Category AN AIRIINE AN0 ITS AIRCRAFT

Picking up the Pieces

T. W. A. set about the task of recovery, after the departure of Carl Icahn. In July 1993, William Howard had been named chairman and C. E.O., but he resigned in January 1994, to be replaced by Donald F. Craib, Jr. Some sense of purpose returned to the air­line when Jeffrey H. Erickson was elected president in April. He had airline credentials, having started as a Pan American engineer, moved on to various airlines, and had launched the low-fare new entrant, Reno Air, in July 1992. He took action to restore confidence. Service was started from St. Louis to some mid-west points, as well as to Sacramento and Ontario. Inter­national service was restored to Saudi Arabia, where T. W.A.’s tradition went back a long way, having served Dhahran, on the Gulf, from July 1946 to May 1971. Now the terminus was Riyadh, the handsome capital, which has one of the world’s most beautiful terminal buildings. But service to Geneva and Zurich was terminated, and the Los Angeles-Paris Polar route was suspended, as these routes were just not paying their way.

The employees responded, as best they could, support­ing from their pay packets the $223,000 per month lease pay­ments for a new McDonnell Douglas MD-83 (#9408) appropriately named Wings of Pride. Delivery was made at a proud ceremony on 2 September 1994.

But Pride is often accompanied by a Fall. By October, T. W.A. was asking its major creditors to “forgive” almost half of its $1.8 billion debt, in exchange for more equity. This would increase the creditors’ stake in the airline from 55% (the legacy of Carl Icahn) to 70%. But the creditors were wary, and in no hurry. T. W.A. was once again forced into a corner.

Chapter Eleven Again

When John Cahill was elected chairman of the board on 28 Feb­ruary 1995, the prospects were grim, and on 30 June, T. W.A. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for a second time. However, there was a silver lining. In August, the three unions agreed to $130 million per year savings in wages and through increased productivity, at the same time reducing their ownership in the airline from 45% to 30%. The wary creditors accepted the 70% shareholding in exchange for debt.

In February 1996, T. W.A. ordered 20 Boeing 757-200s, with options for another 10. They were to replace the Lock­heed TriStars, which were becoming costly to maintain. The 757s had a common cockpit with the 767, another cost saving; and in the long term it was the beginning of a program of reducing the average age of the fleet.

Perry Flint, of Air Transport World, was encouraging: “Somehow, T. W.A. survived its near-death experiences and the long-awaited obituary never appeared… is in better shape than at any time in this decade.. . (it) has a sense of purpose, rising pride in its product, and a confidence bom of having survived the worst that man and nature could throw at it.”

The Cruel Hand of Fate

On 17 July 1996, Flight TW800, a Boeing 747, disintegrated at the eastern end of Long Island, still on its initial climb out of New York’s JFK Airport. The direct cause was the explo­sion of the center fuel tank, but the cause is not known for certain. After four years of research, the official explanation was that it might have been an inducted spark into low-ten­sion wiring, but most aviation folk are skeptical.

In an interesting, though unfortunate, parallel, this dis­aster, which killed more than 200 people, occurred just when T. W.A.’s financial situation was improving; and was a tragic repetition of a similar situation in December 1988, when the Pan American 747 exploded at Lockerbie, Scotland, just when the airline was striving to recover its North Atlantic market share. In both cases, the effect on the travelling public’s perception was detrimental — to put it mildly.

Firm Hands at the Wheel

T. W.A. was undeterred. On 17 September it announced the acquisition of ten more MD-83s, making 15 in the fleet. Gerald Gitner became chairman and C. E.O., while Erickson retired. Gitner was joined, on 3 December 1997, by William (Bill) Compton, who became president and chief operating officer (C. O.O.). Bill was a veteran T. W.A. pilot, who had joined T. W.A. at the age of 21, had risen in the ranks to become the elected leader of the pilots’ union, ALPA, and had the distinction of having been furloughed three times. During T. W.A.’s turbulent years, the term distinction was indeed the operative word.

In 1995, the debt to Carl Icahn had been re-structured. T. W.A. agreed to pay off the debt by making available to Carl’s airline ticket agency the right to sell tickets. The arrangement was for eight years, and the airline will be relieved of the obligation in September 2003.

