With the Summer 1926 collapse of Dickinson Air Lines on the Twin Cities – Chicago route, Col. L.H. Brittin and William Kidder scrambled to secure financing for a company that could maintain operations on the vital link. The necessary $300,000 was raised in August and on September 4, the Post Office awarded Northwest Airways a contract for Route 9. NWA needed to begin operations October 1st, but while its new-build Stinson Detroiter aircraft were still being constructed, the company leased a Thomas-Morse Scout and a Curtiss Oriole for its initial mail flights.
Curtiss was a leading aircraft designer and manufacturer, having built the “Jenny” fighter for World War I. The company anticipated massive expansion of aviation around the country after the war, as trained Pilots would want to use their skills to start their own services. With that business forecast, Curtiss constructed factories in several cities across the US, including one just north of the main rail link between Minneapolis and St. Paul. This site had convenient road access to both downtowns and was situated on high, flat ground in what is today’s inner-ring suburb of Falcon Heights. Then and now, birds of prey found the conditions there favorable for flying (and by no coincidence today’s University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center is sited there.) Curtiss built a runway and hangars, and began assembling light biplanes. The field saw brisk use in the mid-to-late 1920s and it was briefly famous in Twin Cities history for launching barnstorming flight exhibitions at the Minnesota State Fair (across the street) as well as being a package delivery air hub for Daytons’ Department Store.
Northwest rented the gold-winged OX-5 (no registration numbers at that time) during October 1926, with C.W. “Speed” Holman, David Behncke, and Robert Radall as Pilots.
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Kidder’s fundraising and enthusiasm for aviation also led the city of St. Paul to purchase and build its downtown airport – which attracted so much business that the Curtiss site fell out of favor (it was also impossible to expand as residential and commercial development was encroaching.) However, the airport site is memorialized as “Curtiss Park”, and its hangar still exists at the Minnesota State Fair!
