Company newletters were a main stay of information for all Hughes Airwest employees.  From the very beginning of Airwest in 1968 through the acquisition by Republic in 1980, these publications appearred in several different formats. There were a number of people responsible for our "pipeline" that deserve recognition for their efforts.

The original "newsletter" was called "Air West" and it gained it's roots from West Coast Airlines (yes - under that name!)  It not only provided "company" info for all employees, but the publication also served as a "seat pocket" type inflight magazine for our passengers to learn of the many and wonderful cities that were served by "Air West"  This publication was under the expert guidance of Don Gooding and it featured a different "RW" destonation each month.  Don, along with guidance from the Airwest "Editorial Board" would sellect a particular destination and then local newspapers, photographers and writers often suggested by  local Airwest "Sales" and "Stations" personnel were contacted to contribute.  The results were spectacular black and white photos (in the tradition of Ansel Adams) cuupled with well written insighful stories providing visions into the past, presnt and future of the featured communities.  Each issue contained stories on local residents as well as Air West employees of that particular destination.  Don Gooding and Ken Jensen won several awards for this publication that was printed under the carefull guidance of Harvey Kyllonen. These issues are "classics" and often run 30+ pages so they will be the last to be added

The format changed somewhat after the acquisition of Air West by Hughes Tool. Don Gooding retired and Ken Jensen became the Editor.  At that point the magazine was published primarily for employees of Hughes Airwest as the inflight publication was done by an ouside source.

In 1975, the first "large format" newsletter appeared.  The first publication was a special edition in color all about the purchase of three new Boeing 727-200 aircraft.  The publication was now under the guidance of Lee Pitt with much help from Larry Litchfield and Ralph Henn.  Keeping with the tradition of their predessoers, several more awards were garnered for the trophy case.

We will be adding these newsletters to the Hughes Airwest Website as time and space permit.  In order to view these newsletters, it will be necessary for you to have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer system.  This is a free "plug in" download for you if you don't already have it installed.  Start off by "clicking" on a particular issue that you would like to view.  If Adobe Acrobat doesn't open up with your selection but gives you instead, a window asking what program you want to use to view your selection, then it's time to go get Adobe Acrobat Reader by clicking on the Adobe logo.  then, just follow the instructions.  the free version works just fine.  email us if you have any problems and we'll try and help.

Click here for your free copy of Adobe

Newsletters will be listed chronologically by date along with the file size to help you in determining possible download times.  These newsletters have been scanned in black and white mode to minimize file size.  If there are particular photos that you would like to have a higher quality electronic copy, email us with the issue, page and a brief description of the particular photo(s).  We'll be happy to rescan at a higher resolution and email back.  It will be a little while however before we can offer "One Hour" turn-around.

Approximate download times

Last but not least, if you have any issues of Hughes Airwest "Newsletters" that fall in between dates you see posted here and would be willing to send them to us for scanning and uploading to the Website, please email us.  We'll be happy to return them after completition.

tom@hughesairwest.com