TWAHistory.com

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.

(With a little nod to Peabody’s Improbable History.)

If you haven’t visited the website archive.org, you need to. It’s pretty amazing to be able to visit websites the way they were years ago, before Java and Flash took over sites. Just see here what Apple’s website looked like on October 22, 1996, or to see what CNN’s website looked like on that tragic day, September 11th, 2001. It’s a great site.

At the same time, you can see what TWA.com looked like, back in the day. For example, here is the earliest home page you can see, from July of 1997: (Click image for larger version):

It’s amazing how web pages have changed, isn’t it?

Someone even registered twahistory.com back in July of 2001, a few months after TWA and American Airlines announced the merger. Weird, eh? They never did anything with it, though.

I invite you to poke around the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. It’s very interesting! If you find anything cool, post a link in the comments section.

TWA.com on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine

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.

Yep, we’re back!

We had a few days in beautiful Flagstaff, AZ. Then, returning to the nice and hot Phoenix, we enjoyed a few Spring Training games. Now, it’s back to work. And, of course, updates.

Today’s update is a video that’s making the rounds. It’s documenting the last flight from London Heathrow to JFK. Of course, as you may know, Icahn sold these routes to American Airlines. Oh, the irony.

Enjoy!

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.

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.

Today’s link comes via TWA Flight Attendants.  They’ve collected quite a few of the tasty, I’m sure, recipes that TWA used to serve in first class.  That is, in first class when first class meant real china and more than just a fancier selection of peanuts. (Yeah, I’m looking at you America West U.S. Airways.)

Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the recipes.

 TWA Royal Ambassador Recipes

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!

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!

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.

Here’s a great video from mosche56 & twacrew.com of some great video of TWA’s 747. Looks like this is promotional video from TWA, overlaid with some Bruce Springsteen music.

Some great footage of a great airplane.