Northwest Orient was a Pioneer in Pacific Travel But at Times It Was Far from the Most Loved Airline
Airline aficionados remember Northwest Airlines and the red tails of its airplanes and its extensive Pacific network . Such memories are fading fast, however, since Northwest merged with Delta Airlines over a decade ago.
Many of those who remember Northwest probably lived in Northwest’s hub cities like the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, Seattle, Memphis, as well as a whole host of other “northern-tier” cities in the United States.
Northwest airplanes were fixtures in the skies above such Asian cities as Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Manila and Taipei. It was for this reason that Northwest Airlines became Northwest Orient Airlines in 1947. The airline had a very extensive network that grew into a fierce Pacific competitor.
Many air travelers remember this legacy airline with mixed emotions. If you lived in Asia, where Northwest had a dominating influence for years, flying on the airplanes with the red tails was a matter of prestige and affluence.
Northwest merged with Republic in 1986. The airline dropped the “Orient” part of its name when it acquired and merged with Republic Airlines in 1986 symbolizing its growing US network to compliment its strong international routes.
Residents of smaller communities in the western United States and the Upper Midwest—like Fargo, Bismarck, Great Falls, Helena, Bozeman, Butte, Missoula, Spokane, Rochester and Madison—also miss Northwest and the numerous destinations Northwest offered to such small cities. Their service was the primary way that residents in those cities could escape the winter cold to worldwide destinations on mainline jets.
Towards the later years, Northwest struggled with labor relations and elderly aircraft. They were absorbed into Delta Airlines as part of a merger in 2008.
Pacific Pioneers
During their history, Northwest has some pretty amazing accomplishments, particularly in the Pacific. It was a testament to the people who worked at the airline and their ingenuity. Some of their early accomplishments rivaled other great carriers like Pan Am.
In 1931, Northwest developed its Great Circle Route to Asia from the United States via Alaska. This new way of flying half-way around the globe saved thousands of miles from the previous way across the Pacific developed by Pan American Airways. The “long-way” pioneered by Pan Am traversed the Pacific through Hawaii and other islands like Midway, Wake and Guam. In order to publicize its new way of travelling to Asia, Northwest partnered with Charles and Anne Lindbergh for publicity reasons. Lindbergh was an American hero, who just four years earlier, flew non-stop across the Atlantic from America to France.
The 1940’s and World War II found Northwest flying troops and supplies for the US Government to Alaska. These men and materiel would eventually find their way to the war front in Asia. Shortly after the war Northwest started painting the tails of its airplanes red, since they flew over rough terrain in the western US, Canada and Alaska. The company wanted rescuers to be able to find their airplanes if they went down in rough terrain or bad weather.
The airline grew with extensive service to Asia in the 1960s and 1970s, flying the 707, then later the 747 and DC-10 across the vast distances of the Pacific. Northwest even set up a domestic-like feeder network in Japan and other nearby nations with 727s and later 757s to connect asian cities to their international network.
Challenging Middle Years
In the late 1940’s, Northwest wanted to get a jump on its competition that were flying left-over DC-3s and DC-4s from the war. They contracted to eventually purchase 40 Martin 2-0-2’s from the Martin Company. These airplanes were based, in part, on the designs Martin developed for bombers during World War II. Unfortunately, from 1948 through 1951, Northwest suffered 5 fatal Martin 2-0-2 crashes. They finally grounded the Martins and cancelled their orders. The Martin 2-0-2 debacle almost ruined the airline.
At the same time Northwest was dealing with Martin 2-0-2 issues, they were also flying DC-4s. Flight 2501, flying from New York to Seattle, went down in Lake Michigan with 58 aboard. Some debris and human remains were found floating on the water, but the wreckage was never found. Divers still search for the wreckage to this day.
Another infamous incident happened in 1971. A passenger who bought his ticket under the name “D.B. Cooper” hijacked a Northwest 727 as it flew between Seattle and Portland. When the plane returned to Seattle he was given $200,000.00 in ransom and parachutes obtained from the Issaquah Skyport just outside of Seattle. Cooper demanded to be flown to Reno. While the 727 flew over southwestern Washington State, Cooper parachuted out of the aft open stairwell. Cooper was never found, but some of his money was discovered along the banks of the Columbia River in 1980.
