lancer would officially open the airline, naming it 5J International Airlines. He chose the name “5J” because of two simple factors. The first being his four closest friends who helped him open the airline, making it five people in total making the airline a possibility. The second part, for a less cool reason, was the J coming from his name, James. What mattered most was that 5J Airlines had officially been founded, and the rest was history. Along with his life in the airline, he would meet his wife Ellie Jackson just 20 minutes before an important airline meeting as he was on his way out from lunch when he received a compliment on the suit he wore. James and Ellie would talk for a few minutes before James rushed to get to the 5JA building, arriving just three minutes before the meeting would start. He wouldn’t actually see her again until a month later at the same restaurant, this time while he was there with his friends. The two would talk and eventually gain contact, before officially getting together in 1952. After three years of being together, James would propose in 1955, to which Ellie said yes. In an interview in 1983, James said that it was one of the happiest days of his life, just barely beating out the day they had put the Convair 990 in service for the first time. In 1958 his son Mark Lancer would be born while visiting family in Kitesboro, being named after one of James’s friends who helped him create the airline, Mark Cohen. James would run 5J Airlines throughout most of his life, guiding it through the rise in popularity and global expansion the airline had. He would also be thrilled to see his three grandkids born in the later parts of the century, who would be included in many of their grandfather’s airline events. Eventually, in 2000, James would retire, fully giving leadership of the airline to Steve Robinson, one of the higher ups of the airline at the time. He would move into his house with his wife Ellie on Westwood Island, Lynwood where he would still regularly travel on 5JA to places like Kitesboro, Valois, and Tenang for vacation. However, not long after this, he was called back to the business.

One night in 2008, he would receive a phone call from his grandson Jacob, asking him for help with suing Steve Robinson for the ownership of the company. Confused, he asked why, and was horrified to hear what Robinson had done to the airline he had founded. Disgusted by what he was being told, James agreed to help Jacob and would get some extra help. With both Francis and Preston already ready to help, James contacted Mark Cohen to get him to help the operation, to which Mark agreed. During the case, they would all gather evidence and help Jacob as much as they could, including giving testimonies about Robinson's sketchy attitudes in the past that they had regretfully brushed off. After a tough year of legal battles, the airline would officially go into the ownership of Jacob, and Robinson would be sent to prison for not only crimes he committed during his days of the airline, but also crimes from before which were uncovered during the case. As Jacob gained ownership of 5JA in 2010 after the lawsuit, James would help him with advice and knowledge whenever Jacob visited. He would live until 2022, when he peacefully passed away during his sleep at his house. His funeral would see his family and 100+ 5JA employees, former and current, all attending including two of his close friends and 5JA’s first staff and investors; Preston Friedman and Francis Bernardone. In honor of his grandfather’s legacy, Jacob would add a special sticker onto one of the airline’s 757-200s in part with the Founders Crew stickers that 5 special 752s received.

   at the very least 20 or so years until he could even accomplish this. James, however, was known to be very stubborn, and to prove Preston wrong, he began working towards being a pilot. While James was completely shifting his life, Preston would become a door-to-door salesman for a shoe company at 17 by lying about his age. He gained extremely valuable knowledge and would become quite the businessman and would soon join James in his aviation journey by pitching in a fair bit of his earnings towards forming James's airline.

Once 1950 came around and 5JIA was officially formed, Preston would recieve the Route Manager position to get the airline flying into many different airports. His smooth talking and previous business experience would prove invaluable to gaining new routes, as by 1951, 5JIA had already started service into important Maredithian cities. During the period of expansion during the mid 50s until the 70s, Preston would be accompanied by James and Francis to go on trips across the globe for new routes, including going into Avalon, Aesir, Kyokkou, and Alavega. As the airline progressed, his position was safely secured as he became the Senior Route Manager, with a few others below him to help with maintaining the airline's destinations. Once James Lancer had retired from CEO in 2000, he was one of the candidates for being the new CEO, but he declined as he wasn't interested in taking on the massive annoyance and stress of running the company. Instead, both Preston and Francis Bernardone would be given a secondary "CEO Advisor" position, to keep track of Steve Robinson, the new CEO. As the 2000s slowly started, Preston and Francis both slowly realized and went against what Robinson was doing with the company, and they would be called to help with something important.

