Northwest history to be in Delta museum

Delta Air Lines can paint over the iconic red tails of Northwest Airlines’ jets. It can outfit Northwest flight attendants with Delta uniforms. It can serve Delta food on Northwest planes.

But one thing Delta can’t do is replace 80 years of Northwest history. Nor can it relieve the sense among many Northwest workers that “their” airline is no more.

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PHIL SKINNER / pskinner@ajc.com

Wayne Howard (left) and Joe Maknauskas work on hanging a model of a 1949 Northwest Airlines Stratocruiser at Delta’s corporate museum.

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Perhaps in recognition of those realities, the world’s largest airline today is taking a step toward acknowledging Northwest’s history with an exhibit at the museum at Delta’s Atlanta headquarters.

“Red Tail Flying: Voices and Images of Northwest Airlines” opens to the public today at the Delta Air Transport Heritage Museum. The long-term exhibit includes models of a Northwest Boeing 747 and Boeing Stratocruiser, videos of Northwest commercials and artifacts such as dishes and flatware from in-flight meals. Delta also updated the merger history portion of its museum to include Northwest.

Airline workers often hold to the identity of their premerger carrier for years. Labor relations can be messy in an airline merger, particularly when a highly unionized carrier like Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest is acquired by a mostly nonunion one like Delta. Major labor representation issues involving flight attendants and ground workers have yet to be resolved.

Northwest employees “had a lot of pride” in their airline, said Mike Campbell, Delta’s vice president of human resources and labor relations. The Northwest exhibit is an effort to honor the history of the airline, he said.

Dean Bakken, a Northwest retiree and volunteer at the Northwest Airlines History Centre in Bloomington, Minn., said, “There is sort of a loss in a sense. … You kind of hate to lose your own airline.

“I think I worked for Northwest at the best of times,” said Bakken, who logged more than three decades there, from 1959 to 1993. In past decades, “they made money hand over fist,” he said. “It’s not like now.”

Campbell said Northwest employees are “embracing the Delta culture,” which he said focuses on “taking care of the people.”

People who wish to visit the new Northwest exhibit should call ahead to be put on a security checklist for entrance into Delta’s corporate campus. For more information, go to www.deltamuseum.org or call 404- 773-1219.