Wisconsin Central Airlines, now known as North Central Airlines, was founded here in Clintonville in 1944. Fostered and promoted by the Four Wheel Drive Auto Company, the airline grew out of the company’s need for air transportation. Four Wheel Drive had been operating a non-scheduled airline service to Chicago for months before applying to the Civil Aeronautics Board in June, 1944, for scheduled airline service. Since beginning service on February 1, 1948, with a fleet of three nine-passenger twin-engine aircraft, North Central has become one of the largest local service air carriers in the country. Its routes provide the basis of Wisconsin’s airline system, serving all of the state’s air carrier airports.