The Largest Order

The year 1998 ended on a high note. In December, T. W.A. announced orders for 100 new airliners. The order comprised 50 111-seat Boeing 717-200s (formerly McDonnell Douglas

MD-95s) and 50 106-seat Airbus A318s. Both aircraft are at the lower stratum of jet airliner size, and will fulfill the need for the sparser traffic-generating routes, with considerably lower operating costs that those of the aircraft they replace. This was the first order for the A318 and one of the first for the 717, and T. W.A. was able to negotiate a good price, taking advantage of what is known in the industry as “launch eco­nomics.” T. W.A. also indicated its intention to order 25 more Airbuses, unspecified variants of the Airbus A320 family.

This acquisition — valued at around $4 billion, the largest in T. W.A.’s history — was marred slightly by the beginning of a “sick-out” by some flight attendants on Christ­mas Eve. They made a rapid recovery on the day after Christ­mas, by order of Judge Nina Gershon. But confidence was maintained in financial quarters in March 1999, when Boeing arranged $2.4 billion of financing to protect 82 unfilled T. W.A. orders, including the 717s.

Historical Precedent

In May 1999, Bill Compton was appointed C. E.O. as well as holding the office of president. Many years had passed since T. W.A. had been directed from the top from someone who had risen from within the ranks. As a pilot — he still kept his license current by taking the left-hand seat on an MD-83 flight deck from time to time — he enjoyed the respect of the flying crews. In his first months as CEO, he oversaw agree­ment on new contracts for all union-represented employees with pay increases that were mirrored by wage boosts pro­vided to non-union workers as well. Although T. W.A. still trailed other major airlines’ pay scales, it marked the first time in 15 years that T. W.A. workers had been given more pay rather than more concessions in a contract.

Trans World Airlines moves into the twenty-first century in good spirits, even though its finances are still precarious. It has the best on-time record in the industry (“worst to first in three years.”) Its once old, almost time-expired, fleet (one Boeing 747 was retired with more than 101,000 hours flying time behind it) is being replaced by new aircraft, and the aver­age fleet age is rapidly decreasing. Its loyal staff have increased productivity and the management is keeping its head. In the year 2000, T. W.A. celebrates its 75th anniversary, with a pilot up front, just as, in the great years of the past, with Jack Frye and Howard Hughes, the pilots built the airline to greatness. Bill Compton can inspire the re-creation of those great days again, and rejuvenate this great airline to its former standing as a pio­neer and leader of the United States air transport industry.

Engines BMW Rolls-Royce BR715 (18,500 lb) x 2 Length 124 feet MGTOW 114,000 lb Span 93 feet Range 1,650 miles Height 29 feet

Farewell Jo a Workhorse On 30 September 2000, T. W.A. retired its last Boeing 727. The fleet of tri-jets had paid its dues. In addition to its extensive scheduled work, it had been on hand for specialized charters, for clients who included the St. Louis Rams football team (for whom one aircraft was specially painted); sixteen baseball teams; and one named Shepherd One, which took the Pope on tour. But its time had come, to be replaced by a more modern, more efficient aircraft. Last of Another Fine Line The McDonnell Douglas MD-80, the largest of the original DC-9 line, had supplemented the Boeing 727 for several years. It carried almost as many passengers (142 v. 145) but burned much less fuel (954 v. 1,214 gallons per hour). Now, to meet the demand for a smaller, even more fuel-efficient partner, to serve routes of lower traffic density, another fine aircraft was added to the T. W.A. fleet. The Boeing 717 is the renamed ultimate development of Donald Douglas’s original twin – jet, the DC-9-10, which first flew on 25 February 1965. The 717’s first designation was the MB-95, and it first flew on 2 September 1998, by which time the McDonnell Douglas Corpo­ration had been acquired by the Boeing Company, which promptly found a slot in its traditional numbering series. It was first ordered by Valujet (now AirTran) and T. W.A. ordered 50. The first one entered service on 2 March 2000, between St. Louis and Dallas/Fort Worth. The Boeing 717 has the standard DC-9 fuselage cross-section, and is slightly longer than the DC-9-30, but with the MD-50 wing and an MD-87 extended vertical stabilizer. The flight deck is digitally equipped, with the new “glass cockpit.” Its BMW Rolls-Royce BR715 engines are more fuel efficient, have less exhaust emission, and are significantly quieter than any of the previous members of the famous Douglas twin-engined series. As indicated in the fleet list, deliveries will continue until the Summer of 2003. T. W.A. can thus claim to have been part of this great family of Douglas airliners, from the first (see page 77) to the last, with almost every sub-series in between.

