Skip to main content

Archives at The Museum of Flight


Kenneth E. Schultz Western Airlines Collection

 Collection
Identifier: 1995-06-28

Contents of the Collection

The Kenneth E. Schultz Western Airlines Collection is a small collection comprised textual and visual materials related to Schultz’ labor disputes with Western Airlines (WAL) while he was employed with the company as a Douglas DC-6B aircraft flight engineer from the 1950s to 1960s. The documents provide insight into the efforts of the Western Airlines Chapter of Flight Engineers’ International Association to receive compensation for the 132 flight engineers who were discharged in 1961 after going on strike against WAL. Schultz was included in the flight engineers that were let go.

The collection consists of Schultz's Douglas DC-6B training materials and notes, correspondence and memorandums from the WAL flight engineer chapter and lawyers overseeing their case. There are Shultz’s employee earning statements, flight schedule, termination letter, as well as information regarding loss of license and insurance proceeding the strike. In addition, the collection includes Schultz’s travel ephemera and lithographs that he collected while working for WAL.

In addition to the textual materials, the collection includes 21 predominatly 8x10” black-and-white photographic prints that depict the picketing lines during the strike, two photographs of Schultz in uniform, a Douglas DC-6B aircraft, WAL crew loading packages onto planes, a group portrait of a crew, unidentified people disembarking a plane, and an unidentified plane crash.

Dates

  • Creation: 1948-1989

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research and is accessible in the Dahlberg Research Center by appointment. For more information contact us.

Conditions Governing Use

The Museum of Flight (TMOF) Archives is the owner of the physical materials in the archives and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from TMOF archives before any publication use. TMOF does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners. Consult repository for more details.

Biographical Note: Kenneth E. Schultz

Kenneth E. Schultz was a Douglas DC-6B aircraft flight engineer for Western Airlines from the 1950s to 1960s.

Kenneth Edward Schultz was born on January 18, 1927, in Puyallup, Washington to George Herbert Schultz and Pearl A. Pratt. He attended Washington State University in the 1940s. Following college, he worked as a flight engineer for Western Airlines, from the 1950s to 1960s. In 1961, Shultz, along with 132 flight engineers working for WAL, were discharged after going on strike against the company.

Schultz passed away on September 21, 2010, in Puyallup.

Biographical note derived from derived from collection materials and records on Ancestry.com.

Extent

.5 Cubic Feet (1 full-width legal size document box, 1 oversize folder (16x20"))

Language

English

Overview

Kenneth E. Schultz was a Douglas DC-6B aircraft flight engineer for Western Airlines from the 1950s to 1960s. This small collection is comprised of materials related to the Western Airlines Chapter of Flight Engineers’ International Association and Shultz’s labor disputes with Western Airlines while he was employed with the company as a flight engineer.

Related Materials at The Museum of Flight

Kenneth E. Schultz also donated other collections consisting of commercial airlines ephemera, collection numbers 1991-06-03-B, and 1992-08-07.

Separated Materials

The following materials have been separated from the archival component of this collection and are kept in the Library:

  • Agreement between Western Airlines, Inc. and the Flight Engineers in the Service of Western Airlines, Inc. as represented by Flight Engineers' International Assocation WES chapter AFL-CIO, effective April 11, 1958.
  • Flight Engineers' International Assocation AFL-CIO Constitution and By-Laws as amended November 19, 1964.
  • Flight Engineers' International Assocation AFL-CIO Constitution and By-Laws as amended October 24, 1963"
  • Flight Engineers' International Assocation AFL-CIO newsletters


The following items have been separated from the archival component of this collection and are kept in Objects storage:

  • Western Airlines pen
  • Western Airlines name badge
  • Western Airlines hydrochloride tablet
  • matchbook collection
  • navigational computer


Please contact us for more details.

Processing Information

This collection has been fully processed.

Title
Guide to the Kenneth E. Schultz Western Airlines Collection
Status
Completed Level 2
Author
Charise Dinges
Date
2023 September
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
English
Edition statement
1st edition

Repository Details

Part of the The Museum of Flight Archives Repository

Contact:
9404 East Marginal Way South
Seattle Washington 98108-4097
206-764-7874


The Museum of Flight | 9404 E. Marginal Way South | Seattle WA 98108-4097 | 206-764-5874
Contact us with a research request
curator@museumofflight.org