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Archives at The Museum of Flight


Western Airlines

 Organization

Dates

  • Existence: 1925 - 1987

Historical Note

Western Airlines was a major United States airline from 1925 to 1987. It first incorporated in 1925 as Western Air Express. The company reincorporated in 1928 as Western Air Express Corp. and was then purchased by Standard Air Lines in 1930 and merged with Transcontinental Air Transport to form Trans World Airlines (TWA). In 1934, Western Air Express was severed from TWA and briefly changed its name to General Air Lines, but then returned to the name Western Air Express after several months. It merged with National Parks Airways in 1937. In 1941, Western Air Express changed its name to Western Air Lines (WAL) and later to Western Airlines. The airline ceased operations in 1987 when it merged with Delta Air Lines.

Found in 3 Collections and/or Records:

Commercial Airlines Collection (Part 5, T-Z)

 Collection
Identifier: 2018-00-00-23-5
Abstract

The Commercial Airlines Collection is an artificial collection comprised of textual, visual, and audiovisual materials of commercial airlines from around the world, 1910s-2020s.

Dates: circa 1910s-2010s

Richard J. McWhorter Stearman Collection

 Collection
Identifier: 2010-06-06
Abstract

Richard J. McWhorter (1921-2007) was born in Idaho Falls, Idaho and had a long standing and multi-faceted interest in aviation, including owning and restoring vintage airplanes. The collection includes manuscript materials, ephemera, audio-visual materials, and approximately three hundred (300) photographs documenting the restoration of a Stearman C-3B (#NC7550), on display at The Museum of Flight, as well as a Stearman C-3R (#NC656K).

Dates: 1927-2004 ; Majority of material found within 1960 - 1979

Barbara Spraker Sea-Tac Airport Slides

 Collection — Folder 1
Identifier: 2018-07-10
Contents of the Collection The Barbara Spraker Sea-Tac Airport Slides collection is a small collection consisting of 44 photographic slides depicting scenes at at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) in the mid-1970s. The 35mm color slides were taken by Spraker during her work as a tour guide for the Port of Seattle at Sea-Tac airport. A little under half the images depict various U.S.-based airliners at gates and on the tarmac. Airlines represented in the collection includes Alaska Airlines,...
Dates: 1972-1976

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