13 seats 0 105 mph

An All-Metal Airplane

The aircraft that was to become almost standard equipment, until the advent of the Boeing 247 in 1933 and the DC-2 in 1934, derived its design from a smaller aircraft built in 1923. William B. Stout had apparently watched the success of the German Junkers all-metal air­craft built in 1919 immediately after the end of the Great War; and had perhaps noticed the consistency of success of the Fokker thick-wing aerofoil. Stout’s 1-AS Air Sedan combined elements of both and first flew on 17 February 1923. Although under-powered with a 90-hp OX-5 engine, it was developed into the Stout 2-AT Air Pullman, with a 400-hp Liberty engine.

Ford Takes an Interest

The great Ford Motor Company—Edsel Ford himself—took an interest in Stout’s work. On 15 October 1924, Ford opened an airport and a manufacturing plant at Dearborn, near Detroit. The airfield would soon be equipped with two paved runways, 3,400 ft and 3,700 ft, possibly the first of their kind in the world. Ford established its own private airline, to connect its plants at Chicago and Detroit, and opened service on 13 April 1925, with the Stout 2-AT Maiden Dearborn. On 31 July of that year, Ford purchased the Stout Metal Air­plane Company.

The Ford Tri-Hsfor

When the Wright Whirlwind radial engine became available in 1925, the Stout 2-AT was modified to a tri-motor design, the 3-AT. It was not an attractive airplane, made a few test flights, and was destroyed at Dearborn on 17 January 1926. Flowever, the idea of three engines stuck, and the outcome was the famous Ford Tri-Motor. It was built under the direc­tion of William B. Mayo, Ford’s Chief Engineer, and made its first flight on 11 June 1926. The design team was led by Thomas Towle, and included John Lee, Otto Koppen, and H. A.Hicks. The test pilot, Major Shroeder, insisted on an open cockpit, but this was soon abandoned. A total of 199 Tri-Motors, in a variety of versions, was built, and because of the sturdy all-metal construction, they lasted a long time, with one or two still in flying condition even today.

Artwork size does not allow accurate scale representation of the Tri-Motor’s corrugated aluminum skin.

United Air Lines was the first airline to introduce female cabin attendants, in 1929, but other airlines were not in a hurry to follow suit. The main qualification was to be a qual­ified nurse, because the fear of flying was not uncommon, and passengers often needed attention to calm the nerves as well as to calm the stomachs, resulting from the uneven, and sometimes roller-coaster-like rides in the 100-mph Ford Tri­Motors, which could not always avoid turbulent weather.

Reluctance to Hire Women

One reason why the airlines were reluctant to hire women as stewards was that the idea was thought to be somewhat undig­nified (in an age when women were still thought to be home­builders rather than wage-earners). The work was strenuous. Pan American did not hire women cabin attendants until the end of the Second World War, because of the long journeys. Just as the airlines followed railroad practice in many aspects of their operations, so it was with cabin attendants, with stew­ards emulating the Pullman Car service on the express trains— with the exception that airlines still employed white staff almost exclusively, from the top executives and flying crew to all who came into contact with the public.

T. W.A. Hostesses

T. W.A.’s stewardesses were called hostesses, to reflect the nature of the job more graciously, and implying that they did more than just bring round the drinks. The first group gradu­ated at Kansas City on 6 December 1935, and were assigned to the Douglas DC-2 flights.

T. W.A. provided the trainees with uniforms and was the only major airline to do so. The jackets carried a patch that read “TWA Student Hostess,” a practice that implied that they should comport themselves in training as would be expected when they started to work on the line.

Airborne Memories

A camaraderie emerged that survived into the retirement years. This has taken the form of former flight attendant groups, such as Clipped Wings and Silver Wings. They meet regularly and keep in touch through newsletters, chap­ter meetings, and annual conventions. Clipped Wings pro­duced a handsome volume, Wings of Pride, honoring a great profession. The Clipped Wings maintain a ‘fashion archive’ of T. W.A. uniforms worn throughout the years and enjoy presenting fashion shows, in which members model their own uniforms from bygone days.

The Importance of Navigation

During the earliest years of commercial flying, the importance of finding the way accurately was soon made clear. Too many pilots were killed simply because they were too busy trying to keep their machines in the air, especially in conditions of zero visibil­ity. A compass and air-speed indicator were simply not enough.

As time went on, improvements were made, at first on the ground, with the legendary “Lighted Airway,” a series of high-intensity beacons, acting like street lamps for the early airline pilots. Then came better radio and radio ranges by the early 1930s, and then ADF (Automatic Direction Finder) in the latter 1930s. With the improvement of airliners from the Ford to the DC-3, the need for accuracy was becoming criti­cal, as there was little time to find alternate places to land. Even the DC-3 needed something better than a small field surrounded by trees.