In 2008, the grandson of James Lancer, Jacob, contacted Preston about helping him take ownership back for the Lancer family from Robinson after how he was treating the company, and Preston agreed to help. He would give his testimony against Robinson in the 2009 lawsuit as he had worked alongside him, and it would prove valuable to the 5JA cause. Once 2010 came and Jacob was officially given the ownership of the company, Preston would help his grandson, Preston Friedman III, take up the mantle of being the new Route Manager. He would help until the FOAB blacklist ended in 2012, where he fully retired from the company at the age of 82. He would live a quiet life in Lynwood, where he kept in touch with the Lancer family by getting lunch and talking frequently with James. Tragically, in early 2023, Preston would pass away peacefully at the age of 92. In his honor, a 757-200 was given a personalized "Founders Crew Series" sticker along with four others to commemorate the founding investors.

made for cash on the side. One day however, a certain James Lancer came around and saw one of Francis’s paintings of a Convair CV-580, and was immediately interested. He started talking to Francis, who didn’t know much English, but the two would still talk and eventually become friends. From then on, Francis would still make art non-professionally and would sell his pieces around the Oconian isles, but that all came to a change in 1950. James asked him if he wanted to join him and three of his other friends in the aviation industry in starting an airline, since they needed someone with Francis’s art skills for advertising. While Francis did like planes and painted them frequently, he didn’t know much about the actual industry, which made him a bit wary about the whole thing. When he realized that he would only mainly be doing the advertising however, he accepted the offer and joined the crew.

As the Marketing Manager, Francis was in charge of making different advertisements and getting them into newspapers or anything that could boost business, but he also took on one of the most important jobs for the airline. The 5JIA team needed a livery for their aircraft, and because of Francis’s background in art, he drew the very first livery for the airline, naming it “A Flying Start”. The crew loved the livery and decided to go with it for the official design that their planes would launch with. Soon after, DC-4s and DC-6s would be flying Francis’s design all around Oconia and Maredith. Francis would continue making advertisements and getting local newspapers in Lynwood to publish them, with good amounts of success. Once 5JA had started to fly into Avalon, he would get to make advertisements for his home continent. He excelled at making ads for Alpinora, Portona, and Saalhofen due to his childhood in those nations, and demand for 5JA routes in those nations went up because of his amazing ads. Into the 60s and 70s, Francis would continue his role as the livery designer by making the heavily popular Red Lightning design, along with leading the team of 3 people making Crimson Collide. While he now was watching over a team of people doing marketing as the Senior Marketing Manager, he still enjoyed creating advertisements and he was always considered the best. Into the 2000s as James was preparing the airline for his retirement, both Francis and Preston I were given the roles of CEO Advisor keep the new CEO Steve Robinson in check. Francis would have his own falling-out with Robinson after he refused to create a livery based off of Robinson's ideas and stepped down from the Livery Maker position. He would stay with the airline as a CEO Advisor and Marketing Manager until 2008 when preparation for the ownership lawsuit begun.

Without hesitation, he offered to help the coalition under Jacob Lancer and would play a vital role during the court hearings to testify against Robinson. Once the lawsuit ended and Jacob officially owned the company, he decided to help Claire Lancer, the new Marketing Manager, with the job. Francis gave Claire much advice and many useful ideas, which Claire would use during the FOAB blacklist period to help business. After a year of helping Claire directly from the Lynwood headquarters, he finally took time to himself and officially retired to be with his family in Alpinora. He often kept in touch with the company but spent more time painting as he now lived full-time with his wife Clara. Francis would eventually return to the Isles after the unfortunate passings of both James Lancer and Preston Friedman I during their funerals, and would see his special Founders Crew sticker on a chosen 757-200 as part of Jacob's memorial and celebration of the founders. Today, he now lives with his son Peter and continues to paint and keep in touch with the Lancer family.

James was forming. After talking a bit more, he agreed to join James and Preston's efforts, and a year later 5JIA would be founded. Mark was appointed as the Fleet Manager, which had him looking for aircraft options to start operations. Fortunately, the Oconian Armed Forces was getting rid of surplus C-54s, and Mark was able to write up a deal for 5 of the aircraft for cheap. They were converted into DC-4s, and the first one, LYD144, would begin flying to Kitesboro.

