Foreword by Mark Abels

When you stop to think about it, the story line of the subject of this book would make a pretty good Hollywood block­buster. It has at least a few of each of the ingredients – and often a generous helping of some of the tastier items – that make a box-office hit.

This narrative is an epic. It starts with the birth of one of the most exciting, most dynamic, and most important Amer­ican industries – the airline industry. It spans three-quarters of a century, almost as long as the life span of air transport itself. When critical events occurred, when vital innovations were needed, the subject of this tale was invariably at center stage.

Its characters are larger than life. There was the young air mail pilot whose daring and courage had literally stunned the world. There was the swashbuckling tycoon who built it into an international powerhouse of a company and earned a fortune on top of his fortune; but was finally forced out of the business he loved. There were the airmen and women who performed unrecognized acts of accomplishment, some of them heroic, in the service of what they regarded as a true vocation, not just a job. There were movie stars, celebrities, politicians, presidents, even Popes. There were skillful and daring leaders with a vision of the future and the courage to build it, and there were financial manipulators who almost destroyed it.

It was the first at so many things. It was the first to span the continent, coast-to-coast. It claimed many technological firsts, often initiated in cooperation with the great aircraft manufacturers. As the author has observed, its contribution to launching, with Douglas, the legendary series of modern twin-engined “DC” airliners, was a turning point in air trans­port history. It worked with Boeing to develop a lesser-known but perhaps no less significant aircraft, the Stratoliner – the world’s first pressurized airliner. Its owner’s perfectionist insistence with Lockheed was the impetus behind the cre­ation of the incomparable Constellation. It was the first air­line to turn its back on propellers and boast of an all-jet fleet.

It, of course, is TWA, the transcontinental airline, the trans world airline, the airman’s airline, the airline of the stars, the airline of the Popes, the airline of legend. Howard Hughes, the legendary former owner of TWA, also produced silver-screen epics – but even Hughes’s best screenwriters could not have dreamed up a more exciting saga than the true story of his own airline. This world-wide corporation achieved such cosmopolitan fame that the name TWA became a household word, synonymous with “airline.” Even
though TWA’s globe-girdling days are behind it, the proud TWA name remains even today the best-known in commer­cial aviation throughout the world, from North America to Europe and through the Middle East to Asia.

As our airline celebrates its 75th birthday, historian Ron Davies and artist Mike Machat, aided and abetted by statistical gums John Wegg and Felix Usis (himself a TWA pilot), have brought into print a new and somewhat different look at our his­tory. As in previous books in this Paladwr Press pictorial series, they focus on the aircraft as a way to tell the airline’s story. It’s a good way to tell the tale because, after all, the airplanes are the visible and publicly recognizable symbols of what we do. The airplanes help to define the personality of the airline and con­jure up the images of airline life. Show an old airline hand a pic­ture of an airliner, or an old route map, or even an ancient (and, by definition, rare) timetable, and the stories will flow. The book will start many of them flowing among TWA’ers, not only stories of what was, but also of what will be again.

But the story of an airline — especially this airline — is much more than one of routes and planes. It is very much about people, just as the airline business is a people business. TWA is populated by walking repositories of our history, employees who have given 20, 30, 40, or even more years to TWA. Many are veterans who carried it through 75 years, and who are now supported by younger TWA’ers, who are rebuilding it for 75 years more. Their dedication, their pro­fessionalism, and above all, their loyalty — not to mention a few of their good stories – are captured here.

Ron Davies and his Paladwr team have packed an incredible amount of information into the 112 pages of this book. They have incorporated marvelously detailed draw­ings, a wonderful selection of photographs (some familiar, some rare), informative maps, and meticulously compiled and detailed fleets lists and data tables. It is a wealth of infor­mation about TWA but it is nevertheless only a taste of the 75-year saga of Trans World Airlines. The first chapters are here. New chapters are being written every day. There are, and will be, many TWA stories to come. We hope that the Pal­adwr folks will visit us again in a decade or two to catch up.

Meanwhile. I invite you to enjoy this book, and thank you for flying TWA!

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This is a reproduction of Mr. Ben Redman’s ticket issued by W. A.E.
It was signed by Charlie “Jimmy" James, seen as the pilot in the
picture above.