Airline Time Machine

06/12/2025

One Week Away!

If you’re in the Twin Cities region - next Saturday, December 13 is Kids Day at The Museum at the Northwest Airlines History Center!

Kids (and their accompanying Responsible Adult) will have hands-on activities to explore, there’s fun photo opportunities for those holiday cards, and it’s all part of the best air travel museum in the upper Midwest.

10 am - 1 pm with Free Admission, Free Parking, and a great way to connect kids to the excitement and possibilities of air travel!

The museum is on the 3rd floor of the Crowne Plaza Suites Hotel in Bloomington (by the hotel’s fitness center), close to the MSP Airport at 494 & 34th Av.

25/11/2025

Kids Day!

Twin Cities folks - on Saturday, December 13 the Northwest Airlines History Center is hosting Kids Day at The Museum!

Kids (and their accompanying Responsible Adult) can enjoy hands-on activities, fun photo opps, and explore Minnesota airline history at the best air travel museum in the upper Midwest.

Free admission, free parking, and a great way to connect a kid to the excitement and possibilities of air travel!

The museum is on the 3rd floor of the Crowne Plaza Suites Hotel in Bloomington, close to the MSP Airport at 494 & 34th Av.

15/10/2025

The Pointy Part!

Seen here on its gate at the Minneapolis /St. Paul International Airport (KMSP) on 29 September 2025 is Bombardier CRJ-700 registered N709EV of SkyWest Airlines, operated under the “Delta Connection” brand.

The “EV” in the registration hints at this plane’s history: it was delivered new in December 2002 to Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) of Atlanta, an early codeshare regional airline for Delta Air Lines.

ASA used “EV” as its carrier code, and began operating in 1979, becoming a Delta Connection partner airline in 1984. ASA was eventually acquired by Delta in 1999, then sold to SkyWest six years later.

Since becoming part of the SkyWest fleet, this plane has been operated under codeshare agreements for Delta (2002-2021), as well as American Airlines (2021-2024), but has been assigned to Delta flights - in Delta Connection paint - since August 2024.

In Delta Connection service, the CRJ-700 seats 65-69 passengers, with nine first class seats, 12 or 16 extra legroom economy seats, and forty four regular economy seats.

Stubbornly human-written, with no AI involved.

ⓒ 2025 Airline Time Machine

09/07/2025

Museum New Night!

If you’ll be in the Twin Cities/MSP Airport area of Minnesota on Friday, July 18 come visit the Northwest Airlines History Center Museum for a New Night reception from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm.

New Night provides an opportunity to check out new exhibits and visitor resources, meet History Center volunteers, and launch the weekend with refreshments, shopping discounts, prizes, plus free parking and no admission fee!

The museum is located in the Crowne Plaza Suites Hotel at 34th Avenue and I-494 in Bloomington, close to the airport and The Mall of America.

Hotel parking is available for museum visitors, or use the Blue Line light rail from the airport’s passenger terminals or The Mall to reach the American Boulevard Station across from the Crowne Plaza.

18/06/2025

A favorite museum!

🎶 Northwest Orient....GONG....Airlines! When I was at the Minnesota Business Aviation Association Safety Day at the Crowne Plaza® MSP, there was Northwest Airlines memorabilia all over the hotel. When I checked in, I asked about it, and he said the Northwest Airlines Museum was upstairs!

It'll tug at your heartstrings if you stop in and have any connections with NWA. They have flight attendant/pilot uniforms over the years. A B747 FE panel. All the aircraft models. Books. Dinnerware. Seats. Various marketing materials and enthusiastic volunteers!

Here's the link to the old radio commercial/earworm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRf8j5PZ-7A

Link to Northwest Airlines History Center/Museum: https://northwestairlineshistory.org/

25/03/2025

Family photo!

Catching some sunshine on the ramp at Denver on 2 January 2025 is a Fairchild Swearingen Metro 23, and a pair of Fairchild Dornier 328JETs, all operated by Key Lime Air (IATA: KG) for that company’s Denver Air Connection (DAC) scheduled passenger services.

The Metro 23 carries registration N889DC, and entered airline service in 1992 with Aerolitoral of Mexico. This plane also flew with airlines in Venezuela and Australia before joining the DAC fleet in 2023.

Usually furnished with 18 or 19 passenger seats, the DAC Metros are unusual because of their wildly roomy 9-seat cabin that satisfies a per-aircraft capacity restriction under U.S. Part 135 operating regulations.

The 328JETs in the photo are N677DC (wearing the paint of its former operator, Caspiy of Kazakhstan), and N398DC in DAC’s standard green/blue tail colors.