The Navigators

Until the outbreak of the Second World War, the only airline that needed skilled navigators was Pan American Airways, as it was the only operator privileged to operate long-distance trans-ocean flights. The exigencies of war, however, demanded “all hands to the plough” and T. W.A., possessing the only four- engined landplanes in domestic service, was called upon to transfer its Boeing 307 Stratoliners to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) for important overseas logistics work.

T. W.A. hired the experience where it could find it: from the merchant navy, even from Pan American. The new mem­bers of the flight deck quickly assumed the vital role, in which their level of importance was such that, although only ‘two- ringers,’ no wise captain would take off without the naviga­tor’s approval. Also, with a landplane such as the 307, it was not enough to get close. Pan Am’s flying boats could, at a pinch, alight in a stretch of smooth water if it missed the exact destination flying boat base. When the 307 entered service, a mere handful of airports in the world had hard-surfaced run­ways, and few alternate airfields. T. W.A. ’s navigators, there­fore, had to be right on target. As described on pages 50 and 51, they won their spurs on the two Atlantic routes. Finding Ascension Island was a work of extreme precision. But few diversions ever had to be made.

Pressurization Problem

For efficient observations with a sextant or octant, the long-range airliners were fitted with an astrodome, a circular glass protu­berance on top of the fuselage which allowed the navigator to
prop himself into the circular aperture, and take the necessary sightings, either by day or by night. But the situation was differ­ent with pressurized types.

The Boeing 307 gave no trouble, as the pressurization dif­ferential was small. With the post-war Lockheed Constella­tions, however, the pressure differential was higher, and this resulted in tragedy. George Hart was on a trans-Atlantic flight in 1948, taking sextant readings in the astrodome, when he was sucked out when the glass canopy failed. Thereafter the navi­gators were supplied with a well-secured harness which they wore when using the astrodome. This was later eliminated with the introduction of a periscope sextant (see illustration).

End of a Profession

During and immediately after the Second World War, tremen­dous advances were made in navigational technology, aided by improvements in radio and especially radar. The introduction of doppler, a quadrantal echo-measuring device, was the har­binger of further developments. Then the arrival of INS (Iner­tial Navigation System), which combined the precision of gyroscopes with accurate accelerometers, sounded the death – knell for navigators. The accurate readings on the pilots’ instruments made them redundant. T. W.A. retired its last nav­igator in the fall of 1964. With today’s GPS (Global Position­ing System), thanks to the almost incredible accuracy of satellite monitoring, even a two-man crew can easily handle both the flying and the navigating.

The Engineers

Another profession which has been usurped by the march of technology is that of the flight engineer. When the four – engined landplanes were introduced, they carried an engineer, like Pan American’s Clipper crews, to monitor fuel consump­tion and balance, electric power and distribution, hydraulics, pressurization, and engine performance. The big airliners were sensitive to the balance of fuel in the tanks, an imbal­anced weight of which would affect the flying characteristics of the aircraft. But except for the bewildering complexity of very advanced aircraft such as the supersonic Concorde, all the engineers’ functions have been taken over by the comput­erized “glass cockpits’ which—especially with the trend away from four-engined types to twins—are self-monitoring and self-compensating. T. W.A.’s last flight engineers were retired in 2000, along with the last Boeing 727s. Today’s airline pilots need only their precision instruments and the ability to stay awake, or at least alert.

T. W.A.’s BOEING 727 FLEET DOUGLAS DC-9-51 FLEET

This DC-9-31, N990Z, was inherited when T. W.A. absorbed Ozark Air Lines and its extensive fleet (see page 97).

Twin-Jet Choice

On 20 July 1964, T. W.A. ordered 20 Douglas DC-9-14s, plus 20 more on option) at a cost of $86 million, for its short-haul routes. It had flirted with the idea of the French Caravelle in 1962 (see page 74) and no doubt had considered the British ВАС One-Eleven, but it elected to stay with the American version of the twin-jet, a design formula that airline planners considered to be the most economical for short-haul routes.

Development of the DC-9 was rapid. The first flight was on 25 February 1965 and Delta Air Lines put it into service on 8 December of that year. T. W.A. followed soon afterwards, starting New York-Kansas City service with the -14 variant on 17 March 1966—just before Howard Hughes terminated his association with the airline that he had done so much to nur­ture (see page 73).

