Wisconsin Central Airlines | Wisconsin Historical Society

Historical Essay

Wisconsin Central Airlines

Wisconsin Central Airlines | Wisconsin Historical Society

Municipal Airport, Clintonville, Waupaca County 

It was here in Clintonville that Wisconsin Central Airlines, now known as North Central Airlines, was founded in 1944. Fostered and promoted by the Four-Wheel Drive Auto Company, the airline was an outgrowth of the company's need for air transportation. Four-Wheel Drive had been operating a non-scheduled airline serv­ice to Chicago for months before making application for scheduled airline service to the civil Aeronautics Board in June 1944. Since beginning service on February 1, 1948, with a fleet of three nine-passenger twin-engine aircraft, North Central has become one of the largest of the local service air carriers in the country. Its routes provide the basis of Wisconsin's airline system serving all of the state's air carrier airports.

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[Source: McBride, Sarah Davis. History Just Ahead (Madison:WHS, 1999).]