Welcome to North Central Virtual, a virtual airline dedicated to the historical aspect of North Central Airlines. At North Central you will be able to recreate flights using actual timetables from 1948 through 1979, flying only the aircraft that North Central Airlines flew, from the Lockheed 10A of Wisconsin Central to the DC-9's of NCA.

In 1939, the Four Wheel Drive Company of Clintonville WI bought a used Waco biplane to use as a corporate shuttle. In 1944 the local demand for air service brought the creation of Wisconsin Central Airlines, headquartered in Madison WI. The CAB awarded an operating certificate and the first flight was flown on February 24, 1948. Initially, three Lockheed 10A airplanes were used, with three more being added later that year. Passenger loads tripled in one year, and in 1951 the first DC-3's were purchased from TWA. In 1952 headquarters were moved to Minneapolis and the name was changed to North Central Airlines. In 1958 North Central became the nation's largest local service carrier with 90 cities served with 32 DC-3's. Convair 340's were added to the fleet, bringing pressurization and increased capacity. In 1965 the first DC-9's were ordered, but NCA decided to keep their Convairs, upgrading them to CV-580's with the addition of Allison turboprops. The CV-580's served faithfully on the short routes, allowing  DC-9's to reach out to more distant destinations. The DC-3 flew the last revenue flight on February 7, 1969, serving the airline for over 19 years. Deregulation in the 1970's brought about many mergers, and North Central Airlines merged with Southern to become Republic Airlines. In 1980 Republic bought Hughes Airwest and was itself purchased by Northwest Airlines in 1986.