Not to be outdone—this was during a period when airline traffic was expanding vigor­ously—T. W.A. placed, on 2 September 1966 and 18 October 1967, two very large orders for Boeing 747s, 727s, and 707s, and augmented its order for the Boeing supersonic 2707. The airline was full of confidence, and showed it by a catchy slogan: Up, Up, and Away, with T. W.A.

T. W.A/S EARLY DOUGLAS DC-9 FLEET

DOUGLAS DC-9-32 FLEET

The First All-Freight Services

During the Second World War, T. W.A. was involved in many activities that were a far cry from the image of first-class pas­senger service with which the airlines of the early 1940s wished to be associated. As related on pages 44 to 47, the Boeing Stra – toliners were requisitioned for trans-Atlantic military transport duties soon after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and T. W.A. ’s experience was put to good use in evaluat­ing the first Douglas C-54s late in 1942.

Responding to wartime demands for rapid transport of sensitive materials, T. W.A. started a Douglas DC-3 nightly cargo service between Kansas City and Los Angeles on 11 October 1943 and followed this with a transcontinental New York-San Francisco cargo service on 15 November of that year. The loads were limited to a maximum of about three tons, but the four-engined Douglas C-54s could carry even ten tons of payload over short distances. T. W.A. opened post-war trans­Atlantic passenger service with that sturdy airplane before the Constellations swept all before them with speed and pressurized comfort in 1946.

The DC-4s were soon relegated to lesser assignments, less demanding of speed or comfort. On 14 January 1947, T. W.A. opened its first international all-cargo service, when the C-54/DC-4 NC79067 Shanghai Merchant, flew from Washing­ton to Lydda, Palestine (now Tel Aviv) via intermediate points.

Four-Footed Passengers

The “Airline of the Stars,” under Howard Hughes’s command, concentrated on superb passenger service, as befitting many of the clients (see page 109). But it was not averse to a flexible approach in its choice of clientele. No better illustration of such flexibility was an episode in 1977-78, when T. W.A. responded, with ingenuity, to a special commission from Farhad Azima, of Global Airlines, on behalf of the Shah of Iran. This was for the prompt transport of more than a thousand head of cattle, specif­ically two-year-old in-calf heifers, from Missouri to Teheran, at about $1,000 per head, and to be delivered within 24 hours.

Unfortunately the cows could not make use of the ladies’ room. Delicately put, there was “a problem of moisture buildup and waste material.” First, cargo pallets were laid on the floor, as shown in the diagram. Standard farm pens were installed, and a specially-designed loading chute made ready. On the ground, special fans were installed as a plane-load of cows generates excessive heat and moisture. Unlike other cargo loads, however, they were able to walk on and off. The air journey took 13 hours, starting on 28 August 1977, and each load consisted of 80 head of cattle. The total average load was 73,500 lb.

(photograph series: courtesy Terry VanDyke)

Coast-to-Coasf Luxury

On 16 May 1928, the Pennsylvania and Santa Fe Railroads, possibly with the idea of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em created Transcontinental Air Transport (T. A.T.), in coop­eration with the North American aviation group, directed by a visionary, Clement Keys, the man who coined the phrase (as true today as it was in 1929): “90% of aviation is on the ground.” One practical demonstration of this axiom then was the novel idea of combining rail and air transport modes, mainly to avoid the hazards of flying across mountain ranges with inadequate flying equipment or navigational aids. The result was T. A.T., substantially backed by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The investment totalled $3,000,000.

The Lindbergh Line

In company with Pan American Airways, T. A.T. engaged the aviation hero, Charles Lindbergh, as its technical adviser. It was a master-stroke. Simultaneously, it acquired the unparal­leled experience of the world’s finest airman; and at the same time gained priceless publicity and promotional exposure without the cost of advertising. Where Lindbergh went, the public was sure to follow.

After the button-pressing ceremony in Los Angeles, Charles piloted one of the six aircraft used for the inaugural service, on 7 July 1929. He flew the eastbound Ford Tri­Motor, the City of Los Angeles, from Glendale to Clovis, New Mexico, where the passengers transferred, by aero-car, to the Santa Fe at nearby Portair depot.

