In 1939 theFour Wheel Drive Auto Company (FWD), a major manufacturer offour-wheel transmissions andheavy-duty trucks based inClintonville, Wisconsin, opened a flight department and traded a company truck for aWacobiplane for their company's use.[3] In 1944 company executives decided to start anairline namedWisconsin Central Airlines, and service started among sixWisconsin cities in 1946. This led the company to buy twoCessna UC-78 Bobcats, and, soon after, three Lockheed Electra 10As. Certificated flights started with Electras to 19 airports on 25 February 1948; more revenue allowed three more Electra 10As, then sixDouglas DC-3s.
In1952 the airline moved theirheadquarters fromMadison, Wisconsin toMinneapolis, Minnesota; that December their name became North Central Airlines.[4][5] Soon the airline ran into financial trouble when President Francis Higgins left, making Hal Carr the president. Carr quickly got the company out ofdebt and made it more reliable. Over time the company expanded their fleet to 32 DC-3s.
In October 1952 Wisconsin Central scheduled flights to 28 airports, all west of Lake Michigan, from Chicago to Fargo and Grand Forks. It added Detroit in 1953, Omaha, and the Dakotas in 1959, Denver in 1969, and nonstop flights from Milwaukee to New York LaGuardia in 1970. It added fiveConvair 340s fromContinental Airlines to its fleet of DC-3s, the first ones entering service in 1959. In 1960 North Central hit the one million passenger mark; in May 1968, it flew to 64 airports, including two in Canada. Turbine flights withConvair 580 turboprops began in April 1967.[7] The airline then initiated jet service 160 days later with newMcDonnell Douglas DC-9 series 30 aircraft in September 1967.[8]
Like other local service airlines, North Central was subsidized; in 1962 its "revenue" of $27.2 million included $8.5 million "Pub. serv. rev."[9]
The airline worked with the U.S. government to aid troubled airlines in South America. The first of fiveDouglas DC-9-31s entered service in September 1967 and the piston-powered Convair 340s and Convair 440s were all converted to Convair 580s with turboprop engines; the airline also acquired more DC-9s and was operating 29 Convair 580s.[10] The last DC-3 flight was early 1969; NC was the last local service carrier to use it.
In 1969 North Central Airlines moved its headquarters to the south side ofMinneapolis-St. Paul International Airport; in 2009 the building was the Building C Maintenance and Administrative Facility ofNorthwest Airlines.[11] It is now used by Delta Air Lines after its 2008 merger with Northwest.
TheCivil Aeronautics Board (CAB) classified North Central as a "local service carrier," flying to cities in one region and feeding passengers to larger "trunk airlines" that flew nationwide. North Central eventually was allowed a few routes outside the Midwest: to Washington, D.C.-National, New York-LaGuardia,Boston,Denver, andTucson. After deregulation of the airline industry, North Central expanded and began operatingMcDonnell Douglas DC-9-50s, its largest jet aircraft type.
Republic kept North Central's hubs at Detroit and Minneapolis, and Southern's hub at Memphis. Within a few years, they closed the former Hughes Airwest hub atPhoenix and also largely dismantled the Hughes Airwest route network in the western U.S.; they also reduced North Central's sizeable station atChicago-O'Hare. Southern's sizeable station was also reduced atHartsfield atAtlanta. Republic also quickly downsized North Central's operations to and among smaller airports in the upper Midwest, concentrating their fleet at the Detroit and Minneapolis hubs.
In1986, Republic merged withNorthwest Orient Airlines,[18] which was also headquartered at Minneapolis and had a large operation at Detroit, which ended the legacy of Wisconsin Central and North Central. Following the merger, the new airline becameNorthwest Airlines (dropping the "Orient"), whichmerged intoDelta Air Lines in 2008. Once themerger was finalized in early 2010, the Northwest Airlines brand fully retired with the Delta Air Lines name surviving as the successor to North Central Airlines.
When North Central Airlines started operations, the company's ICAO code was "NOR"; this was later changed to "NCA". When ICAO went from three to two characters, North Central became "NC", the same as its IATA code.[citation needed]
According to its June 8, 1979 system timetable, North Central was operating 130-passenger seatMcDonnell Douglas DC-9-50 and 100-passenger seatMcDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 jets as well as 48-passenger seatConvair 580 turboprops with service to the following destinations in the U.S. and Canada shortly before the acquisition of and merger withSouthern Airways was completed thus resulting in the formation ofRepublic Airlines in July 1979:[19]
June 24, 1968: A North Central Airlines plane clipped aguy wire on the 2,032-foot (619 m) tower for KELO-TV (Sioux Falls, South Dakota). The tower inRowena was in service less than a year and was completely destroyed. Luckily, the plane landed safely with no injuries.[27]
August 4, 1968: Flight 261, aConvair CV-580, collided with aCessna 150F 11.5 miles (19 km) southwest ofGeneral Mitchell Airport inMilwaukee[28][29] at 2,700 feet (820 m), as the northbound Convair fromChicago descended for an approach to the airport's runway 7R. The cabin section of the northwest-bound Cessna embedded itself in the Convair's forward baggage compartment. The Convair lost electrical power and the right engine was shut down due to a damaged propeller; the captain completed a successful emergency landing six minutes later. All three teenagers aboard the Cessna were killed and the first officer on the Convair was injured, but the other three crew and eight passengers were uninjured. Heavy insect debris which had accumulated on the Convair's cockpit windshield during the flight was cited as a contributing factor.[30][31][32][33]
April 23, 1970: Flight 945, aDC-9 destined forSault Ste. Marie Airport, was hijacked shortly after departure fromPellston Regional Airport. The hijacker demanded to be taken to Detroit. The hijacker was soon taken down, and there were no fatalities.[36]
June 29, 1972: All five aboard (three crew, two passengers)Flight 290, a Convair CV-580, were killed when it collided withAir Wisconsin Flight 671, ade Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, with eight aboard (two crew, six passengers). Both crashed into the north end ofLake Winnebago, 3 miles (5 km) east ofNeenah, Wisconsin, with no survivors from either plane.[37] The collision occurred at 2,500 feet (760 m) on a mostly clear but hazy late morning as 290, two hours late, approachedOshkosh fromGreen Bay. The Air Wisconsin air taxi flight originated in Chicago and was set to arrive atAppleton fromSheboygan; both were operating undervisual flight rules.[38][39][40][41]
December 20, 1972:Flight 575, aDC-9-31, was cleared by an air traffic controller for takeoff atO'Hare inChicago, while recently arrived Delta Air Lines Flight 954, aConvair CV-880, was instructed to taxi across the runway to a holding area. The DC-9 had just started to climb in the heavy fog when it clipped the tail of the CV-880.[42] Ten of the 45 people on board the North Central DC-9 were killed in the resulting collision and crash and 15 were injured; there were two minor injuries on the Delta CV-880.[43]
July 25, 1978: Flight 801 departed theKalamazoo airport inMichigan at 7:00 am EDT in fog. TheConvair 580 struck a bird immediately after lifting off from runway 17 and lost power in its left engine. It flew an additional 79 seconds, banking left, then crash-landed into a cornfield east of the airport. Of the 40 passengers and three crew on board, two passengers and a crewman had serious injuries, but there were no fatalities.[44][45][46][47][48] TheNTSB report attributed the cause of the crash to the captain's failure to follow proper emergency procedures.[49][50]
Carriers that operated for all/part of 1938–1978 when most were under close economic control of theCAB.Bold indicates survived into deregulated era (1979–today)
