When last we looked at the history of TWA, they had just introduced transatlantic service from New York to Paris in 1946 aboard reconfigured Lockheed Constellations. During this period, Howard Hughes, who had taken over control of the airline in 1939, was putting the finishing touches on a project that never really “earned its wings.” It was the Hughes H-4 Hercules, the flying boat that became the most famous military aircraft never used. The plane was conceived during World War II when the US Navy needed a way to transport troops and supplies by air in order to avoid deadly German U-boats. It was designed to be the world’s largest military transport aircraft, capable of carrying up to 750 troops and 150,000 pounds of materials. It ended up being six times larger than any other airplane of its day, with a wingspan of 320 feet and a tail that would rise 60 feet above the water. Each of the flying boat’s eight Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major 28-cylinder engines produced 3,000 horsepower and sucked down 100 gallons of fuel per hour. Unfortunately for Hughes, the war ended before the prototype, built of wood because of government restrictions on metals, had been completed. The plane, by then mockingly known as the “Spruce Goose,” finally took to the skies in Southern California with Hughes in the left seat, on November 2, 1947. But, it barely made it aloft, getting just 70 feet into the air and staying airborne for all of one mile. The mammoth aircraft never flew again.
Meanwhile the airline Hughes controlled continued to make headway. At the end of World War II, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the organization that distributed routes for US airlines, decided to allow other carriers to share in Pan American's monopoly on international routes. TWA was one of the airlines granted this right, with permission to fly to Europe and India and they began regular New York-to-Paris service in February 1946. This route was later extended to Cairo, Egypt. TWA battled hard with Pan American for various international routes, but it initially failed to exploit its key advantage of being able to connect international flights with domestic ones, a handicap for Pan Am, which did not fly any domestic routes.
At this time, TWA's most prized target was its transcontinental route, one that American Airlines, TWA, and United Airlines battled over for a decade. Of the three carriers, TWA was the most aggressive in its business strategy. The airline put the new and modern Lockheed Constellation into service from New York to Los Angeles on March 1, 1946. Although United also introduced transcontinental service on the same day with its Douglas DC-4 aircraft, TWA came out the winner since the Constellation was far superior to the DC-4. In 1950, the airline retained its original acronym, but officially changed its name to Trans World Airlines. As the majors continued to compete over various routes throughout the 1950s, TWA gained a reputation for banking its future on the most advanced aircraft available. For example, as United and American began using the Douglas DC-6 aircraft, TWA responded by introducing the Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation on September 10, 1952. The new aircraft had a 35 percent greater passenger carrying capacity than its predecessor. TWA was also the first airline to inaugurate regularly scheduled nonstop transcontinental service between Los Angeles and New York on October 19, 1953.
The carrier was late in introducing jet service internationally and its first regularly scheduled jet flight didn't take place until November 23, 1959—a New York-London-Frankfurt flight – a little over a year after its rival PanAm. It took several years for the airline to regain the competitive advantage lost because of that delay. But, it captured the world’s attention with its remarkable new symbol of “The Jet Age,” the TWA Flight Center at New York’s Idlewild Airport. One of the last buildings designed by the legendary Finnish-born architect Eero Saarinen, it was completed in 1962 after his death. It featured a prominent wing-shaped thin shell roof supported by four “Y”-shaped piers. Inside was an open three-level space with tall windows enabling views of departing and arriving jets. Inspiration for the Flight Center remains a mystery, though critics, press, and passengers noted its resemblance to a bird or airplane taking flight due to its dynamic roof and interiors. “The fact that to some people it looked like a bird in flight was coincidental. That was the last thing we thought about.” commented Saarinen. The traveling public was quick to embrace the terminal, which was among the first to include enclosed jetways for passengers, closed-circuit TV, and baggage carousels. (The Flight Center closed in 2001 along with its namesake and sat dormant for nearly two decades before opening as the TWA Hotel in 2019. If you haven’t done so already, check out my posts about my visit in You Made My Day TWA and Loved My Stay TWA.)
