Trans World Airlines (TWA) Records (KC0453)

TWA Museum Archives

TWA’s history dates to 1925, when United States Postal Service began to give airlines contracts to carry mail. Founded by Harris Hanshue on July 13, 1925, Western Air Express (WAE) was awarded the 650-mile long Contract Air Mail Route from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles which first flew in April of 1926. A month later WAE began the first regularly scheduled commercial passenger airline service in U.S. history with Ben F. Redman, president of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce, and J.A. Tomlinson seated on mail bags, and flown by pilot C.N. "Jimmy" James on his regular eight-hour mail delivery to Los Angeles. The company reincorporated in 1928 as Western Air Express Corp.

Also in the spring of 1928 four men: Clement M. Keys, President of Curtis-Wright Corp., who had recently launched National Air Transport (NAT); Chester W. Cuthell, chairman of the Air Law Committee of the American Bar Association, counsel for several aeronautical firms; Paul Henderson, former assistant postmaster general and Vice President of NAT; and Charles Lindbergh, met at New York’s prestigious Engineers Club to form Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT), combining airplane and train routes to span the continent in forty-eight hours. By 1929, William Atterbury and the Pennsylvania Railroad and William Benson Storey, President of the Santa Fe Railroad with its close ties to the Fred Harvey restaurant chain, were firmly committed to the air-rail experiment.

On November 16, 1929 Transcontinental Air Transport merged with Maddux Air Lines, founded in 1927 by Jack L. Maddux, an owner of a Los Angeles Ford and Lincoln car dealership, who became the new airline’s western head. Maddux Air Lines carried passengers primarily in California and the Southwest, competing on some routes with Western Air Express. When combined, the resulting TAT-Maddux Air Lines carried 40,000 passengers in 1929.

With the 1930 merger of Western Air Express with Transcontinental Air Transport-Maddux, the new company became Transcontinental and Western Air (T&WA).

Howard Hughes became the principal stockholder of T&WA in 1939, and expanded the airline significantly under CEO Jack Frye leadership. Challenging Pan American World Airways’ dominance as the United States’ sole international carrier, T&WA began trans-Atlantic service in 1946 using the new Lockheed Constellation aircraft, and changed its name to The Trans World Airline. TWA also effectively eliminated a competitive threat from American Overseas Airways (American Airlines) , leaving TWA and Pan Am the only U.S. airlines serving Europe until the 1970s.

TWA played a major role in the formation of Saudi Arabian Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, and a revived Lufthansa. TWA for many years trained pilots from around the world and also established the Breech Academy, the first dedicated facility for training stewardesses or air hostesses, as TWA called their flight attendants.

In 1950, the airline added an “s” to change its name to Trans World Airlines. During the 1950s and 1960s, it established routes from Europe to Asia flying as far east as Hong Kong. In 1961, TWA flew their last piston-powered flight in the Lockheed 1649 Starliner from Rome to New York and became the first international all-jet airline. Also that year, they showed the first in-flight movies.

TWA leadership sought Howard Hughes removal as chairman in 1961. Under new corporate management, the Trans World Corporation (TWA’s holding company) purchased the Hilton Hotels overseas operations.

The TWA Flight Center, the landmark Terminal 5 at New York City’s JFK Airport designed by Eero Saarinen, was completed in 1962.

On April 7, 1967, TWA became the world’s first all-jet airline with the retirement of their last Lockheed 749 Constellation aircraft. That morning throughout the TWA system, aircraft ground service personnel placed a booklet on every passenger seat titled “Props Are for Boats.”

By 1969, TWA had surpassed Pan American World Airways as the dominant Atlantic carrier, and in the Transpacific Route Case of 1969, TWA received authority to extend its routes to Hawaii, Japan, and Taiwan. Beginning August 1, 1969, TWA inaugurated “Around the World Service” wherein a passenger could travel from Los Angeles to Asia, Africa, Europe, and return to New York on one plane.

