Tag: Republic

Track those aircraft! 100 editions of fleet lists now online

A recent generous donation has netted the Museum 19 new fleet list issues we did not previously have in the collection. These have just been digitized and posted to our Fleet Lists page, bringing us up to 100 editions!

The break-out of issues by decade right now is:

  • 2000s 34 entries
  • 1990s 34 entries
  • 1980s 5 entries
  • 1970s 2 entries
  • 1960s 25 entries

So we are missing very few issues in the ’90s and ’00s -specific issues from those decades we are still looking for are:

  • 2007 – April
  • 2006 – January and April
  • 2005 – October
  • 2003 – October
  • 2000 – July
  • 1998 – January, April, and October
  • 1992 – September
  • 1991 – December
  • 1989 – December

We are really short in the 1980s and 1970s – with only one Republic-issued list, and no official lists from North Central, Southern, or Hughes Airwest.

And of course, while Captain James Borden kept his NWA lists from the 1960s, we really hope to uncover similar documents from all the other predecessor carriers. Als0 – outside of the 2009-2010 entries, we do not have lists from the Airlink / Express carriers – these would be of high interest to aviation fans and researchers!

Our collection depends on contributions from friends and families – if you’re going through your basements or attics, please keep an eye open for company documents! And when you have materials to contribute, please contact our collections manager at bruce.kitt@northwestairlineshistory.org.

An invitation to join our Board of Directors

Over 2023-2024 we intend to roughly double the size of our volunteer Board to fifteen members, as we dig into the work of business planning and making our case to government agencies, potential donors and partners, and the community at large to help us site and construct an exciting new facility in the middle part of this decade. Airline work experience is not necessary! And in fact, we are seeking a broad range of backgrounds, as we aim to serve an even broader range of visitors and students.

Click here to read the full-size PDF of our recruitment flyer! If you know of someone who might be interested in joining our team, pass this post along – and if that someone is you, please drop us an email at 4info@accessphilanthropy.com!

1979 Republic Staff Introductory Brochure

From the donated papers of Hal Carr, we find a copy of the full-color brochure sent to all Southern and North Central employees to introduce Republic Airlines:

Click to open a PDF of the full document.

Staff photos taken for the piece are the main attraction for today’s readers. Perhaps you or someone you know appears here?

REFLECTIONS Extra – 1978 North Central Fishing Trips to Canada

Click here to open the full brochure. From the D. Scott Norris collection.

“Relax in unspoiled wilderness areas. No telephones to annoy you. Crystal clear waters are everywhere… surrounded by towering trees reminiscent of days long past. You snake a lure out over the quiet water. Start to retrieve. Then bam! And your fun begins.”

Following on to our 1951 Northwest fishing brochure, here’s a North Central gem from 1978, listing packages in Western Ontario and Manitoba. Nearly all of the options included some bush flying out of International Falls, MN / Fort Frances, ON to remote lodges or even floating houseboat accommodations.

From the 1960s into the early 1980s, fishing trips into the remote Canadian wilderness were an affordable middle-class adventure, especially for folks in the Upper Midwest who would usually vacation in Minnesota, Wisconsin, or northern Michigan in the summer.

As higher-paying union jobs (with well-defined vacation benefits) declined in the 1980s, so too did multi-week family vacations to the Northland. Rising costs of fuel, interest, and insurance also made it more expensive to fly small aircraft in Canada, and these trends combined to make fly-in sport fishing a hobby only for the wealthy by the late 1980s.

North Central and Republic had been able to fly DC-9s into Hibbing/Chisholm as well as International Falls with decent loads of passengers destined for fishing trips into the wilderness, but as that type of tourism faded, those stations could only support Republic Express Saabs and Jetstreams by the mid-80s.

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