Hughes' mysterious and eccentric manner, combined with his lack of interest in corporate decision-making and ventures into other activities, didn’t help TWA's fortunes. By the late 1950s, the airline was caught in a spiral of debt and it cost Hughes his hold on the company. In 1961, after TWA filed suit against him, Hughes was forced to surrender absolute control of the airline and he sold his remaining stock in the company by 1965. However, TWA continued to remain a powerful player in the 1960s and 70s, both in the international and domestic markets. In 1961, it became the first airline to introduce scheduled in-flight movies. In 1967, it acquired the entire chain of Hilton Hotels. In July 1969, TWA managed to do what no one could have predicted a few years earlier: overtake Pan American as the world's number one transatlantic airline. In February 1970, only one month after Pan Am, TWA began flying the legendary Boeing 747 jumbo jet on the New York- to Los Angeles route. After the merger with Hilton International in 1967, TWA’s holding company, Trans World Corporation, continued to diversify, buying the Canteen Corporation in 1973, and then the Hardee's restaurant franchises. But, financial woes struck the airline starting in 1973 with a flight attendants strike, higher fuel prices after the Arab Oil Embargo, and later, increased competition from the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978.
By 1985, TWA's board agreed to sell the airline to Frank Lorenzo’s Texas Air Corporation. Due to Texas Air's ownership of non-union carriers Continental Airlines and New York Air, as well as Lorenzo's reputation for being a “union buster” TWA's unions objected to the sale and instead supported a takeover deal from corporate raider Carl Icahn by offering concessions on condition that Icahn's deal be accepted by the board. The directors subsequently agreed, and the Texas Air deal was scrapped. Following the sale, Icahn appointed himself as Chairman of the airline. In September 1988, TWA stockholders approved a privatization plan, winning Icahn $469 million in personal profit, but adding over $539 million of debt to the airline. In 1990, Icahn's pressing needs for additional capital forced him to sell the airline's prized operations at London’s Heathrow Airport to American Airlines about the same time that Pan American World Airways sold its coveted Heathrow operations to United Airlines. Carl Icahn was eventually ousted in 1993, though not before the airline was again forced to file for bankruptcy. Negotiations continued until a deal was reached in August. Under that arrangement, Icahn had to pay TWA $150 million, the employees reduced compensation by 15% over the next three years, and the creditors forgave $1 billion in debt. When TWA emerged from bankruptcy in November of 1993, employees owned 45 per cent of the company. The red ink continued and the carrier entered its second bankruptcy on June 30, 1995. When they emerged two months later, employee ownership was reduced to 30 per cent, but the company was relieved of $500 million of its $1.8 billion debt.
The airline’s woes continued when, on July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 exploded just minutes after taking off from New York’s JFK Airport, claiming the lives of all 212 passengers and 18 crew members aboard. The Boeing 747-131 Paris-bound aircraft broke apart and spread debris into the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island. A four year investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the probable cause was a short circuit which allowed excessive voltage to travel inside the center wing fuel tank, causing ignition of the flammable fuel inside. The tragedy only accelerated the carrier's declining reputation among the traveling public. The airlines' route structure was soon diminished and several international destinations were dropped. By 1998, TWA had reorganized as a primarily domestic carrier, with a few international routes through its St. Louis and New York hubs. In the late 1990s TWA’s powerful mechanics’ union resisted the closure of large and by then unnecessary maintenance bases. Additionally, European labor laws meant the airline had to keep unnecessary workers employed in a number of its European locations. Seemingly thwarted at every turn, in January of 2001, it was announced that TWA was bankrupt for the third time and would be sold to American Airlines. The venerable carrier flew its last flight on December 1, 2001, with a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft performing as Flight 220 from Kansas City to St. Louis with then CEO Captain William Compton at the controls. At 10:00 PM Central Standard Time on that date, employees began removing all TWA signs and placards from airports around the country, replacing them with American Airlines signs. At midnight, all TWA flights officially became listed as American Airlines flights.
I have many fond memories of flying TWA both domestically and internationally throughout the 1980s and early 90s until their lack of reliability forced me to abandon them and I switched my allegiance to United Airlines. Every now and then though, I catch a glimpse of the American Airlines B737-800 aircraft in the familiar TWA heritage livery. That always makes me smile.
Until next time…safe travels.
A fundamentally sad story of a "could have been" carrier ... Thank you 😏