Hughes Plays His Cards

The Boeing 307 Stratoliners had acquitted themselves well across the Atlantic during the War (page 46). But when they returned from the USAAF early in 1945, they were not suitable for long-range operations when fully equipped for commercial passenger use; and they were deployed on selected domestic routes until the Martin 202s replaced them in 1950. Before this, on 10 June 1944, T. W.A.—still at that time Transcontinental & Western Air—applied to the Civil Aeronautics Board for an ambitious, round-the-world network. Such ambition was typi­cal of Howard Hughes. In 1938, he had already flown around the world (page 42) and he had flown the Constellation into Washington in 1944 (page 52). How much the authorities were influenced by this coincidence is unrecorded. Coincidence or not, on 5 July 1945, T. W.A. was awarded a handsome package of trans-Atlantic routes, and the Pan American overseas monopoly was broken.

Competition

In addition to the predictable ‘no-holds-barred’ opposition he could expect from Pan American’s Juan Trippe, another airline had entered the North Atlantic fray. American Airlines had bought American Export Airlines, formed during the War and operating flying boats under contract to the U. S. Navy. American Export became American Overseas Airlines (A. O.A.) which began the first post-war commercial scheduled trans-Atlantic flight by landplane, from New York to Bournemouth, England (London’s Heathrow Airport was not yet ready) on 24 October 1945.

Under a plan directed by the C. A.B., A. O.A. was author­ized to serve northern Europe. Pan Am and T. W.A. were granted rights to several points in Europe, and onwards to India. Of the major destinations, Pan Am had the route to London, T. W.A. to Paris, and both could fly to Frankfurt.

In spite of Hughes’s and T. W.A.’s vigorous promotion of the Constellation, and with whose names it will always be most prominently associated, Juan Trippe and Pan American actu­ally beat them into service. A T. W.A. Constellation made a proving flight to Paris on 25 November 1945, and took a party of specially-invited guests to the French capital on 3 December of that year. But when T. W.A. opened scheduled Constellation (Model 049) service on 5 February’ 1946, Pan American Air­ways had already stolen the thunder three weeks earlier, on 14 January, with its inaugural service to London.

DOUGLAS DC-4 FLEET

The subsequent rivalry ebbed to and fro, with Hughes and T. W.A. maintaining close cooperation with Ixickheed to pro­duce a succession of improved versions of the Constellation. T. W.A. battled with Pan Ant’s Douglases and Boeing Stra- tocruisers for supremacy for many years, as is narrated in the following pages of this book. Hughes was against a formidable airline establishment, both at home and abroad.

The Second Line

T. W.A. still had a back-up fleet, which, fortunately, it did not need, at least not much. When the War was over, it took up its allocation of Douglas DC-4s which had been delivered to the USAAF as C-54 cargo planes. The fleet of 18 aircraft came to T. W.A. from February 1946 onwards (see fleet list on this page) and acted as a back-up for the Constellations. Three of them were the first, second, and fourth C-54s to be converted by Dou­glas back to civilian use.

Trans World

The Taj Mahal (named, perhaps, to symbolize T. W.A.’s extended route network in India) was the first to wear the mark­ing “Trans World Airline.” The term soon came into general use, but was not officially registered as the name of the airline until 1950. A T. W.A. DC-4 was also the first to operate an all-cargo trans-Atlantic service, on 15 January 1947. Unpressurized, and outclassed by the Constellation, the four-engined Douglas DC – 4s continued as a second line to the Connies until 1964.

LOCKHEED 18-08 LODESTAR

T. W.A. had been one of the five pre-war sponsors of the DC-4, had conducted a test program for the first C-54s off the line for the USAAF, and after the War took up its allocation of pre­war orders (page 46). Often remembered is the DC-4’s lack of pressurization and its slower speed, compared with the Constellation. But production of commercial Connies was only just beginning in 1946, and C-54s were being converted into DC-4s at a faster rate. Also, the Lock­heed airliner was not without its problems. Often forgotten is that, with the exception of T. W.A, B. O.A. C., Pan American, and Air France, seven airlines, mainly from Europe, introduced trans­Atlantic service before 1950 with DC-4s. Also, the C-54/DC-4s were the backbone of the Berlin Airlift in 1948/49, with more than 200 aircraft performing the greatest humanitarian air­lift in history. One sturdy survivor is still making the rounds as a flying exhibition today.

TWA s ex-military DC-4s still had the C-54 s larger two-piece clamshell cargo doors. “Machat’s Law of Color Scheme Variation" is nicely shown here with a rearward-slanting cheatline leading edge. (Compare to photo).

