Archive for the 'General' Category

Updates, Schmupdate…

Thursday, March 8th, 2007

Sorry for the delay’s in getting an update out.  It’s been busy around the household, and haven’t had time to update my websites lately.

Next week I will be out of town in beautiful Flagstaff, AZ.  So I won’t be able to update until late next week.

How are we doing here at TWAHistory.com?

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

TWA History has now been around for 6 months. In that time, we’ve tried to have quite a range of snapshots of TWA history on the site. We’ve tried to include a range of schedules, pictures from TWA history, and in general, some cool stuff.

Now, of course, I, as only the lowly son of a ramp-rat for TWA, have a limited collection of stuff to show off. I’m not saying I’m running out tomorrow, but down the road, the day will come when I have nothing else to show.

So that’s where you come in, dear reader.

My hope is that down the road, I can show off stuff that other people have collected over the years.

I’m sure there are flight attendants out there that have a variety of menu’s from TWA Ambassador Class. That beats my one menu.

I’m sure there are pilots out there that have manuals and checklists from some of TWA’s aircraft. I have none.

I’ve asked other websites to link to us, to increase our traffic. Of course, none of them have done that yet. If you read another TWA website, please ask them to link to us! I’d be more than happy to link to them, too.

So, are we doing good here? Bad? What would you change?

If you have anything you’d like to showcase here, either by sending me JPEG’s or video, or I could scan it and send it back to you, please email me! That email address is comments@twahistory.com
.

Thanks, and you’re now free to move about the cabin. :)

TWA “Lindbergh Line” Boeing 777 Model

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

As I was wondering the isles of Hobby Lobby the other day with the wife, I swung by the model area, to see if they had any TWA ones.

Imagine my surprise when I noticed one that I haven’t seen before. Yes, it’s a Boeing 777 in “Lindbergh Line” colors!

TWA Boeing 777 Model

It’s slightly hard to see in the picture, but the TWA logo is at the front door of the airplane.

This model is made by Minicraft Models, and is part of their “Flights of Fancy” line, where they also have versions for Eastern Airlines, a PSA 777, a Pan Am 777, and a “Wrong Way Corrigan” 777 too! They also have a TWA H-4 Hercules, and a Pan Am Spruce Goose!

I haven’t had a chance to work on this model yet, though. Took it out of the box and remembered that I also now need to stock up on paint, as well as model glue and such.

Click the links above to checkout their website and models.

General update on the look o’ the blog…

Tuesday, November 7th, 2006

I received some comments that said, “Wow. Love the new website, but why is the header so generic?

Well, it’s a long story.

Basically, before I created this website, I actually made a really cool header with a tail of a TWA DC-9 and the name of the blog. It looked really nice.

Then I was thinking, “Did I take this picture?” Well, it turned out, that I didn’t.

The picture that I used is actually located here, at airliners.net.

It’s very similar to a picture I took at STL of a DC9 tail, so I assumed it was mine.

Wrong.

I actually noticed before I put the site ‘live’, so no, I didn’t get sued or anything. But in the meantime, I put up the ‘generic’ header that you have been seeing.

Well, now I have a spiffy banner that has the classic late 1970′s – early 1990′s logo that TWA had. I have to admit, it’s my favorite. I’m sure that’s just due to me flying TWA a lot during that time in my youth, so that’s the color
scheme I attach to.

If you notice any weirdness on the website, please let me know!

Any comments?

TWA Terminal 5 on Discovery Channel’s “Extreme Engineering”

Tuesday, October 24th, 2006

The Discovery Channel is going to have an episode of their “Extreme Engineering” that will cover TWA’s former Terminal 5 at JFK.

It will be playing 10/25, 10/26, and 11/11.  You can check out the times here.

Hope you can check it out, as I will.

TWA JFK Terminal 5 – Early 90′s

Friday, October 13th, 2006

In about 1992, just after graduating high school, I decided to fly to JFK for the day.

Since I was a poor college student at the time, my main goal was to get some shots of TWA’s JFK terminal and aircraft.

Since I was non-rev’ing, I used an upgrade pass to fly First Class both ways. That was great, of course.

This was the same day that Carl Icahn announced he was selling TWA to the employees and creditors. There was a definite ‘upbeatness’ to the employees on that flight, that TWA was finally going to be rid of Icahn.
Here’s a picture I took of TWA’s T5 famous Saarinen terminal. Now closed, it’s supposed to become Jetblue’s new terminal after an extensive remodel.

In this picture, you’ll notice how ‘cluttered’ it appears. I understand later they removed the ‘advertisement’ you see in the large display, and returned it to an arrivals/departures board. Also, the ramp that’s blocking the stairs was also removed, as well as the security checkpoint was moved. This, I’m sure, made it much better, but it’s interesting to see it in this state.

I’ve included an image of the terminal after it’s been closed. You can see the difference.

I’ll have more pictures from this trip in the future.

Click on the image for a larger version.

TWA – T5 – Early 90′s
TWA T5 - Early 90's

TWA – T5 – After Closing (About 10 Years Later)

TWA T5 - After Closing

Welcome!

Thursday, September 28th, 2006

Yes, welcome one and all to TWAHistory.com!

I’ve been wanting to setup a site like this for awhile. A place that people can come to read and see some of the things that made TWA a great airline.

My father worked for TWA for over 30 years as ‘ramp-rat‘ at both San Francisco (SFO) and St. Louis (STL).

I had a lot of memories of flights on TWA. My favorite? Any flight in first on the L-1011. Nice and quiet, with the great seats.

Of course, many memories of the St. Louis hub. Including spending the night in the terminal, after unsucessfully trying to non-rev to San Francisco on every flight. The last flight to SFO (ironically, an L1011), we were bumped. So spend the night in St. Louis, we did. Good times.

Over time, I’ll be showing a small part of what I have that I’ve collected over the years from TWA. But we also need you. I’m hoping people out there also have pieces of TWA history that they’d like to share with the rest of the world.

If you have anything you’d like to share, please email me at comments@twahistory.com.

Enjoy the Flight!