It is perhaps one of the very few times in aviation history that one airline chartered another airline’s plane for an inaugural flight.

            Northwest personnel also assisted in the training of the Japanese flight, cabin and ground crews. The Japanese were prohibited from owning and/or operating aircraft for several years immediately following the end of World War II.

            Minneapolis -July 5, 1927 –Byron G. Webster today became the first passenger for Northwest Airways, when the Mayor of nearby Saint Paul had second thoughts and refused to fly as promised. Col. Lewis H. Brittin, the founder of Northwest, selected a young businessman named Webster from a small crowd that had gathered to see the mayor off.

            “Speed” Holman, the pilot, helped Webster aboard the Stinson Detroiter biplane and then hoisted his own 6 feet 6 inch frame aboard. Then they were off to Chicago. This was the first time an airline has operated a closed cockpit airplane for passenger service.

            An engine failure found the duo marooned in a farmer’s field. On a second attempt, after braving thunderstorms, they arrived in Chicago after a 12 hour 30 minute flight.

End of an Era and the Start of Another

            Santa Monica, Calif. – March 21, 1947 - With due ceremony – and not a few tears shed – the great hangar doors opened here today to allow the very last DC-3 to make its test flight before being handed over to a civilian airline. DC-3 00-AWH will go into service with Belgian airline Sabena. Few airplanes have been built in such numbers or earned such affection as the versatile DC-3. Douglas has made 10,960 of them. All but 607 were orders for the C-47 military version, however many of those have since been converted for civil use.

            San Diego, Calif. – March 16, 1947 –Less than a week before the rollout of the last DC-3, Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft at Lindbergh Field achieved a successful first flight with the CV-240. With broad “paddle-wheel” propellers the cruising speed is expected to be almost 300 mph. Forty passengers will be accommodated in ten rows of seats. The first deliveries will be made to American Airlines early in 1948. (Some of NWA and Republic predecessor airlines operated the CV-240).

A Conversation with Joe Kimm

            Captain Joseph E. Kimm joined Northwest Airlines in 1929 as a Steward aboard the airline’s MSP-CHI Ford TriMortor flights. He checked out as a co-pilot in 1930 and before his retirement in August 1971 he Captained about every type of flight equipment Northwest ever owned. He is a former System Chief Pilot and he was a pilot with the Special Missions Group, better known as the “Brass Hat Squadron” during World War II. A native of Minneapolis, he still leads an active life at his home in Redmond, Washington.

            The following is a transcript, only slightly edited, of a VCR tape made at the Air Line Pilots Association outing at Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, September 5, 1985. Retired Northwest pilot Brooks Johnston conducted the interview.

            I joined Northwest in June, 1929, when I was 17 years old, about two months before my 18 th birthday, as a steward. We had Ford TriMotors, then, for passengers and Hamiltons and Wacos for mail work. The TriMotor had 450-horsepower Pratt & Whitney engines, three of them, and the Hamiltons each had one 650-horsepower Pratt & Whitney Hornet. I don’t know about the Wacos.

            Back then Northwest was in the flying school business as well as being an airline. It had just closed down its flying school before I was hired. Northwest still had some of the Wacos around from its flying school. I learned to fly in a Waco.