Engines Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp (1,450 hp) x 4 Length MGTOW 73,000 lb. Span

Max. Range 2,500 miles Height

THE WARTIME AIRLINERS COMPARED

MCDONNELL MD-82

Fleet No. Regn. MSN Delivery Date Remarks 9062 N941 AS 49925 12 Nov 98 Ex-Alaska Airlines. 9409 N9409F 53121 31 Mar 94 Ex-Compass Airlines. 9406 N9406W 53126 29 Jul 93 9401 N9401W 53137 19 Jul 93 9402 N9402W 53138 28Jun 93 9403 N9403W 53139 28 Jun 93 9404 N9404V 53140 24 Jul 93 9405 N9405T 53141 12 Jul 93 9412 N9412W 53187 31 Aug 95 9413 N9413T 53488 29 Sep 95 9414 N9414W 53489 27 0(195 9511 N951TW 53570 28 Jun 96 Ex-Alaska Airlines. 9630 N9630A 53561 13 May 97 9615 N9615W 53562 29 Jul 97 9616 N9616G 53563 26 Aug 97 9617 N9617R 53564 26 Sep 97 9618 N9618A 53565 24 Oct 97 9619 N9619V 53566 2 Dec 97 9620 N9620D 53591 18 Nov 97 9621 N9621A 53592 30 Jun 98 9622 N9622A 53593 11 Aug 98 9624 N9624T 53594 9625 N9625W 53595 21 Oct 98 9626 N9626F 53596 30 Nov 98 9627 N9627R 53597 15 Dec 98 9628 N9628W 53598 26 Jan 99	Fleet No. Regn. MSN Delivery Date Remarks 9629 N9629H 53599 16 Feb 99 9661 N961TW 53611 12 May 99 9662 N962TW 53612 20 May 99 9663 N963TW 53613 25 May 99 9664 N964TW 53614 8 Jun 99 9665 N965TW 53615 18Jun 99 9666 N966TW 53616 29 Jun 99 9667 N967TW 53617 7 Jul 99 9668 N968TW 53618 19 Jul 99 9669 N969TW 53619 27 Jul 99 9670 N9701W 53620 9 Aug 99 9671 N971TW 53621 18 Aug 99 9672 N972TW 53622 27 Aug 99 9673 N973TW 53623 10 Sep 99 9674 N974TW 53624 17 Sep 99 9675 N975TW 53625 27 Sep 99 9676 N976TW 53626 8 Oct 99 9677 N9677W 53627 29 Oct 99 9678 N978TW 53628 20 Oct 99 9679 N979TW 53629 10 Nov 99 9680 N9801W 53630 18 Nov 99 9681 N9681В 53631 30 Nov 99 9682 N982TW 53632 10 Dec 99 9683 N983TW 53633 17 Dec 99 9684 N984TW 53634 28 Dec 99 N984TW was the last Douglos (McDonnell Douglas) MD-80 built, and named, appropriately, Spirit of Long Beach.
MD-83 (N9402W) in flight.

Delivery scheme for the first DC-9-80s sported a bare-metal upper vertical fin. This was later painted all white to conform to other TWA aircraft.

An Old Tradition

Back in the 1930s, the Douglas company had shown considerable enterprise in developing its original twin piston-engined world-beater, the legendary DC-3. Later, in the 1940s and 1950s, it did the same with the four-engined DC-4/6/7 series; and continued the tradition of “stretch­ing” the fuselage with the DC-8 jets. It did even better with the short-haul twin-jet, the DC-9, which went into service with Delta in 1965 (see page 77). This started off as an airliner with as few as 65 seats (or up to 109 in all-economy layout); but with progressive improvements, especially in more engine power, its fuselage was stretched as never before. The Series 10’s 104-foot length was increased by 15 feet for the Series 30, and further extensions, permitting extra rows of seats, were made with the Series 40 and 50.

The Dash 80

The ultimate challenge to the Douglas engineers came when their project office proposed a fur­ther 15-foot stretch of the Series 50. This became the Series 80, or the Super 80, and follow­ing the inevitable change of nomenclature resulting from the McDonnell Douglas merger in the late 1960s, this highly successful airliner was known as the MD-80. Remarkably, its additional length, devoted entirely to the passenger cabin, permitted a seating capacity of 172, twice as many as in the first DC-9-10. The first airline to put this version, a DC-9-81, into service was Swissair, on 5 October 1980. T. W.A. took delivery of its first MD-82 in April 1983, and liked it so much that it kept buying more of both the 82 and the 83 variants. It even bought some of Swissair’s 81s and converted them to 82s.

