Hughes Airwest

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Hughes Airwest (IATA: RW, ICAO: n/a , and Callsign: Airwest) was an airline that was backed by multi-millionaire Howard Hughes. Hughes Airwest flew routes around the western United States and to certain points in Mexico and Canada. The airline was purchased by Republic Airlines in 1980.

[edit] History

On July 1, 1968, the following three local service carriers merged to form Air West:

Pacific Air Lines, originally known as Southwest Airways when it was founded in 1941, was based in San Francisco and flew along the coast, linking communities from Portland, Oregon, to Southern California.

Bonanza Air Lines, served communities from its Phoenix base westward through Southern California and northward to Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.

West Coast Airlines, based at Boeing Field, Seattle, served the Pacific Northwest.

The airline's initial fleet included the Boeing 727, McDonnell Douglas DC-9, Fokker/Fairchild F-27 and Piper Aztec aircraft.

Hungry for another adventure in the airline industry, TWA's former owner Howard Hughes bought the airline in 1970. The airline was then renamed Hughes Airwest. Its new callsign became "Hughes-Air". Howard Hughes saw his new airline expand to several other cities in the western United States, Canada and Mexico. The airline participated in some movies in the 1970s, more notably Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke's The Gauntlet.

Like other U.S. local service carriers, over the years Hughes Airwest gradually eliminated many of the smaller communities served and opened new, longer-haul routes. New destinations were added including resorts in Mexico and domestic routes to cities such as Denver, Des Moines, Milwaukee, and Houston.

In 1980 the airline was purchased by Republic Airlines, which later merged with Northwest Airlines in 1986.

[edit] Livery

Hughes Airwest's planes were rather recognizable because of their banana-yellow fuselage and tail colors. Because of this, their airplanes were often dubbed "flying bananas" and the airline even launched an advertising campaign with the catchphrase "Top Banana in the West". Most nicknames given to Hughes Airwest airplanes in aviation books and magazines have to do with bananas. Apart from their all-yellow scheme, the airplanes also featured a purple logo that resembled three diamonds on their tails (and was possibly a reference to the initials of Howard Hughes.) The name Hughes Airwest, in stylized lettering, was featured below the front passenger windows.

This unique livery was devised after the crash of Hughes Airwest Flight 706 after it was involved in a midair collision with a U.S. Marine Corps F-4B jet fighter near Duarte, California, on June 6, 1971. The company thought the plane's all-white fuselage was a contributing factor, so the whole fleet was repainted. Originally the cabin windows also had a metallized PET film coating, but this proved too costly to maintain.