April 2, 2008

An open letter to Bob van der Linden, curator of the new “America By Air” exhibit at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum:

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Dear Mr. van der Linden,

I’m just back from Washington, D.C. The first thing I did was make a beeline over to the new “America By Air” exhibit. Except for one mistake, which I’ll get to in a second, you and your staff did a great, great job.

And since I consider myself an unofficial historian for Mohawk Airlines, which was once headquartered at the old Oneida County Airport, I was thrilled to see Mohawk included in the exhibit.

That model of one of Mohawk’s Martin 4-0-4s in the black and gold livery was great to see, as was the picture of “Li’l Moh,” the airline’s living trademark, poking his head out the window of the “Air Chief Mohawk.”

FYI, Mr. van der Linden, Bob Peach, Mohawk’s president, hired “Li’l Moh,” a Mohawk Indian boy named Lynn Smith from the Onondaga reservation, to serve as the airline’s mascot. “Li’l Moh” was used in airline advertising and appeared in tribal attire at Mohawk promotional events.

Mohawk was called “Route of the Air Chiefs.” That slogan was painted on the sides of Mohawk’s airplanes, quite appropriate considering that much of the land Mohawk flew over was once home to the Iroquois Confederacy of Nations. And painted on the side of the airline’s fleet was a stylized head of a Mohawk Indian chief, a logo that became famous.

Mohawk’s fleet, twin-engine Convair Cosmopolitans, were named after Indian tribes. Names painted under the pilot’s windows included Air Chief Oneida, Air Chief Onondaga, Air Chief Seneca, Air Chief Erie, Air Chief Cayuga, Air Chief Manhattan, Air Chief Tuscarora and Air Chief Iroquois.

That Indian identity disappeared in 1972 when Mohawk Airlines disappeared into Allegheny Airlines, which later became USAirways.

Another thrill for me at your exhibit was to see the uniform of one of Mohawk’s first officers, David F. Holmes, who flew DC-3s for the company, on display.

And that’s where the correction comes in, Mr. van der Linden. I’m hesitant to bring this up because of all the mistakes I make. In fact, I made two already today and it’s only 2 p.m. But the Smithsonian is, after all, the Smithsonian and I know you are sticklers for getting it exactly right.

The information on the card next to the uniform once worn by First Officer Holmes states this about Mohawk: “A prominent local carrier in the 1940s and ‘50s, Mohawk served New York State and the Northeast.”

To be accurate, Mohawk Airlines didn’t exist until 1952. In the 1940s it was Robinson Airlines. This is the history: Robinson Airlines was founded in 1945 with one single-engine airplane and one route, the 173 miles between Ithaca and New York City. It wasn’t until 1952 that Robinson Airlines became Mohawk Airlines. The 1950s, ‘60s and the early 70s were Mohawk’s glory years.
And it served more than “New York State and the Northeast..”

At its height Mohawk flew as far north as Canada and as far west as Michigan.

I hope I’ve been helpful, Mr. van der Linden. If it wasn’t the Smithsonian, I wouldn’t even be bringing this up.

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Joe Kelly is the editor and publisher of The Boonville Herald & Adirondack Tourist and THE GRIFF.