TWA History | Trans World Airlines 1930–2001 – Airline Employee Shop

TWA History

Trans World Airlines was the airline of Lindbergh, Howard Hughes, the Constellation and the twin globes, and for seven decades one of the great names in air travel. Here's a short history of TWA, plus the TWA collection, one of the largest in our store.

The Lindbergh Line (1925–1930)

TWA traces its roots to Western Air Express, founded in 1925, and to Transcontinental Air Transport, formed in 1928 with Charles Lindbergh as its famous public face. In 1930 the two were merged into Transcontinental & Western Air, which began the first scheduled coast-to-coast passenger service that same year. Lindbergh helped pick Kansas City as headquarters, and TWA called it home for more than three decades.

Jack Frye, Howard Hughes and the Constellation

Jack Frye, who became president in 1934 at age 30, helped write the specifications that produced the Douglas DC-1 and DC-2. TWA also flew the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the first airliner with a pressurized cabin. Howard Hughes became the main stockholder in 1939, and the Lockheed Constellation became TWA's signature airliner. In April 1944, Hughes and Frye flew a Constellation in TWA colors from Burbank to Washington in under seven hours. In February 1946 TWA opened New York–Paris service, breaking Pan Am's hold on overseas flying, and in 1950 the airline officially became Trans World Airlines.

The jet age

TWA began jet service in November 1959, the same year Raymond Loewy designed the twin-globe logo. It showed the first in-flight movies in 1961, and in 1962 Eero Saarinen's sweeping TWA Flight Center opened at Idlewild, now JFK. By 1967 TWA was the first U.S. airline with an all-jet fleet, and that year its jingle "Up, Up and Away – TWA" was everywhere. In 1969 TWA passed Pan Am as the top airline across the Atlantic. Headquarters moved to New York in 1964, and the red block-letter logo returned in 1975.

St. Louis and the final years

Carl Icahn took control in 1985 and bought Ozark Air Lines the next year, making St. Louis TWA's main hub. TWA sold its London routes to American in 1991 and went through bankruptcy in 1992, 1995 and 2001. American Airlines bought TWA's assets in April 2001. The last TWA flight, Flight 220 from Kansas City to St. Louis, flew on December 1, 2001, on an MD-83 painted "Wings of Pride."

A few things collectors love

  • TWA flew the first U.S. air cargo shipment in 1931, a load of livestock from St. Louis to Newark.
  • Saarinen's Flight Center reopened in 2019 as the TWA Hotel, and its cocktail bar is inside a Lockheed Starliner named "Connie."
  • The TWA Museum in Kansas City is housed in TWA's original 1932 headquarters building, and it's well worth a visit.

Shop TWA

Browse TWA twin-globe and block-letter apparel, coffee mugs, coasters, tote bags and vintage destination posters in the TWA collection, and add an airline bag tag or key tag for any TWA family member.

AirlineEmployeeShop.com sells TWA merchandise under license from American Airlines. This page is for historical interest.