TWAHistory.com

Thanks to reader Alex S, he pointed out this recent auction on Ebay:  TWA’s $100,000 Cosmic Auction.

According to the description, it was a contest that TWA put on back in 1955.  You’d write an essay describing what air travel would be like in 30 years, or 1985.

You could enter an essay to win $50,000 now or $50,000 in 1985.  In 1985, they’d open the container of all the entries and pick a winner.

Does anyone know if this was given way in 1985?  According to the images, it was stored at the Kansas City maintenance base, so maybe someone there could recall it?  (That is, to say, if Icahn didn’t take the $50,000 to buy something else.

I’ve attached the images from the auction, to be sure these are kept.  It’s very interesting!

If anyone has any information on this contest,  be sure to leave a comment or send me some email.

First off, happy 2008 to everyone out there!

Today’s link is a video of a Boeing 727 landing at STL. All hand-flown, it’s very cool to hear the sounds of the cockpit.

Here’s a commercial from 1980 featuring the L1011. Of course, this is probably also around the time the DC-10 was having problems, so they really wanted to ‘push’ the L1011, for good reason.

And a steak? In coach? Wow. Who doesn’t miss those days.

Here’s a schedule from July 1994, featuring FA Patricia Marshall on the front cover.  I think putting TWA’s greatest assets, it’s employee-owners on the cover, was a great idea.

About the only thing that really stands out in this one for me is that Alpha Air is still a Trans World Express partner.  Didn’t seem to last too long.

Merry Christmas!

(Click images for larger version.)

never fear, I’ll be updating later this week.

With getting everything ready for Christmas, to the busy time at work, to moving my website to a new ISP, it’s been pretty busy here.

I’ll have another update later this week.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and traveled safely on airlines other than TWA.

Let’s take a look at some email I’ve received lately.

First off is Andre at TriSta500.net, a great website dedicated to the L1011-500.  Even though he doesn’t have any TWA-specific info, he sends along the TWA L-1011 Cabin Plan from an old issue of the OAG: (Click for larger version.)

Thanks, Andre for sending that along! And check out his great website.

Up next is Pete asking about a jeep.  Here’s his email:

Howdy,

I am buying this jeep from a fella in Woodland Hills.  I would like to research where it might have come from or where it was used.  Rumor has it Mr. Hughes had ordered three of these.  Do you have any thoughts as to where I could start checking?

Extremely Rare 2 wheel drive Red Fire Inspector TWA / AA CJ Jeep.  Has only driver’s seat and a special gas tank in the interior.  Very low miles, under 30,000 and under 350 hours on a four cylinder engine.  Running condition. Special heavy duty rear suspension and airport rear wheels and tires. 1969 CJ No top

And here is the picture he sent along:

Well, Pete, I’m not sure on that one.  If it’s a 1969 Jeep, as in your description, that was 8 years after Howard Hughes left TWA, so I don’t think that’s it.

If anyone has information, send it to comments@twahistory.com and I’ll forward it on to Pete.

Finally, we have S.M.D. who asks:

I would love to hear the late ’60s commercial “Up, Up & Away…T-W-A” based upon the 5th Dimension song. I used to work on the TWA computer processing account at that time and I loved that commercial. Any chance that you could find a copy and upload it to your website? That would be much appreciated.

Well, S.M.D., I don’t have it, but hopefully someone out there does.

Keep those letters coming!  If you have a question, or even has some TWA memorabilia you would love to share with others, send me an email!

Here’s a great video from Tom Vance/Vapor Trails Video. This is an L1011 taking off from SFO in the early 90′s.

Little trivia: I used to live in San Bruno just across from the TWA hangar, the 101, and the railroad tracks back in the early 80′s. Good times. I also remember playing hide and seek in some of the 707 cargo containers they used to have next to the TWA hangar there, while we were waiting for the crew bus a few times.

Sorry for the delay in updating. Just been pretty busy, and haven’t had as much time to update as I’d like.

Here is a later commercial from 1989. I remember this era, when TWA’s slogan was “Find out how good we really are”.

Just posted that last entry, and noticed that it has been a year now since I started TWAhistory.com!

Just wanted to say thanks to all the readers! It’s great the number of people that find us by searching for the history of TWA, and I’m proud to continue a small part of it!

In the past year, I’ve posted 72 entries, and I hope to post another 72 and more.

I’d like to once again say if anyone out there has any TWA items they’d like to share with other enthusiasts, please send me an email to comments@twahistory.com.

Thanks for reading us!

Here is a link to a video Google by Tom Vance/Vapor Trails Video. It’s from July of 1994, and has a TWA 767 landing, followed by the L-1011. Love the L-1011 landings.

Enjoy!