Northwest Airlines was founded on September 1, 1926 by Colonel Lewis Brittin, under the name Northwest Airways, a reference to the historical name for the Northwest Territory. Like other early airlines, Northwest's focus was not in hauling passengers, but in flying mail for the U.S. Post Office Department. The fledgling airline established a mail route between Minneapolis and Chicago, using open cockpit biplanes.
Northwest began flying passengers in 1927. In 1928, the airline started its first international route with service to Winnipeg (Canada). The airline's operations were expanded to smaller cities in the region by the end of the decade. In 1931, Northwest sponsored Charles and Anne Lindbergh on a pioneering flight to Japan, scouting what would become known as the Northwest Airlines Great Circle route, and proving that flying via Alaska could save as much as 2,000 miles on a New York City-Tokyo route. In 1933, Northwest was designated to fly the Northern Transcontinental Route from New York City to Seattle, Washington. It adopted the name of Northwest Airlines the following year.
During World War II, Northwest joined the war effort by flying military equipment and personnel from the continental United States to Alaska. During this time, Northwest began painting its aircraft tails red as a visual aid in the often harsh weather conditions. The airline's experience with the severe northern climate led the government to designate Northwest as the United States' main North Pacific carrier following World War II. That is why we still have the Red Tails today. We also still carry troops back and forth to hot spots all over the world today.
On July 15, 1947, Northwest became the first airline to operate a commercial passenger flight from the U.S.A. to Japan and Northwest remains the largest non-Japanese carrier at Tokyo Narita Airport, with flights to several cities in Far East Asia as well as in South East Asia.
Northwest meteorologists pioneered the first clear-air turbulence forecasting system in 1957, important since the airline flew many northern routes over turbulence-prone mountain areas. Northwest remains a leader in turbulence prediction, providing TPAWS (turbulence prediction and warning services) to other airlines still today.
November 1st our aircraft shifts over totally to Delta Airlines and we come to an end of an era. Northwest has a rich history with many pioneering firsts in the airline industry. It has been very cool to work with them and move into the future. It is hard to imagine flying back in the early years over Alaska into Japan with minimal navigation equipment and operations. I thought as we move forward it would be cool to look at the past.
This picture shows the combining of the two airlines. Notice the Red Tail on the Airbus. It is still with the Northwest branding. It moves into a new logo with Delta. If you look closely at the picture of the wings the bottom set of wings are Northwest wings. They have "Air Mail" written on them as that is where Northwest got their start. The middle set of wings are those of old Delta and the top set of wings are the new Delta. Notice the color change to red. Delta incorporated the rich heritage of the Red Tail into the new Delta.
It is sad to see such a strong legacy airline name go away. It has been around for over 80 years. Quite a accomplishment in the ups and downs of an airline environment, but I am looking forward to the future with Delta. They are a good airline with an employee friendly environment. On to another chapter in life.
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