Minnesota’s flying circus

speed_holman.jpg

The pending — maybe — end of Northwest Airlines has sparked a fair amount of nostalgia in the sky.

Out in Worthington, Daily Globe columnist Ray Crippen recalls the time when the city was on the aviation map — every city was on the aviation map. Heroes of the day like Speed Holman (whose plane is shown above) were yesterday’s rock stars:

That Saturday evening, Holman made a short visit to a benefit armory dance. Worthington scrambled to find him a razor. (The newspaper reported another pilot was the star of the evening: “Beyond question, the life of the party was the irrepressible Elizabeth Klingenschmidt who, informed by the local committee that there was no funds available to pay visiting pilots, came anyway and worked like a pert little Trojan all the while she was here.”)

There’s an aviation museum in Minnesota. It’s online.

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