A turboprop aircraft that saw extensive action from Northwest’s Memphis and Minneapolis hubs from the mid-1980s through the turn of the century actually had its primary development in the mid 1960s. British manufacturer Handley Page designed its model HP-137 Jetstream 1 in 1965, with first flights in August 1967. 36 of these were built, but this early model was underpowered and overweight. The company worked on a more powerful Jetstream 2 but went bankrupt in 1969 before being able to launch.
Reconstituted as Scottish Aviation, the Jetstream was resurrected for use by the British military in the 1970s, but after consolidation into British Aerospace (BAe), commercial development resumed in earnest in 1978, using Garrett TPE331 engines in place of earlier-generation Astazou power plants, and with airframe improvements for better capacity. The Jetstream 31’s first flight took place in March 1982, and a further-improved Jetstream 32 was certified in October 1988. Altogether 381 of the J31/32 were delivered when production ended in 1993.
Big Sky Airlines of Montana flew three of the early Jetstream 1s from 1978 to 1984 before replacing them with more common Swearingen (Fairchild) Metro II which gave better performance for mountain flying. Later, as a Northwest Airlink, GQ brought three Jetstream 32s on board in 1988 for an upgraded passenger experience, but the type’s higher operating cost was not sustainable for the traffic connecting through Billings, so in 1989 they were replaced with Metroliners.
Express I was one of the largest users of the J31 model, eventually operating 24 between 1985 and 2002 out of MEM and MSP, at first as Republic Express and then after the merger as Northwest Airlink. These would be slowly replaced by the Saab 340 in the late 1990s, with the last handful being removed immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks. While a handful of these ships went on to third-level carriers and private use, most were scrapped in Arizona by 2004.
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