Non-Stop

A Turbulent History of Northwest Airlines

Jack El-Hai (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

328 Seiten

2013
University of Minnesota Press (Verlag)
978-0-8166-7445-9 (ISBN)

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From its earliest flights in 1926, carrying mail and occasionally a solo passenger to Chicago, to its acquisition by Delta in 2010, Northwest Airlines soared to the heights of technological achievement and business innovation—and sunk to the depths of employee discord, passenger dissatisfaction, and financial bankruptcy. Its story, rich in singular successes and failures, also has the sweep of the history of American business in the twentieth century. Non-Stop: A Turbulent History of Northwest Airlines captures both the broad context and the intriguing details as it weaves together the accounts of individuals who gave the airline its unique character: from founder Lewis Brittin and pioneering female executive “Rosie” Stein to the CEOs who saw the company through its glory days and its final tumultuous decade.

What was it like to pilot a crippled airliner, to be in the vanguard of the new profession of stewardess, to ride in the cabin of a luxurious Stratocruiser for the first time? These are the experiences that come alive as Jack El-Hai follows Northwest from its humble beginnings to its triumph as the envy of the airline industry and then ultimately to its decline into what aggrieved passengers and employees called “Northworst.”

Non-Stop hits the airline’s high points (such as its contributions during World War II and the Korean War) and the low—D. B. Cooper’s parachute getaway from a Northwest airliner in 1971 and a terrorist’s disruption of the airline’s last year. Touching on everything from airline food and advertising to smoking regulations and labor relations, the story of Northwest Airlines encapsulates the profound changes to business, travel, and culture that marked the twentieth century.

Jack El-Hai’s books include Lost Minnesota: Stories of Vanished Places (Minnesota, 2000) and The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness. He has written about business and history for the Atlantic, Scientific American Mind, History Channel Magazine, American Heritage, and Utne Reader.

Contents

Preface

1. The Romance of Aviation, the Perils of a BusinessBrittin’s BrainsAirmail FolliesPioneering PassengersLindbergh Brings His Lucky Name

2. No Runways, No ProblemThe Mystique of PilotsBrittin’s “Right-Hand Man”The Tragedy of SpeedThe Marco Polo of AviationBalancing a Tray on a Turbulent Flight

3. Pulled into the Modern AgeSecurity before TerrorismIsland of Quonset HutsEscape from ShanghaiClothing That Wears like Iron

4. Lithe Man with a Bright SmileA New Theater of WarThe Pudgy Plane That CouldThe Tale of a SwordStormy Weather

5. Adventures in Scale and EfficiencyHot Meals and Cold MartinisThe Red TailTake Me to Cuba

6. Planes Longer Than the Flight at Kitty HawkThe Air PirateA Rattler of a CEOAirlifting Propeller Shafts and Silkworms

7. One Whammy after AnotherChance Favors the Prepared MindThe Wondrous Flight of Herman the Goose“I Will Always Remember That You Were the First”The End of LivesSoaring Eagle

8. The Decade That Lasted a LifetimeLike It or Not, the Face of NorthwestDeaths in the FamilyBreaking to a Halt

9. Broke and Vanishing FastMechanical Derring-doThe Underwear BomberLights Out

The History of Northwest Airlines Acknowledgments and SourcesIllustration CreditsIndex

Erscheint lt. Verlag	1.11.2013
Zusatzinfo	261
Verlagsort	Minnesota
Sprache	englisch
Maße	254 x 254 mm
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Regional- / Landesgeschichte
	Natur / Technik ► Fahrzeuge / Flugzeuge / Schiffe ► Luftfahrt / Raumfahrt
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Wirtschaftsgeschichte
	Technik ► Luft- / Raumfahrttechnik
ISBN-10	0-8166-7445-0 / 0816674450
ISBN-13	978-0-8166-7445-9 / 9780816674459
Zustand	Neuware