Hughes Airwest
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| Founded | 1968 (as AirWest) | ||||||
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| Ceased operations | 1980 (merged with Republic Airlines). | ||||||
| Headquarters | San Francisco International Airport San Mateo County, California | ||||||
| Key people | Howard Hughes - Owner | ||||||
Hughes Airwest (IATA: RW, ICAO: n/a , call sign: Hughes-Air) was an airline that was backed by Howard Hughes. Hughes Airwest flew routes around the western United States and to certain points in Mexico and Canada. The airline was purchased by Republic Airlines on October 1, 1980. Its headquarters were on the grounds of San Francisco International Airport in unincorporated San Mateo County, California.[1]
History
On July 1, 1968, the following three local service carriers merged to form Air West:
- Pacific Air Lines, originally known as Southwest Airways when it was founded in 1941, was based in San Francisco and flew along the coast, linking communities from Portland, Oregon, to Southern California.
- Bonanza Air Lines, served communities from its Phoenix base westward through Southern California and northward to Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.
- West Coast Airlines, based at Boeing Field, Seattle, served the Pacific Northwest.
The airline's initial fleet included the Boeing 727, McDonnell Douglas DC-9, Fokker/Fairchild F-27 and Piper Aztec aircraft.
Hungry for another adventure in the airline industry, TWA's former owner Howard Hughes bought the airline in 1970. The airline was then renamed Hughes Airwest. Its new callsign became "Hughes-Air". Howard Hughes saw his new airline expand to several other cities in the western United States, Canada and Mexico. The airline participated in some movies in the 1970s, more notably Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke's The Gauntlet. Locke's character sarcastically called the airline, "Airworst".
Like other U.S. local service carriers, over the years Hughes Airwest gradually eliminated many of the smaller communities served and opened new, longer-haul routes. New destinations were added including resorts in Mexico and domestic routes to cities such as Denver, Des Moines, Milwaukee, and Houston.
In 1980 the airline was purchased by the Republic Airlines 1979-1986 . Republic Airlines started operating in 1979, and operated hubs in Las Vegas and Phoenix which were abandoned as a hub before the airline was acquired by Northwest Airlines in 1986.
Livery
Hughes Airwest's planes were rather recognizable because of their banana-yellow fuselage and tail colors.[2] Because of this, their airplanes were often dubbed "flying bananas" and the airline even launched an advertising campaign with the catchphrase "Top Banana in the West". Most nicknames given to Hughes Airwest airplanes in aviation books and magazines have to do with bananas. Apart from their all-yellow scheme, the airplanes also featured a blue logo that resembled three diamonds on their tails (and was possibly a reference to the initials of Howard Hughes.) The name Hughes Airwest, in stylized lettering, was featured below the front passenger windows.
This unique livery was devised following the crash of Hughes Airwest Flight 706 after it was involved in a midair collision with a U.S. Marine Corps F-4B jet fighter near Duarte, California, on June 6, 1971. The company thought the plane's all-white fuselage now called Eurowhite, was a contributing factor, so the whole fleet was repainted. Originally the cabin windows also had a metallized PET film coating, but this proved too costly to maintain.
Historical fleet details
- 48 — Douglas DC-9-14/15/30
- 11 — Boeing 727-2M7
- 1 — de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter
- Fokker/Fairchild F-27
External links
- Hughes Airwest enthusiast site - hughesairwest.com
- Period photographs from the Ed Coates collection:
- Air West — Douglas DC-3, *DC-9, *Boeing 727
- Hughes Airwest — Fairchild F-27, *Douglas DC-9, *Boeing 727
- Photographs of Hughes Airwest planes - airliners.net
- Gallery of Air West and Hughes Airwest timetables - timetableimages.com
- Gallery of Hughes Airwest postcards - williamdemarest.com
References
- ^ "World Airline Directory." Flight International. April 28, 1979. 1379.
- ^ The fuselage color has been described in literature of the day as "Sundance Yellow", and the blue shade used for the logo as "Universe Blue". The blue has sometimes been described as purple, but this is an optical illusion when viewed adjacent to the yellow expanse of aircraft hull. Since these were not standards-compliant color names, the exact color values are uncertain, and can only be approximated by examining color photographs of Hughes Airwest aircraft.