North Central Airlines warrant certificate 1979

Very nice historic stock cert with an interesting vignette of a winged female seated between two hemispheres of the earth.  Dated 1979. Stamped "Name Changed to Republic Airlines Inc" across the text.

North Central Airlines was a regional airline in the Midwestern United States. Founded as Wisconsin Central Airlines in 1944 in Clintonville, Wisconsin, they moved to Madison in 1947. This is also when "Herman the duck" was born on Wisconsin Central's first plane, in 1948. North Central's headquarters were moved to Minneapolis–St. Paul in 1952. Following a merger with Southern Airways in 1979, North Central became Republic Airlines, which merged into Northwest Airlines in 1986.

In 1939 the Four Wheel Drive Auto Company (FWD), a major manufacturer of four-wheel transmissions and heavy-duty trucks based in Clintonville, Wisconsin, opened a flight department and traded a company truck for a Waco biplane for their company's use. In 1944 company executives decided to start an airline, and service started between six Wisconsin cities in 1946.

In 1952 the airline moved their headquarters from Wisconsin to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and that December their name became North Central Airlines. Soon the airline ran into financial trouble when President Francis Higgins left, making Hal Carr the president. Carr quickly got the company out of debt and made it more reliable.

In October 1952 Wisconsin Central scheduled flights to 28 airports, all west of Lake Michigan, from Chicago to Fargo and Grand Forks. It added Detroit in 1953, Omaha and the Dakotas in 1959, Denver in 1969 and a nonstop Milwaukee to New York LaGuardia in 1970. It added five Convair 340s from Continental Airlines to its fleet of DC-3s, the first entering service in 1959. In 1960 North Central hit the one million passenger mark; in May 1968 they flew to 64 airports, including two in Canada.

Following North Central's success, they moved to buy Atlanta-based Southern Airways. The two airlines formed Republic Airlines in July 1979, the first merger following airline deregulation. Republic soon targeted San Francisco-based Hughes Airwest for acquisition, and the deal was finalized in October 1980 for $38.5 million. Saddled with debt from two acquisitions and new aircraft, the airline struggled in the early 1980s, and even introduced a human mascot version of Herman the Duck.

Republic kept North Central's hubs at Minneapolis and Detroit, and Southern's hub at Memphis. Within a few years they closed Hughes' former hub at Sky Harbor at Phoenix; reduced North Central's sizeable station at O'Hare at Chicago; and reduced Southern's sizeable station at Hartsfield at Atlanta. Republic also quickly downsized North Central's operations to and among smaller airports in the upper Midwest, concentrating their fleet at the Minneapolis and Detroit hubs.

In 1986, Republic merged with Northwest Orient Airlines, which was also headquartered at Minneapolis and had a large operation at Detroit, which ended the legacy of Wisconsin Central and North Central. Following the merger, the new airline became Northwest Airlines (dropping the "Orient"), which merged into Delta Air Lines in 2008, finalized in early 2010. Northwest Airlines became part of the Delta name.