The 328JET’s seat 30 passengers, and are a development of the earlier 328 turboprop regional airliner.

Stubbornly human-written, with no AI involved.

ⓒ 2025 Airline Time Machine

09/03/2025

Size matters!

Airliner cabin windows - their size over the years, how they’re built, and where window design is heading, are the topic of the newest Airline Time Machine podcast.

The biggest cabin windows ever designed for an airliner in the post-1945 era are those of the Vickers Viscount from Britain; how big do you guess they are? (answer below)

A. 17 inches wide by 22 inches high
B. 19 inches wide by 26 inches high
C. 14.5 inches wide by 21.25 inches high
D. 16 inches wide by 20 inches high

The Airline Time Machine podcast is on cool podcast directories everywhere, like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Echo, Pocket Casts, Audible and more, or use the link in my profile.

There are more than twenty episodes with stories about airlines, airliners, aviators, and airports!

Stubbornly human-written, with no AI involved. (correct answer is B, while C is the size of the also large Fokker F.27’s cabin windows)

ⓒ 2025 Airline Time Machine

21/02/2025

Delta and Detroit!

There’s a new Airline Time Machine Podcast episode out, with the story of how an airline from Atlanta came to have a big connecting hub operation in Michigan.

Join me to explore a story that goes back a hundred years, involving several airlines - including North Central whose DC-9 is seen here at Syracuse in 1980 - multiple airports, and a passenger terminal that is notable for a some of its most innovative features.

You can find the Airline Time Machine podcast on multiple podcast directories, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Echo, Pocket Casts, Audible and more, or use the link in my profile.

There are more than twenty episodes with stories about airlines, airliners, aviators, and airports!

Stubbornly human-written, with no AI involved.

ⓒ 2025 Airline Time Machine

28/01/2025

Ticket Chronicles!

There’s a new Airline Time Machine Podcast episode out, with the story of airline tickets, boarding passes, and ticket jackets over a century of air travel.

Do you remember paper airline tickets? How about handwritten paper tickets?

Are you senior enough to have seen - or used - ticket validation plates? Or have you used Tickets By Mail (TBM), or a Prepaid Ticket Advice (PTA)?

Join me for this look at how airline ticket documents, passenger seat selection, boarding passes, and the ticket jackets used to help keep track of all that paper evolved over time.

You can find the Airline Time Machine podcast on multiple podcast directories, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Echo, Pocket Casts, Audible and more, or use the link in my profile.

You’ll find more than twenty episodes with stories about airlines, airliners, aviators, and airports!

Stubbornly human-written, with no AI involved.

ⓒ 2025 Airline Time Machine

28/01/2025

Metro Mystery

(Well, it’s a mystery to me!)

I need your help to identify this airport location - based on the airline, the service history of the plane, and where I was traveling in the 1990s, my guess is San Diego because of the West Terminal sign.

The plane (seen here being fed some tasty Jet A fuel on a sunny day), is a Fairchild Swearingen Metro III with manufacturer’s serial number AC-736, that was delivered new to SkyWest Airlines of St. George, Utah during May 1989.

Registered N2730P, this Metro III flew with SkyWest for 8 years on Delta Connection codeshare routes in the western U.S., then was utilized as a freighter by small airlines in Uruguay and Mexico.

AC-736 was heavily damaged at Saltillo, Mexico in 2018 following an undercarriage collapse on landing, and was dismantled for parts afterward.

Stubbornly human-written, with no AI involved.

ⓒ 2025 Airline Time Machine

21/01/2025

Food Fight!

There’s a new Airline Time Machine Podcast episode out, with the story of a fierce scuffle between European and U.S. airlines over menu offerings in the early days of Transatlantic low fare service.

Before large jet airliners accelerate air travel growth in the late 1950s, flying between continents is an exhausting experience, requiring fifteen hours or more for the flight to New York from Europe.

To help travelers pass the time, meal service is a big focus for the airlines, and the cuisine offered is an important way to distinguish an airline from its competitors in an era of tightly regulated airfares.

Then, in early 1958, a “food fight” breaks out over what constitutes a “sandwich”, and the fight involves disparagement, threats to cancel landing rights, legal actions, and a big financial penalty.

Join me for this look at the Transatlantic Sandwich Scuffle of 1958, and how it’s resolved as the airline industry moves toward defining what low cost air travel will look - and taste - like!

Hear the story on the Airline Time Machine podcast (available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Echo, Pocket Casts, and other podcast streaming platforms, or use the link in my profile), and you’ll find many more episodes with stories about airlines, airliners, aviators, and airports!

Stubbornly human-written, with no AI involved.

ⓒ 2025 Airline Time Machine