As 5JA progressed as a company, Cohen was sent all over creation to find different aircraft for the airline to operate. He would score brand-new L-1049s for their routes into Maredith and Avalon in 1951 and would always be researching the next best aircraft. During the Jet Age, his choice for the DC-8 instead of the Convair 990 caused a short bet-fueled feud between him and James, which caused most staff to be annoyed with them for the duration of the feud. Both aircraft would eventually stay in the fleet, but the incident became a 5JA legend. Once the 70s came, Mark would get the airline both DC-10s and L-1011s to trial new widebodies out on long routes and see which one suited the airline best. The only ever 5JA DC-10 would infamously go on to fly Flight 208, where the aircraft crashed near Rawaki and 100+ deaths occurred, which led 5JA to end all orders of the DC-10 and fly the L-1011 instead. Mark was particularly struck by the incident, as his wife Janet was on the flight going to see family in Anhedral, but she fortunately was one of the survivors of the incident. Into the 80s and 90s, more fleet modernization was pushed by Mark, and he would help the construction and sorting of 5J Airlines Maredith's fleet as it became an offiicial subsidy out of San Ezequiel.

In 1996, Cohen’s time in 5J Airlines would end as he officially retired from his position of Senior Fleet Manager after 46 years at the company. He retired after the passing of Paul Reagan in 1994 which hit him hard as the two were extremely good friends, and he wanted to take a more relaxed position in his older life now at 66 years old. He would return to his house and family in Kitesboro and would live there helping with his son’s reality group. In 2008 before ownership lawsuit occurred, he was asked by James to help. Mark accepted the request and would help the case until Jacob Lancer received ownership of 5JA. Unfortunately, in Summer of 2011, Mark would pass away from a complication during a minor surgery at the age of 82. His family held a small service that would be attended by James, Preston I, and Francis along with their families and some of his relatives. In his memory, Jacob Lancer would put a special Founders Crew sticker for Mark on one of 5JA's 757-200s as a part of the "Founders Crew Series" sticker 757-200s.

seeing some of the early air force planes, and this would stick with him. After his service in the armed forces and working in Norman as a cab company manager, Paul would move back to Clarence to explore the ever-growing aviation industry. When back in Clarence he was at a diner when he overheard two young men talking about military aircraft. Curious, Paul approached them and began talking to James Lancer and Preston Friedman, both still trying to find people for James’s new airline. Paul was very interested, and when he heard that the two were only 18, it shocked him. The two asked him if he wanted to join them on the journey to creating this airline, and Paul said yes.

After the founding of 5J International Airlines in 1950, Paul was assigned the Staff Manager role to help James go over hiring people along with keeping the entirety of the staff team in check. With his time in the military and his no-nonsense attitude, he was a great fit for managing staff as his points were sharp and always got across. During the earlier years when the airline was in need of pilots, James urged Paul to try and be easier on those applying to fly since the staff was needed, but Paul went firmly the other way in the request. He began being extremely tough on them, since he saw it as making sure that they were the best hires possible. The strategy surprisingly worked, and many would complement Paul's hiring tactics as it was getting the company the best pilots. As time passed and the 1970s came around, 5JA was presented with the opportunity to fly the Tselinoyarskan-made Il-72 supersonic, and to purchase the jet, the entirety of the founding investors left for Leovetsk. While they were mostly all on board, Paul was slightly skeptical of the Tsel-made jet. His military-day prejudices against more-or-less anything Tselinoyarskan stuck with him, so the company buying the Il-72 posed a problem to him. The airline would buy the jet regardless of what Paul thought though, and he would eventually warm up to the jet, flying on it a couple of times.

Into the last few decades of the century, Paul retained his role and still planned to keep going as a staff member. However, a tragic event would occur when in 1994 Paul would suffer a fatal heart attack and pass away in his son’s home in Clarence. This shook the company, as Reagan was the only one of the first 5 investors to pass away at this point. His family would hold a funeral service with the rest of the “founders crew” as they were known, all coming with their families, along with speaking at the service about some of their favorite moments with Paul. Forward nearly 30 years to when Jacob Lancer took ownership of the airline, Paul was given a celebratory Founders Crew sticker on a 757-200 as part of the "Founders Crew Series" 752s that each investor had.

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