A BRIEF HISTORY TO OUR WINGS (by Stan Baumwald)

Commercial airline pilots did not normally wear wings in the first few years of airline service. They were mostly carrying mail, only occasionally did they have a passenger or two. As you can imagine, the last thing these early passengers cared about was the wings worn on the chest of the pilot.

Our airline, Northwest, started service in October of 1926 taking over the routes of Dickinson Air Service after Pop Dickinson had a disastrous five months of operating experience. This original route was flown from St. Paul and Minneapolis to Chicago. Col. Brittin, Vice President and General Manager of NWA in 1928, was one of the country's first airline executives to uniform his flight crews. He personally designed a gold pilot insignia comprised of two wings that extended from a replica of the globe, on which the words "U.S. AIR MAIL" appeared in raised letters. In this design, the equator went through the word "AIR." The globe was made of metal and the wings were of gold thread or gold bullion. The Post Office liked Brittin's design so much that they asked for and received permission to make this the official emblem to be worn by airmail pilots of all U.S. airmail carriers at that time. To that effect, the pilots of United, Continental, Chicago & Southern, American and other airlines adopted this design and issued them to their pilots.

Very shortly after these "Air Mail" wings were distributed, the other airlines designed their own wing style and the only airline that continued to wear the original US Air Mail design are the pilots of Northwest Airlines.

In the early 1930's, the wing was changed so that instead of bullion, the entire wing was made of gold. My best guess is that about 1941, the company changed manufacturers and no longer made the wing with gold. At this time, the design was also slightly changed so that the Equator went below the word "AIR." This is the way our wings are to this day. Naturally, during this long course of time, there were different companies that manufactured our wings and we can find slight differences in the feathering of the wings and pin back attachments verses the screw and post back attachments that are now used.

Back in the 70's, there was a great change in design for many of the various airline pilot wings. Our company also tried to make changes at that time. Due to Northwest pilots' dedicated to tradition, this management effort met with great resistance and the movement to change the wings was put in the circular file.