About TWA
Pan Am gets all the hipster love, but let us not forget the *other* stylish Jet Age airline: TWA. This is a place for any and all things about TWA, the former Trans World Airlines.
A brief history of TWA's design legacy, as told by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics) in a 2001 New York Times article:
Founded in 1930 by a group that included Charles Lindbergh, T.W.A. was the first airline to offer true coast-to-coast service, taking passengers on a 36-hour journey with an overnight stop in Kansas City.
T.W.A.'s rise took place in the 1940's, after Howard Hughes obtained a controlling interest. By the 1950's, its graceful Lockheed Constellations had become synonymous with elegant travel. ''Hughes made flying glamorous for the rich and the wealthy,'' said Don Casey, T.W.A.'s executive vice president for marketing. ''When he was running the show, T.W.A. became known as the airline of the stars.''
It was a reputation that Mr. Hughes happily cultivated, sometimes by commandeering a Constellation, filling it with Hollywood celebrities and embarking on giddy sightseeing flights. Joe DiMaggio flew T.W.A. Constellations from New York to Los Angeles to visit his wife, Marilyn Monroe. And isn't that a T.W.A. Constellation with Frank Sinatra on the cover of his 1958 album :Come Fly With Me''?
[...] The jet age took T.W.A.'s visual identity in a new direction. Not long after it began flying its first Boeing 707 jets, in 1959, T.W.A. rolled out a new logo designed by the legendary industrial designer Raymond Loewy.
Mr. Loewy created the airline's instantly recognizable logo, with the red T.W.A. initials superimposed over two golden interlocking globes. The logo was painted on the tails and above the forward passenger doors of T.W.A. aircraft. A red stripe followed the line of the passenger windows from front to rear like a wedge, widening as if stretched by speed. (T.W.A. pilots were said to boast that their jets seemed to be going 600 miles an hour even when parked.)
Additional Resources:
Trans World Airlines Wikipedia page
FlyTWA history website
Save a Connie (Restored TWA Lockheed Super Constellation)
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