Fly TWA

TWA began at the merger of Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express in 1930 to form Transcontinental and Western Air. It did not change its name to Trans World Airlines until 1950.

TWA prospered during the second World War, as it flew President Franklin Roosevelt on his overseas trips, along with other US Army assignments. Among those trips were flights to Morocco and Liberia, in northern and western Africa, respectively.

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In 1946, TWA broke Pan American World Airways' hold as being the only US airline providing public international service, and began trans-Atlantic service of its own flying Lockheed Constellations. The Constellations were built by Lockheed from 1943 to 1958, and were four engine propellor driven airliners built in Burbank, CA.

Pilots from airlines around the world, including Saudi Arabian Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, and Lufthansa went to TWA for training.

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TWA expanded to include routes from Europe to Asia during the late 1940's and 1950's.

Able to hold off competitors, TWA and Pan Am continued to be the only US airlines to serve Europe until the 1970's.










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Over the course of four years - 1954 to 1958 - TWA moved its headquarters from Kansas City, Kansas to New York City. It continued to use Kansas City, however, for the servicing of its fleet.

The TWA fleet was serviced at a B-25 Mitchell bomer factory at the Fairfax Airport until it was destroyed in a flood in 1951. The city then built TWA a new facility at what was later to become the Kansas City Airport. At one point, TWA employed 20,000 people in the Kansas City, Kansas area.

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Howard Hughes invested in TWA, and had a controlling interest in it by 1941. In the 1950's he decided to do a product placement deal with Disneyland, called the TWA Moonliner.

The Moonliner was a futuristic exhibit in the Tomorrowland section of Disneyland, and featured an 80 foot tall rocket, taller than Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Designed by John Hench, a Disney imagineer, and Werner von Braun, it resembled a V-2 rocket, and was meant to depict what atomic-powered travel would be like in 1986.

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In 1958, TWA became the first major airline to hire an African American flight attendant. Dorothy Franklin of Queens, New York, became a flight attendant for TWA after filing a lawsuit against them.

In the lawsuit, she alleged "that she had been discriminated against 'because of poor complexion ... unattractive teeth' and legs that were 'not shapely.'" Her subsequent hiring was praised by New York governor W. Averell Harriman, who said it would "raise American prestige abroad."

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Howard Hughes relinquished his power in TWA in 1961 after a fallout with outside creditors over the purchase of 63 Convair 880's, at a cost of $400 million. In 1966, he was forced by court order to sell his shares of TWA, at a profit of $546 million, which he then used to create Hughes Airwest.








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TWA was among the first airlines to use the Boeing 747. It also had plans to use supersonic transport along with the 747's to transfer passengers to its hubs at Kansas City and New York, from which they would go to European destinations and beyond. This is known as the spoke-and-hub distribution model, and TWA was one of the first airlines to make use of this type of system.





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TWA's Terminal 5 at JFK Airport in New York opened in 1962. Also known as the TWA Flight Center, it was designed by Eero Saarinen of Eero Saarinen and Associates of Detroit. JFK is a rare airport in that it allowed company designed terminals.

The TWA Flight Center was not only beautiful and futuristic, it included a number of "firsts." It was first to include closed circuit television, a public address system, electronic schedule boards, baggage carosels, and baggage scales.

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TWA retired its last prop airliners on April 7, 1967. It had all ground personnel place pamphlets on every seat on every flight that read, "Props are for Boats."













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TWA opened Breech Academy in 1969. Located in Overland Park, Kansas, it provided training for travel agents, ticket agents, and flight attendants. It also had flight simulators for pilot training. It was recognized as a top training facility, and many airlines outside of TWA sent personnel there for training.








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During the years from 1969 to 1986, TWA became the target of Palestinian terror groups during five separate flights. TWA specifically was targeted because it flew to Israel.












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In 1969, TWA flight 840 from Rome to Athens was hijacked, with the plane diverted to Damascus. While the nose of the plane was blown up, no one was injured.

In 1970, TWA flight 741 from Frankfort am Main to New York was hijacked, with the plane diverted to Jordan along with two other hijacked planes. There were no injuries, although the planes were destroyed.

In 1974, TWA flight 841 from Tel Aviv to New York crashed after a bomb believed to be in the cargo area exploded. All 88 people on board were killed.

In 1985, TWA flight 847 from to Rome was hijacked and flown back and forth between Beirut and Algiers several times. The hijakers used a flight attendant's credit card at one point to pay for fuel.

In 1986, TWA flight 840 was attacked with an onboard bomb that killed four people.

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TWA was bought by Carl Icahn in 1985. The airline declared bankruptcy in 1992, and ousted Icahn in 1993. The airline went in and out of bankruptcy several times.













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On July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the shore of Long Island near East Moriches, New York, killing all 230 people on board.

Over 200 eyewitness accounts included seeing a streak of light from the ocean or horizon going up into the sky just as the plane exploded into flames. Theories of a missile or an onboard bomb were many, although there was no evidence of that in the recovered parts of the plane. It was determined that there had been an explosion in the center wing fuel tank probably caused by a short circuit. It took over four years for an official report to be published.

The remains of all the 230 people on board were recovered, along with 95% of the plane itself. A memorial was built at the Smith Point County Park in Shirley, New York.

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TWA was acquired by American Airlines in April, 2001. Booking for TWA flights ended November 30, 2001.














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