Introduction

Author

Tackling the history of T. W.A. has been a formidable task, not simply to assemble 75 years of glorious history, but to do justice to the illustrious chronicle of achievements within the covers of one of Paladwr Press’s series of Great Airlines of the World. To write a 300-page or 500-page text would be easier than to fashion a concentrated narrative that would complement the 170 photographs, 48 ‘Machats’ (precision drawings), tabulations of more than 1,200 individual aircraft, 25 maps, and other illustrative features of this book. But I have endevoured to encapsulate the essentials: the ancestral anecdotes of Western Air Express and Harris Hanshue’s fight for recognition; the experimental air-rail service of T. A.T.; Jack Frye’s sponsorship of the famous Douglas twins; Howard Hughes’s dramatic initiatives—and his fall from grace; the era of the Constellations; the attainment of leader­ship across the Atlantic; and the erosion of size and service in more recent times. Each of these historic episodes, and others, would justify a small book. But a comprehensive cov­erage, with every detail, would need a bigger and more expensive volume, beyond the price range that seems reason­able for most pockets.

Many of T. W.A.’s achievements have been remarkable because they have been of inestimable benefit not just for the St. Louis airline, but for the air transport industry as a whole. The pre-war Douglas airliners that came to dominate the air­ways would not have been built if the T. W.A. specification for a modern airliner had not been outlined by Jack Frye in 1932. Howard Hughes’s unique combination of record-breaking flying experience and industrial acumen, together with per­sistence to cross technical thresholds, led to the dramatic delivery of the Constellation in 1944, a triumph both for Hughes and for T. W.A. The manufacturers, Douglas and Lockheed, were tremendously successful with the DC-2/3 and Constellation lines, respectively, and airlines all over the world have been indebted to T. W.A. for its initiatives. In peacetime, the DC-2s and 3s set the pace in airliner technol­ogy. The C-47 (military version of the DC-3) was a logistic essential to help win the War, but it would never have been developed had not Jack Frye set down the DC-1 specification in 1933. The Constellation was described by a European his­torian as “ America’s Secret Weapon;” and in terms of its effect on the dominance of the commercial airline skies, so it was—and again tracable to T. W.A.

Credit for inspiring the Jet Age (with the Boeing 707) must go to Pan American and its leader, Juan Trippe (the sub­ject of the first book in this Paladwr pictorial series). But T. W.A. was not far behind, and had a large fleet of 707s, with which it was, for many years, the most popular airline on the highly competitive North Atlantic route. T. W.A.’s Boeing 747s, now retired, served so well that some of them accumu­lated an astonishing 100,000 hours of revenue flying service. More recently, T. W.A. has led the way by introducing the efficient ETOPS (Extended Twin-Engine Operations) prac­tice across the Atlantic, an innovation that is now standard.

Times have changed. Intense competition in the 1970s and 1980s, brought on by airline deregulation in 1978, gave T. W.A. no credit for its pioneering that benefitted one and all. With the sale of its routes to London and other depletions, T. W.A. has had to fight for its life. In corporate strength, a proud airline, once one of the ‘Big Four,’ is but a shadow of its former self. But that is a long and distinguished shadow; and with this book, I hope that T. W.A. readers especially will take pride in their heritage, and continue to maintain that esprit de corps and the elan that has enabled them to reach the 75th anniversary of unparalleled development and achievement. Other readers, less familiar with the drama of the past, may enjoy a taste of the adventure and romance that the pioneers and leaders of Trans World Airlines have given to the airline industry, not least to their contribution to the for­tunes of United States air transport, in peacetime and in war.

(Editorial note: To remind readers that the initials were always sep­arately pronounced, the Paladwr Press house rule of full stops (peri­ods) has been applied to the airline name: T. W.A., which is an abbreviation, not an acronym. This is to ensure that it is never pro­nounced ‘Twah. ’ The corporate logo omits the stops.)

Artist

Once again the Paladwr team goes into action to document the history of one of the world’s greatest airlines. I was filled with a sense of anticipation approaching excitement when Ron Davies informed me of this book, and I set out with ela­tion to research and produce the 48 profiles of the great T. W.A. aircraft required to do justice to the cavalcade of great airliners in the airline’s history.

Artists usually derive their first inspiration from early exposure to artwork, and for me, the T. W.A. advertisements in Life magazine were among my earliest childhood memo­ries. I would sit transfixed, staring in awe at the almost three­dimensional renderings of the sleek and elegant T. W.A. Lockheed Constellations and later the first Boeing jets. They were usually depicted as flying over many of the famous romantic and faraway places that the airline served through­out the world. It was hard to believe that these realistic images were indeed paintings, as they were executed with such precision and accuracy. Even the dramatic cityscapes below were highly detailed, yet still looked correct from alti­tude. I also remembered seeing the artist’s name written in the background. It read “Ren Wicks.”

Years later, as a new member of the Los Angeles Soci­ety of Illustrators, I had the pleasure of meeting Ren, who was one of the founding members. He was the epitome of the classic artists who created America’s ‘Golden Age’ of com­mercial illustration, starting as an aviation artist for Lockheed during the Second World War. His finest work was executed while Hughes was running T. W.A. and Howard ensured that Ren was given every opportunity to attain perfection, char­tering aircraft to fly him over all the cities that needed to be illustrated. He even arranged for helicopters to be assigned to Ren so that he could photograph his aerial scenes: London, Rome, Athens—all to serve as backdrops for countless images used in T. W.A.’s advertising in the 1950s and 1960s.

While in Paris on assignment in January 1998,1 learned of Ren’s passing (in his art studio—where he would have wished) at the age of 86. I was deeply honored when the Wicks family graciously allowed me to have his voluminous aviation scrap files. Upon examining the many boxfulls of photographs, blueprints, brochures, and drawings, I found much of the reference material that Ren had used for all those wonderful T. W.A. paintings that he had produced over the years. I now use this very same material as an aid to the cre­ation of the artwork in this book, a history of the great aircraft and the people who built Trans World Airlines, and who con­tinue the proud tradition of T. W.A. today. It has been a mem­orable experience, and it has also been a poignant way in which I can pay tribute with my pen and paintbrush to a fine artist whose work transcends the so-called generation gap.

(Artist’s note: in my comparison drawings (which have been a popu­lar feature of the Paladwr pictorial books) I have, for the piston – engined aircraft, used the Constellation as the basic outline; and for the jet airliners, the Boeing 747. Otherwise, the extremes in size would be visually less relevant.)