The airline aggressively expanded European operations through the 1980s and by 1987 could brag of an intercontinental network stretching from Los Angeles to Bombay, including virtually every major European city, with gateways from 10 major cities in the United States. For the first and only time in the summer of 1988, TWA carried more than 50 percent of all trans-Atlantic passengers. Fed by a small domestic operation moving U.S. passengers to New York or other gateway cities, Boeing 747, Lockheed L-1011, and Boeing 767 aircraft departed to more than 30 European cities. A similar European operation shuttled passengers to TWA’s European gateways for travel to the United States. Soon competition from other U.S. carriers, such as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines’ aggressive European expansion plans, ended TWA’s transcontinental supremacy.

Charles Tillinghast (TWA CEO 1961-1976), abandoned the trans-Pacific market and the dedicated air cargo market saying, “There’s no money in the Pacific and there’s no money in cargo. We’re gonna’ shrink this airline ‘til it’s profitable.” Deregulation also proved a problem because TWA had ignored domestic expansion at a time when the newly deregulated market was rapidly growing. When Trans World Corporation, starved for capital spun off the airline, it briefly considered selling itself to corporate raider Frank Lorenzo in the 1980s, but instead was purchased by another raider Carl Icahn in 1985—a move that some feel was the beginning of the end for TWA because under his direction, many of its most profitable assets were sold to competitors. The airline was forced into bankruptcy in 1992 and Icahn was eventually ousted in 1993.

Unscathed by the adventure, Carl Icahn had arranged for himself “The Karabu deal”—the right to purchase TWA tickets at a 45 percent discount for flights anywhere they flew, except those starting or ending in St. Louis. Icahn, using Karabu, could buy and then sell most of the airline’s available seats, leaving TWA to pay its cost from the sale of any remaining tickets. In other words, TWA was flying customers who were paying someone else. TWA lost an estimated $150 million a year to “The Karabu deal.”

Though tragic events had occurred throughout its history, timing and public attention to TWA Flight 800 exploding near Long Island on July 17, 1996, killing all aboard, only further damaged the reputation and financial position of the airline. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded the most likely cause of the disaster was an exposed wiring in a center fuel tank that sparked the explosion. However, debate continues about the cause, ranging from the fact that TWA’s fleet was among the oldest in service, to the theory that a missile took down the plane. Regardless, the legal, and resulting financial impact on TWA’s future was significant.

Faced with a declining market and challenging completion, by 1998 TWA had again reorganized to become primarily a domestic carrier, with routes though hubs at St. Louis and New York. The airline then announced a major fleet renewal and ordered 125 new aircraft, but growing financial problems instead resulted in its third bankruptcy and American Airlines acquiring TWA’s airline assets in April of 2001.

Trans World Airlines flew its last flight on December 1, 2001. The ceremonial last flight was Flight 220 from Kansas City, Missouri, to St. Louis, with CEO Captain William Compton at the controls. Employees removed all TWA signs and placards from airports around the country, replacing them with American Airlines signs and at midnight, all TWA flights officially became listed as American Airlines flights.

The Records were collected by the TWA Museum and break generally into three parts: training and operations manuals for the various aircraft flown by TWA; Incident files and other safety related materials including reports and data issued by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), and its successor, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB); and various other materials including books about TWA; TWA publications, menus, tickets, timetables, and other ephemeral items; photographs, slides and negatives relating to crew training; public relations audio and video, etc. Also included is some records relating to Ozarks Airline which was acquired by TWA in 1986. The Incident files are documentation of accidents or incidents (i.e. air turbulence, mechanical failure, etc.) that occurred during a flight and may or may not have resulted in injury or death. The data for each incident varies, ranging from a report form to detailed studies with correspondence, depositions, analytical/technical data, photographs, audio recordings and/or videos, NTSB hearing documents, and media reports.  Some of the accident files may be as large as several boxes. 1929-2002.

270 cubic feet + oversize.

The TWA Skyliner, the airline company newspaper is in the process of being microfilmed and digitized, with some now available.

INVENTORY 

© WHMC-KC, University of Missouri

updated: Monday, March 16, 2009
Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Kansas City
(816) 235-1543 WHMCKC@umkc.edu