Last of the Line

Deliveries of this fine airliner, with its unmistakable silhouette in the sky, continued until the end of 1999. The last one went to St. Louis on 28 December of that year. It had taken off from the factory where the airplane was first conceived and developed, at Long Beach, California; and although T. W.A. had abandoned its practice of naming its aircraft at the end of the piston-engined propeller era, this was a special case. T. W.A. fleet number 9654, manufacturer’s serial number (msn) 53634, registration number N984TW, was proudly named the Spirit of Long Beach.

Engines Pratt & Whitney JT8D-217C (20,000 lb) x 2 Length 148 feet

MGT0W 140,0001b Span 108 feet

Range 1,500 miles Height 30 feet

The Embryo Years

In 1929 — the same year in which T. W.A.’s ancestor, T. A.T., was bom, Clement Keys, the head of the powerful North American Aviation group, delivered a speech in which he raised some eye­brows by stating that “90% of aviation is on the ground.” He was emphasizing that efficient and safe operations could only be achieved by good training, good aircraft and engine construction, and above all, good maintenance. In the 1920s, too many pilots were poor navigators and took too many risks; aircraft seldom lasted more than a few years; “the engine quit” was a familiar reason for a lucky escape in a meadow; and maintenance was a relatively casual affair.

Lindbergh’s Influence on T. W.A.

After Charles Lindbergh made his sensational New York-Paris non-stop flight in 1927, he fol­lowed this with a 48-State tour of the U. S.A., during which he vigorously promoted air travel. He became the technical consultant of T. A.T., subsequently T. W.A., and much of his advice concentrated on the vital need for ground support (see map on pages 28-29). At first, the air­craft were maintained mainly at Columbus, Ohio, and at Waynoka, Oklahoma, the transfer points during the brief period of the air-rail service (see pages 24-25). But after the need for the trains was eliminated in 1930, the airline established a single base at Kansas City, which became the heart of T. W.A.’s engineering organization.

Ray Dunn presides over a morning hour-long briefing in 1962 at the Mid Continent International Airport, where trouble-shooting was refined by long distance telephonic communica­tion throughout the TWA system.

Refining the System

During the 1960s, as the entire world of air transport transformed itself from knee-jerk reaction to systematic control of all facets of operation, T. W.A. was among the leaders in introducing pro­gressive maintenance to take full advantage of the vast improvements in instant telephonic com­munication. Under the direction of Ray Dunn, vice-president of engineering, morning briefings were held every morning. These included up to 80 individuals, linked by telephone from coast to coast, exchanging reports of delays and problems, and discussing how to fix them. A fine example of the advances made during this time was the identification of engine snags. John Morelli, the manager of power plant engineering, was meticulous in checking the records of every engine, and identified a repetitive pattern of snags so that T. W.A. was able to put the principle of prevention being better than cure into practice. In 1969, T. W.A. instituted on-line inspections of some engine components, thus saving many engine changes and shipment of engines. Such initiative resulted in T. W.A. being the first airline to be approved by the F. A. A for on-condition maintenance of power plants.

Richards Road, Fairfax, and International

The first site at Kansas City was the Municipal Airport, in the heart of the city, in the horse-shoe bend of the Missouri River, often referred to as the downtown airport, but the employees usually called it “Number Ten, Richards Road”. T. W.A. had served the nation during the Second World War with its Intercontinental Division’s Boeing 307s (see page 46) and these were overhauled at Wilmington, Delaware. Also, just across the river from Richards Road, another base had been built in Kansas City, Kansas. This Fairfax base had been a modification center for B-25 bombers during the war. In 1946, T. W.A. moved in, and Richards Road was relegated for on-line mainte­nance only. In turn, when the new Mid-Continent International Airport was built, T. W.A. made another move, first, in 1956, with the Power Plant shop, then, in 1958, with the Airframe Shop as well.

An Historic Site

The city of Columbus no longer possesses a railroad station. Yet it was once the key transfer point in T. A.T. ’s transconti­nental air-rail service. The west-bound passengers travelled overnight in the comfort of a Pennsylvania Railroad sleeper coach, to wake up at the new station, Port Columbus, where they enjoyed breakfast in the new terminal building before

This was all part of the T. A.T. service for the rail-air transfer at Clovis, New Mexico. Passengers on T. A.T. were provided with a comfortable Aero-Car to lessen the inconvenience of having to make the transfer between the railroad station and the airport.

boarding the Ford Tri-Motor to continue their journey (see map opposite).

The building is still there. As one of the very few—and undoubtedly one of the most historically significant— 70-year-old architectural survivals of the formative years of air transport in the United States, it should be listed as an Historic Monument.