Northwest Orient Airlines

I purchased this slide on eBay. The seller’s mother is standing on the Northwest Orient junk and holding the same paper hat shown below.

Many photos of Expo '74 featured the bright red sails of a Chinese junk, standing out boldly against the blue sky and water. While you might assume that the boat was connected with one of the Asian nations exhibiting at the fair, it actually belonged to one of the commercial exhibitors, the Minnesota-based Northwest Orient Airlines.

Northwest Orient Airlines began life as simply Northwest Airlines in 1926, adding the “Orient” when it became a primary airline for flights from the United States to Asia. It dropped “Orient” from its branding again in 1986 and merged into Delta Airlines in 2010.

The junk that appeared at Expo '74 was eight years old and from Hong Kong. Northwest Orient purchased it for the fair and had it transported thousands of miles to the fair, mostly in the holds of larger ships and on trucks. As well as being fitted with the bold red sails, the interior of the 48-foot-long boat was decorated in "contemporary Chinese character."

Three "stewardesses" and a "male cabin attendant" greeted all those who came aboard. One of the stewardesses was a young woman from Spokane, Sandy Wong. Picture from Spokesman Review.