Wien Air Alaska

Former Wien Air Alaska hangar in Fairbanks, Alaska
Commenced operations	June 1927
Ceased operations	1985
Key people	Noel Wien

Wien Air Alaska (IATA: WC) was a United States airline formed from Northern Consolidated Airlines (NCA) and Wien Alaska Airways. The company was famous for being the first airline in Alaska, and one of the first in the United States.

Noel Wien flew an open-cockpit biplane, a Hisso Standard J1 from Anchorage, Alaska's "Park Strip" to Fairbanks, Alaska on 6 July 1924.

In 1925, Wien purchased a Fokker F.III monoplane with a cabin built in 1921 in Amsterdam for the Fairbanks Airplane Company, and it was shipped to Seward, Alaska, by boat, then shipped in pieces via the Alaska Railroad to Fairbanks. Ralph Wien, Noel's brother, came with him, to work as a mechanic. They assembled the Fokker F.III Monoplane in Fairbanks.

Noel taught Ralph how to fly in 1924. Ralph was killed on October 12, 1930, while flying a diesel-powered Bellanca Bush plane with Fr. Philip Dolen, Superior general of Alaskan Catholic missions, and Fr. William Walsh, a diocesan priest from Oakland, California, on board.

The airline was started in June 1927 by Noel and Ralph Wien in Nome, Alaska, but traces its roots back to their 1924 to 1926 flights out of Fairbanks with Bennett Rodebaugh's Fairbanks Airplane Company, which was later absorbed into Wien Alaska Airways.

His brother Sigurd Wien was a mechanic from 1935 to 1937, when Noel taught Sig how to fly. Starting in 1937, Sig was also a bush pilot. Sig managed the Nome Office and flew the North Slope bush flights. Sig Wien, as a bush pilot, flew contracts for USGS geologic exploration activities including geologist Marvin Mangus. Sig Wien became CEO of Wien Airlines after his brother Noel Wien retired from management activities [1940 to 1969].

Expansion came at a price, as Wien was pushed to the brink of bankruptcy. Household Finance, controlling owners since 1979, then dumped its investment in the airline and sold the company to Wien’s President, Jim J. Flood, in 1983. He shut down the airline, and on November 23, 1984, Wien was liquidated for profit. Noel's son, Merrill, said the end of his family's airline came when it "was bought by a corporate raider on a leveraged buyout and was liquidated for about twice what the stock was selling for. The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 made this possible." in an interview with Avweb.[2]