Several of our readers straightened us out. The actual departure was apparently to Brazil, across the South Atlantic to Africa, the middle east and then on to India. We now know that during WW II Miami was the jumping off spot for ATC flights to South America and Africa.

             Fifteen NWA pilots, along with ten from TWA and five Air Corps pilots acted as command pilots. Each plane apparently carried its own inexperienced Army Air Corps crew. The ferry flights were on the job training for those crews who were destined for assignment to the China/Burma/India Theater and flying “The Hump” to supply the Chinese.

            We have a photo of some of the NWA pilots taken on their return to the USA. Eleven of the fifteen appear in the photo. Included are some NWA legends; “Skelly” Wright, Lyle Strong, Les Smith, R.O. Bain, Walt Bullock, Hal Barnes, Warren Schultz, Chuck Wheelock, Bob Ashman, Earl Hale and Jerry Thompson. We are not sure who the other four pilots were, however we have been told one was Ed LaParle.
 
          An interesting sidelight: When the ferry flights were made, Jerry Thompson was very well qualified to fly as a command pilot, but not old enough to fly as Captain in regular NWA service. The minimum age to qualify and hold an Air Transport Rating was twenty-three.

We’re Writing a Book!

            Yup that’s right. We are putting together a book, not exactly a history, but rather a collection of yarns about some of the famous and also some of the not so famous Northwest personalities along with their reminiscences. The work has been a couple of years in the making, mostly through the efforts of History Centre Director Bob Johnson with a great deal of production effort on the part of another Director, Mary Fryer. We hope to have the finished product before yearend. Its title - “Voices from the Sky”. Just to give you an idea of what you’ll find in the book is the following story about the sale of a B-720 and training of its crews.

            After the propjet Lockheed Electras, Northwest entered the pure-jet age in 1960, briefly operating five Douglas DC-8s. They were replaced by Boeing 720Bs, 17 of them eventually, in 1961. Northwest began accumulating its fleet of 41 Boeing 707-320 fan jets in 1963. It was a superb plane. The airline operated them for fifteen years before the advent of the Boeing 747.

            The 720Bs were sold off (at good prices) to several airlines including Monark out of Luten, England, Olympic out of Athens and to Cathay Pacific in the Orient. And one was sold to Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek as his personal airplane when he was on Taiwan. And herein lies our tale.

            Northwest Captain Dick Brown at the time was supervisor of the airline’s 707 pilot training program and he and his group also trained the new crews for the 720s – ground school, simulator time and then actual flight training, at Wold Chamberlain field, Minneapolis-St.Paul. Dick tells the story.