jetblaster

As promised, this thread will review the history of one of the greatest airlines ever to grace the American skies; unfortunately, the end of this grand story is anything but grand.



We will begin with a review, from a major encyclopedic website, that lays out the history of TWA in unbiased fashion.

Then, we will review the unravelling of the company, particularly the actions of the pilots and how their concessions and desperate measures affected the subsequent, long-range career called Professional Airline Pilot.

Enjoy.

Jetblaster
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Trans World Airlines (IATA: TW, ICAO: TWA, and Callsign: TWA), commonly known as TWA, was an American airline company that was acquired by American Airlines in April 2001. For many years it was headquartered at the Kansas City Downtown Airport, as well as midtown Manhattan in New York City. At the time of its buyout, it was headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, and used the airport nearby, Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport, as its major hub. TWA once shared the U.S. international air market with fellow pioneer Pan American World Airways.

Contents

[hide]

• 1 Early history
• 2 Golden era
  • 2.1 Jack Frye, Paul E. Richter, Walter Hamilton
  • 2.2 Jack Frye, Paul E. Richter, Howard Hughes
  • 2.3 Charles C. Tillinghast Jr.
    • 2.3.1 Revolutionary airport design
      • 2.3.1.1 John F. Kennedy International Airport
      • 2.3.1.2 Kansas City International Airport
    • 2.3.2 World's first all jet fleet
  • 2.4 Dominance of the trans-Atlantic market
• 3 Financial difficulties
  • 3.1 1992 bankruptcy
  • 3.2 1995 bankruptcy
  • 3.3 TWA Flight 800
  • 3.4 Short turn around
  • 3.5 2001 bankruptcy and acquisition by American Airlines
• 4 Terrorist target
• 5 External links

Trans World Airlines IATA
TW ICAO
TWA Callsign
TWA Founded 1925 (as Western Air Express) Hubs Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport Focus cities / secondary hubs Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport Frequent flyer program Aviators Member lounge Ambassadors Club Fleet size 190 Destinations 132 Parent company Trans World Airlines, Inc. Headquarters St. Louis, Missouri, USA Key people Dick Robbins (1930-34), Jack Frye and Paul E. Richter (1931-1947),Howard Hughes (1939-65), Ralph Damon (1949-56), Carter Burgess (1956-57), Charles Thomas (1958-60), Charles Tillinghast (1961-76), L.E. Smart (1976-), C.E. Meyer Jr. (1976-85), Carl Icahn (1985-93), William R. Howard (1993-94), Jeffrey H. Erickson (1994-97), Gerald L. Gitner (1997-99), William Compton (1999-01)

Early history

On May 1, 1930, Western Air Express, with Harris "Pop" Hanshue as President, acquired the successful Standard Airlines, subsidiary of Aero Corp. of California founded in 1926 by Jack Frye, Paul E. Richter and Walter Hamilton (known as "The Three Musketeers of Aviation"). Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) emerged in October 1930, with Hanshue as the first President, when Postmaster General Walter Folger Brown, under President Herbert Hoover, forced Western Air Express and Transcontinental Air Transport (T-A-T) to merge in order to get an air mail contract. This became known as the Air Mail Scandal. Transcontinental was the bigger of the two airlines and had the marquis expertise of Charles Lindbergh and economic power of founder Clement Melville Keys (chairman of airplane manufacturer Curtiss-Wright), while Western Air was the slightly older line (founded in July 13, 1925). They agreed to merge on July 16, 1930. The newly merged company's headquarters was in Kansas City, Missouri. [1]
Transcontinental in 1929 had initiated a 48-hour cross country train and plane route with a stopover in Kansas City. The merged airline offered a plane-only cross country trip, inaugurated October 25, 1930, called the Lindbergh Route. The route took 36 hours coast to coast that initially also called for overnights in Kansas City.