Northwest
Airlines Lockheed 10-A Electra NC14263
(c/n 1010)
Following the Air Mail fiasco of
1934, Northwest Airways, of course, lost its CAM 9 Air Mail
route
and in April of that year (1934) was reconstituted as Northwest
Airlines. It managed to bid
successfully on the new northern transcontinental air mail route, but
unfortunately was only granted
the
portion from Fargo N.D. to the west. This problem was
overcome in December of 1934 when
Northwest was able to purchase the air mail rights from Fargo to
Chicago from Hanford's Tri-State
Airlines. (It also picked up the Fargo to Winnipeg route in the
deal). The airline was re-started with
a
fleet of nine new Lockheed Electras, and were, in fact, the launch
customer for this 190 mph airliner.