By Gary C. Orlando

All photos by the author.

In 1994 I sadly learned Mesaba Aviation, dba Northwest Airlink, had shrunk its Fokker F.27 fleet down to just one aircraft. Their once proud fleet of 15 Fokkers had been slowly replaced with DeHaviland Dash 8-100s. Their last F.27 in the fleet was N278MA, a vintage 1965 series 200 model originally built for Ansett Australia. It flew for Ansett, Airlines of South Australia, Air Niugini, back to Ansett, and then to Luxair. Mesaba took ownership of the aircraft in November 1989. With that in mind, I aimed to fly on their last Fokker F.27.

I accomplished that feat with a flight on February 2, 1995. I flew from Rockford, IL (RFD) to Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) on an Express I/NW Airlink Jetstream J31. I used my travel agent pass privileges for both Express I and to fly on the Mesaba Fokker, which had a mid-afternoon flight between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Wausau/Central Wisconsin Airport (CWA).

The flight would be a quick trip over and back to “C-WAY” as the Mesaba agents called it. This would not be my last time flying ole N278MA, as later in 1995 I would be invited as a guest on its final revenue flights. I’ll share more about that trip in Part Two.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my photos of the roundtrip to C-WAY.

Stay tuned for Part Two.

By Jim “Jet” Thompson

All Photos by the Author

I traveled to Geneseo, Illinois on Saturday, September 21, 2024, to represent the TWA Museum at the dedication of the TWA Captain Harold Neumann Mural in downtown Geneseo. 

This mural represents Captain Neumann’s flying career with biplanes and air show performances and his career as an air racer. Neumann flew “Ike & Mike,” twin racing planes, in the early 1930’s. He also flew “Mr. Mulligan” the passenger racing plane. All three aircraft were owned by Benny Howard, a former TAT pilot.

Captain Neumann’s career with TWA spanned from 1936 to 1966 and he flew many aircraft from the Douglas DC-1 to the Boeing 707. It’s possible he even flew the Ford Tri-Motor but, that’s not yet confirmed. 

He was hired in October 1936 when Transcontinental & Western Air brought five retired Ford Tri-Motors to fly cargo. However, that venture only lasted a few months as they lost a bunch of money doing that.  He then went on to fly the DC-2, DC-3, Boeing 307, all models of the Lockheed Constellation (“Connie”), and finally the Boeing 707. 

There is an interesting story behind one of the photos. Supposedly, Captain Neumann is standing beside the biplane on the lefthand side of the mural. It isn’t him. Actually, it is Jimmy Doolittle, one of his best friends! This wasn’t discovered until after the artist had painted the mural. Someone looked closely at the photo they used and found a note from Jimmy Doolittle on the back. The note was a wise-cracking remark about him “beating Neumann to something” and proof he (Doolittle) was there!

On a side note, another interesting fact for those who knew the late TWA Capt. Don Peters, he later owned the racing plane “Mike” after it had been retired from air racing.  Don purchased it as his first airplane. By chance, he came across it at the Plain City, Ohio airport. He and two other friends bought it before he went into the military. When he returned from his military service, he learned his two friends had sold it. Don and I came across the aircraft in 2019, in a hangar at the airport in Wadsworth, Ohio. It was hanging from the rafters, just the frame, along with “Ike!” The current owner plans on restoring at least one of them.

Back to Mr. Neumann. 

On one occasion, Captain Neumann made an emergency landing in a TWA L-049 Constellation. Just after departing Amarillo, Texas, and while circling back to the airport, he lost an engine.  As he made his approach, he had to fly UNDER a powerline and the number four engine’s props snagged the powerline causing him to land short of the runway into the mud. The passengers trudged through a muddy cornfield to get back to the terminal. 

Later, Captain Neumann would fly the inaugural TWA Constellation flight from Paris-Orly (ORY) to Chicago O’Hare (ORD) in 1955, officially making Chicago O’Hare an International Airport. He brought home a 3-foot-tall metal replica of the Eiffel Tower from the Mayor of Paris to Richard J. Daley, the Mayor of Chicago.

Two years later he flew the first TWA passengers over the North Pole in a Lockheed L-1649A Constellation on the London Heathrow-San Francisco-Los Angeles route, a total of 23 hours and 55 minutes block time.  

I wore a collection of lapel pins representing the aircraft Neumann flew for TWA. I would have included my Boeing 307 pin, but I didn’t learn until that day he had also flown that aircraft and I didn’t have it with me.

I hope I represented the TWA Museum honorably. Everyone seemed to appreciate what I had to say about Captain Neumann and the history of Transcontinental Air Transport and Trans World Airlines.

The event attendees also wanted to hear some stories about the illustrious Howard Hughes, so I told them stories my father had told me, as well as others I’d read about in a book and some stories from a number of TWA retirees from the Overhaul bases at FFX & Kansas City from over the years. Everyone greatly enjoyed the stories. I really appreciated being asked to represent the TWA Museum at this event; it was an honor.

I set up a table at the event to display artifacts from his career with TWA. I didn’t realize until that day that the TWA Ambassador plaque came out after Neumann retired.