Resplendent in shining red, the world's lust airworthy Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker taxies out onto the busy ramp of Honolulu International Airport (HNL). In the pilot's seat is Mark Dunkerley, president and CEO of Hawaiian Airlines (HA), one of the most successful and unusual US mainline carriers. The airline has grown tremendously since the six-seat, 1920s-era Bellanca was young-and is still soaring. The eye-catching utility plane, registered NC251M, embodies the rich history of aviation in Hawaii like no other aircraft. But it is not the airplane that started it all on November 11,1929, when the then Inter Island Airways-it would be renamed Hawaiian Airlines in 1941-started the first scheduled air service between Honolulu and Hilo. That honor fell to a Sikorsky S-38 amphibian propeller aircraft, of which the startup had two. Then, the flight took an hour and 40 minutes; today, on one of Hawaiian's Boeing 717s, the ride is a mere 36 minutes. However, also during 1929, Inter Island Airways apparently acquired a Bellanca for sightseeing flights over Oahu, before selling it in 1933. In early 2009, prior to Hawaiian's 80th anniversary, the airline bought it back from an enthusiast in Oregon and had it totally restored by the Port Townsend Aero Museum in Washington State, before unveiling it in Honolulu to mark its jubilee.
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