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Founded by Colonel Louis Brittin in 1926, Northwest Airways, was established to fulfill Contract Air Mail Route #9 between Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul, the Twin Cities. Flying open-cockpit rented biplanes for the first few months, the airline eventually acquired four Stinson Detroiters for passenger use. The 1930s saw the company expand service westward from its Twin Cities base, and service to Seattle was flown by 1933. A year later, the airline was renamed Northwest Airlines and acquired the Lockheed 10-A Electra. Following a war time assignment in Alaska, Northwest used their experience in the territory to open transpacific service to Asia via Alaska in 1947. As aircraft often encountered harsh weather conditions when flying the Great Circle route through the Arctic, the company began to paint their aircraft's tail bright red. With this transpacific expansion, the company rebranded itself as Northwest Orient Airlines. Entering the jet age, the company purchased Douglas DC-8s, Boeing 720s, and Boeing 707-320s. After merging with Republic Airlines in 1986, the company dropped Orient from their branding. Due to rising fuel costs, industry overcapacity, and traffic downturn, the company had a rough start to the 1990s. Increased competition and labor costs in the 2000s caused the airline filed for bankruptcy protection in 2005. In 2008, the company merged with Delta Airlines to form the world's largest airline.
This image was posted on June 30, 2022.