TWAHistory.com

This update is the front page from the December 18th, 1992 issue of the employee newsletter, TWA Skyliner.

This was the issue that talked about the infamous removal of Carl Icahn.  With this, Carl loaned TWA $200 million dollars to keep operating, among other things.

Unfortunately, I had to scan the front page in two parts, as my scanner isn’t large enough to scan newspapers in one sweep.

Enjoy!

Here is TWA’s January 1994 schedule.

Not a lot noteworthy, as far as I can tell, but a couple of things:

• This was back when they had “TWA Comfort Class”, with more room in coach.  Didn’t fly a lot during this time, but I did a couple of times, and there was more legroom.  Also the 767’s had the foot rests in coach; not bad.
• A couple of ‘one-off’ flights out of the PHX base that I noticed, since that is where I lived.  They removed the red-eye to STL.  They also removed the Flight 731 from JFK to LAS, and changed it to continue on to SAN.     Returned in the morning.
• SAN also had it’s red-eye to STL stop in LAS before continuing on.

For awhile, they had the flight from JFK->PHX  continue on to LAX as a 767.  I would use that to take the red-eye from LAX->STL.  Made for a long trip!

As always, click on the images for larger versions.

According to this post at the AirlinersGallery.com, the Museum of Flight in Washington State has purchased the TWA DC-2.

Copyright Photos: N1934D carries a fake (and larger) NC1311 registration. The official FAA N1934D registration is seen in a smaller scale on the rear fuselage. It is now on display at the museum. (Joe G. Walker)

Good to see that a classic plane will have a great home!

I present TWA’s L-1011 Safety Video..

By the way, for those of you looking for a decent “YouTube-like” service, but with better quality, I recommend Vimeo. The quality of the video is not degraded unlike YouTube.

Well, we’re back from Southern California, and had a great time.  Got to hang out with the wife for our 7th wedding anniversary, went to Disneyland to ride the new Finding Nemo Submarine Ride, went deep-sea fishing, and also went to the LA Airline Memorabilia show.

I did pick up a few TWA items.  Mostly schedules, though.  They did have some nice TWA models, though.  I had my eye on a TWA L1011, and even had purchase authority from the wife, but really wouldn’t have space to display it in my current office, so it will just have to wait until I have a bigger house.

Today’s update is TWA’s schedule from May 1992.  The major news in this one is TWA’s announced service to Moscow, via Brussels.  Not sure how successful this was, though, since it didn’t seem to stay around too long.  According to a TWA Skyliner issue I have talking about it, it was using a 727-232.

I’ve included the handy-dandy gate maps that they included in the back of this schedule.

As always, click for a larger image.

Today we have a TWA schedule from April of 1995.

It seems around this time TWA decided to stop marking routes between TWA cities, but to instead just show the cities that TWA flies to.

As a child, I always enjoyed looking at the lines; it reminded me of the places I could go, nonstop, from my city.

I’ve also included the  “Flight Itineraries” pages.

Click for larger images.

Here is the front page of the TWA Skyliner employee newsletter from September 1994.

What’s going on in this issue?  Well, the big news is the rollout of the “Wings of Pride” airplane, sponsored and paid for by the employee owners of TWA.

Paid for by voluntary contributions from employees, it costs $233,000 a month.  Not cheap.

Click for a larger image.

Here’s a look at TWA’s schedule from October 1993.

Interesting things in this one:

• Still have the Atlanta Hub. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is almost as large as it ever was. I think after this they started to shrink it.
• Exactly one flight to London-Gatwick, out of St. Louis.
• Has the Nice, France flight tag-on.  I remember they really pushed this flight pretty hard.  Don’t think it lasted too long this time, even though I believe TWA served this for many years before.

As always, click to view larger images.

After featuring the 727-231 (International) and the 727-231 (Domestic) safety cards, here is the 727-31 safety card. I don’t think this version of the card was around much. The date on the back of the card indicates it was made in May, 1991. If you view the larger image, you can also see where someone ‘touched-up’ the “Trans World Airlines” text on the side. Didn’t do a great job at it, though.

According to my copy of R.E.G. Davies “TWA: 75 Years of Pioneering Progress”, the 727-31 pictured on the cover, N842TW, was introduced in Jan 1966, and sold to Gulf Air in November 1988. So this plane wasn’t even in the fleet at the time of printing! Looking at the list, the last 727-31 was retired to Kansas City in December 1993 (N855TW and N844TW).

I’ve only scanned the front cover of the safety card, as it’s exactly the same as the other 727’s.

Also, here is a picture I took in St. Louis around 1991 or 92. This is when I was still in High School, and taking photography at school. Obviously I liked to take aviation pictures, but they’re really not the greatest. Also the fact that a cat I once had loved to eat my pictures. (Must have been the chemicals. He was a weird cat). Need to pick up a negative scanner someday.

Enjoy! Click on the images for a larger version.

Today we have TWA’s December 1993 schedule for review.

What’s interesting in this one?

• Well, first off, it’s the second of a few of schedules that features actual (well, at least I believe they’re actual!) TWA employees on the cover, looking happy. (Even though, I think, in this day and age, Robert Thomas should have probably removed his pack of smokes from his front pocket! Just kidding.)
• This schedule is also after the infamous sale of the London-Heathrow routes to American Airlines. This schedule contains a single flight to Gatwick, out of St. Louis.
• Still has the ‘Atlanta mini-hub’.
• Finally, contains the Trans World Express flights out of Los Angeles operated by Alpha Air. I don’t think they had these flights very long, though. I also know the routes for this changed a few times. One change included Phoenix in the routes, as I remember PHX using one of the emergency exits as a gate with a sign for the Grand Canyon, I believe.

As always, click on the images below to see it full size.  Enjoy!