40 Facts About TWA

Hughes gave up control in the 1960s, and the new management of TWA acquired Hilton International and Century 21 in an attempt to diversify the company's business.

Carl Icahn acquired control of TWA and took the company private in a leveraged buyout in 1988.

TWA became saddled with debt, sold its London routes, underwent Chapter 11 restructuring in 1992 and 1995, and was further stressed by the explosion of TWA Flight 800 in 1996.

TWA was headquartered at one time in Kansas City, Missouri, and planned to make Kansas City International Airport its main domestic and international hub, but abandoned this plan in the 1970s.

In January 2001, TWA filed for a third and final bankruptcy and was acquired by American Airlines.

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TWA became known as "The Lindbergh Line", with the "Shortest Route Coast to Coast".

In summer 1931, TWA moved its headquarters from New York to Kansas City, Missouri.

TWA needed a replacement aircraft, but the first sixty modern all-metal Boeing 247s were promised to Boeing's sister company United Airlines .

TWA was forced to sponsor the development of a new airplane design.

TWA contracted its five Stratoliners to the Army Air Force's Air Transport Command after Pearl Harbor.

TWA contracted to fly its C-54s and Lockheed C-69 Constellations.

Hughes and TWA had developed the Constellation in secret with Lockheed, and Hughes purchased 40 for TWA's use in 1939, through his Hughes Tool Company.

TWA had 10 Constellations by the end of 1945 and acquired international routes.

TWA suffered from its late entry to the jet age, and Hughes' 1956 order cost $497 million.

In 1962, TWA started using Doppler radar on its international flights.

In 1964, TWA started a program to assist in the United States' export expansion effort that became known as the TWA MarketAir Corporate Logo to promote business passenger air travel and as a marketing tool to be used in air cargo sales.

TWA was one of the first airlines, after Delta Air Lines, to embrace the spoke-hub distribution paradigm and was one of the first with the Boeing 747.

In 1962, TWA opened Trans World Flight Center, now Terminal 5, at New York City's JFK Airport and designed by Eero Saarinen.

TWA vetoed plans for a Dulles International Airport-style hub-and-spoke gate structure.

Missouri politicians moved to keep it in the state and, in 1982, TWA began a decade-long move to Lambert International Airport in St Louis.

In 1969, TWA carried the most transatlantic passengers of any airline; until then, Pan American World Airways had always been number one.

In 1969, TWA opened the Breech Academy on a 25-acre campus in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, to train its flight attendants, ticket agents, and travel agents, as well as to provide flight simulators for its pilots.

In 1987, TWA had a transatlantic system reaching from Los Angeles to Bombay, including virtually every major European population center, with 10 American gateways.

In 1985, TWA's board agreed to sell the airline to Frank Lorenzo's Texas Air Corporation.

Also in 1985, TWA closed its hub at Pittsburgh International Airport after nearly 20 years as a hub.

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The following year, TWA acquired Ozark Air Lines, a regional carrier based at Lambert-St Louis International Airport, for $250 million.

TWA had pilot bases in many European cities such as Berlin, Frankfurt, Zurich, Rome, and Athens.

In September 1988, TWA stockholders approved a privatization plan, winning Icahn $469 million in personal profit, but adding $539.

TWA's zenith occurred in the summer of 1988, when, for the only time, the airline carried more than 50 percent of all transatlantic passengers.

In 1989, TWA decided to replace its fleet of Boeing 727 Series 100 aircraft with the former Ozark Airlines DC-9s.

TWA had badly neglected domestic U S expansion at a time when the newly deregulated domestic market was growing quickly.

TWA's holding company, Trans World Corporation, spun off the airline, which then became starved for capital.

TWA was losing an estimated $150 million a year in revenue due to this deal.

TWA paid for naming rights for the new Trans World Dome, home of the then St Louis Rams, in its corporate hometown.

TWA became one of the early customers for the Airbus A318 through International Lease Finance Corporation.

TWA, had it continued operating through 2003, would have been the first U S carrier to fly the type.

TWA had international code-share agreements with Royal Jordanian Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Air Europa, and Air Malta.

TWA stated that it planned to make Los Angeles a focus city around October 2000, with a partnership with American Eagle Airlines as part of Trans World Connection.

From 1969 to 1986, six TWA airliners were terrorist targets for Palestinian fedayeen, four of which were hijackings and two were bombings, mainly because the airline had a strong European presence, was a flag carrier for the United States, and flew to Israel.

TWA had crew bases in Boston, New York, Washington, D C, St Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Frankfurt.