History
The forerunner of North Central Airlines began as an employee shuttle for FWD Corporation. FWD (Four Wheel Drive) manufactured transmissions and heavy-duty trucks, with its headquarters in Clintonville, Wisconsin (near Green Bay). As orders grew as well as the need for face-to-face meetings during World War II, FWD required faster transportation for its sales representatives and executives than the one available train per day could provide. In 1939, the company traded a pickup truck for a used 4-seat Waco biplane and worked with local officials to extend the airport runway. The Waco shuttled officials to Chicago 2-3 times per week, proving so effective that a new Howard single-wing airplane was then purchased. Other local travelers started using the service, and early in 1944 FWD decided to incorporate the airline.
While early efforts to receive Federal certification were frustrated, FWD decided to gain more experience by starting intra-state scheduled services within Wisconsin. On April 4, 1946, Wisconsin Central Airlines first took to the skies with a pair of Cessna UC-78 “Bobcat”, five-passenger, twin-engine, low-wing mini airliners. Six airports were initially served. The operation failed to produce a profit and lasted for only seven months before shutting down in November 1946.
However, the following month, in December 1946, the Civil Aeronautics Board awarded Wisconsin Central five new routes stretching from Chicago in the south to Hibbing, Minnesota and Hancock, Michigan in the north. The company set out urgently to coordinate with communities across the Northland in building better airport facilities and setting up radio navigation aids.
Operations resumed on February 24, 1948 with a fleet of three 9-passenger Lockheed L-10A Electra aircraft. Headquarters was moved to Madison, Wisconsin, which offered larger facilities and a deeper labor pool than tiny Clintonville.
In the spring of 1951, with demand far outstripping available seats, North Central replaced its fleet of L-10A Electras (which had grown to total six, with a few having previously flown with Northwest) with six larger 21-seat DC-3 aircraft acquired from TWA at a good bargain. Further route awards expanded Wisconsin Central’s westward to Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota.
In late 1952, with its route system growing, the company changed its name to North Central Airlines to reflect its expanded service area, and by the end of the year had moved to Minneapolis.
By January 1953, North Central had expanded eastward to Grand Rapids, Lansing and Detroit and was offering year-round service to 33 airports in four states with seasonal summer service to two additional destinations still utilizing a fleet consisting exclusively of DC-3 equipment.
North Central continued to expand throughout the 1950s as major carriers such as Braniff and United gave up local-service routes, and in April 1959, the airline placed five 44-passenger Convair 340 aircraft acquired from Continental Airlines into service.
North Central started the 1960s serving more than 60 cities in nine states with a route system spanning from Spearfish and Rapid City, South Dakota in the west to Detroit in the east and from International Falls in the north to Omaha in the south.
The boundaries of North Central’s route system were expanded even further in 1961 when the airline added service to Cleveland in the southeast and Regina, Saskatchewan in the northwest.
In the mid-1960s, the airline began taking delivery of advanced Convair 440 aircraft to its fleet which featured improved soundproofing, a longer nose housing weather radar, and other upgrades for better passenger comfort compared to the 340 model. Additionally, North Central began the process of upgrading its original 330s to 440 standards.
Many of these would later receive additional upgrades taking them to Convair 580 standards which saw the replacement of the type’s original piston engines with turboprop engines with the first converted 580s entering into service in early 1967.
On September 8, 1967 that North Central entered the jet age when it placed the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 into service, later than many other regional carriers who took the smaller DC-9-10, but Minneapolis analysts considered the -10 to be too close in capacity to the Convair fleet – and correctly estimated the 100-passenger -30 would be better sized for the heavier routes the airline was flying and seeking to serve. Even with the introduction of the DC-9s, North Central continued to operate the aging DC-3 will into the late 1960s.
Federal officials were starting to assign Local Service carriers longer routes in competition with the trunk carriers, in an effort to reduce federal subsidies paid to those local airlines to serve smaller communities, and North Central got its share of lucrative high-demand connections. By 1975, the outer limits of the airline’s route system had expanded even further and North Central was serving an area that stretched from Denver in the west and New York City in the east and from Winnipeg in the north to Kansas City and Cincinnati in the south. The following year, the larger McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50 was added to the fleet.
By the late 1970s, North Central’s leaders saw a need to both strengthen and expand the airline beyond just simple organic growth, so they negotiated a July 1979 merger with Southern Airways of Atlanta (SO) to combine the complementary market areas and fleets of the two carriers, becoming Republic Airlines (RC).
At the time of the merger, North Central’s route system covered more than 80 destinations in 20 states, the District of Columbia, and two Canadian provinces. It spanned from Tucson and Denver in the west to major northeastern business centers and Florida leisure destinations in the east.
North Central’s final fleet roster held 18 DC-9-50, 20 DC-9-30, and 25 Convair 580 aircraft.
Also see our biographies of founder Francis Higgins, longtime leader Hal Carr, and his replacement Bernard Sweet.
Route Maps
Timetables
- North Central (1953-1979)
- Wisconsin Central (1948-1952)
Aircraft
Wisconsin Central started with the reliable and rugged Lockheed 10-A Electra and, like most other Local Service carriers, soon graduated to the venerable and venerated Douglas DC-3.
While the Three gave decades of dependable service, growing traffic required more capacity and higher airspeeds, which were delivered with economy and efficiency by the Convair 330 and 440 twin-prop airliners. These piston-engined 50-seat craft were upgraded in the 1960s to the mighty Convair 580 turboprop that continued in service to nearly the end of the century.
North Central waited for the stretched Douglas DC-9-30 to introduce jet service in the late 1960s and found the type so productive they were one of the first customers for the further-stretched DC-9-50 series in the mid 1970s.
The carrier did order the Boeing 727-200 but deliveries did not begin until after the merger with Southern Airways to form Republic Airlines.
Financial / Annual Reports
Employee Newsletters
Marketing Materials
Brochures
- Air Transport World feature article – March 1973
- Air Transport World feature article – September 1967
- DC-9 Introduction issue of Northliner Magazine – Summer 1967
- New Headquarters Building – 1969
- The History of North Central Airlines – 1973 edition
- Ski Tips ’76 by Jake Hoeschler – 1976
- Canadian Fishing Trips – 1978
