Inflight Magazines - Northwest Airlines History Center

As a snapshot of national and regional culture, current events, and technology, the ubiquitous seat-pocket airline magazine served as a compressed time capsule that we get to unpack and examine with today’s perspectives. Whether we find them amusing, head-scratching, or shocking to our eyes, the content was edited to appeal to the business and leisure travelers of its time, at least as the publishers and advertisers of those times perceived it.

These are complete PDF scans of select issues; click on the highlighted date link to open and read. We’ll continue to add to this list as time and scanning capacity permits, so bookmark this page and visit it again.

(Copyright note: as NWA and its predecessors were the contracting parties to these publications, the NWAHC claims fair-use reproduction rights for the purpose of education and research.)

Northwest

We believe we have all copies of NWA’s various magazine issues, but digitizing them will be a massive effort which we will probably need to contract out – if you can provide such services or would like to financially support this project, please contact us.

Passages

1977

1976

September 1976 – NWA 50th Anniversary issue
June 1976

1972

1971

November-December 1971 – (the D.B. Cooper seatback issue)
September-October 1971

Republic

We have all copies of Republic’s magazine issues, but digitizing them will be a massive effort which we will probably need to contract out – if you can provide such services or would like to financially support this project, please contact us.

North Central

We are still indexing our large collection of Northliner Magazines – as we determine which issues are not in our holdings, we’ll note them here.

Northliner

Winter 1971

Southern

We have very few magazines from Southern – please contact us if you have any that can be scanned and/or donated.

Flightime

November 1978

Southern Scene

Winter 1968-69

Hughes Airwest

We have no issues of Sundowner from Hughes Airwest – please contact us if you have any that can be scanned and/or donated.

West Coast

We have no issues of Air West Magazine – please contact us if you have any that can be scanned and/or donated.

Bonanza

We have no issues from Bonanza – please contact us if you have any that can be scanned and/or donated.

Pacific

We have no issues from Pacific – please contact us if you have any that can be scanned and/or donated.

Mesaba

As of Summer 2024, we hold only these two complete issues, but are aware Mesaba was producing its own publications into the 1990s – please contact us if you have any to add to our archive.

Inflight

Big Sky

We hold only this one issue – please contact us if you have any to add to our archive.

SkyWriter

July-August 1982

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Our museum location is typically open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm. For 2024, we will be closed on the Fourth of July, October 12 (our MSP Aviation Collectibles Show day), Thanksgiving Day, and over the Christmas-New Year period, Dec. 22, 2024 – Jan. 2, 2025

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Please see our photo guide for navigating the Crowne Plaza AiRE Hotel to reach our museum, located on the third floor.

For patrons with mobility concerns, access to the elevators to reach the 3rd floor so as to avoid stairs is controlled by the hotel’s front desk for guests’ and residents’ security. Museum staff are not able to operate the elevators. The hotel’s front desk telephone is (952) 854-9000 if Crowne Plaza staff are not on hand to assist.