1930s Trans World Airlines

1 1930s

1.1 founding: twa
1.2 dc-2 , dc-3
1.3 lehman brothers/hertz ownership: t&wa, inc.
1.4 howard hughes

1930s
founding: twa

lindbergh line dc-2

twa s corporate history dates july 16, 1930, forced merger of transcontinental air transport (t-a-t) , western air express form transcontinental & western air (t&wa). companies merged @ urging of postmaster general walter folger brown, looking bigger airlines give airmail contracts.

both airlines brought high-profile aviation pioneers give airline panache of being called airline run flyers . airlines known several years being on cutting edge of aviation. transcontinental, bigger of two, had marquee expertise of charles lindbergh , offering 48-hour combination of plane , train trip across united states. western, older, having been founded in 1925, had expertise of jack frye.

on october 25, 1930, airline offered 1 of first all-plane scheduled service coast coast: lindbergh line. route took 36 hours , called overnights in kansas city. in summer 1931, twa moved headquarters new york kansas city, missouri.

dc-2 , dc-3

in 1931, airline went out of business after 1 of fokker f.10s shed wing , crashed on march 31 near bazaar, kansas, killing 8 on board, including university of notre dame football coach knute rockne. investigation revealed wing s wooden structure had deteriorated. in wake of crash, fokker f.10 temporarily grounded, , more frequent , rigorous inspection , maintenance regimen put in place, making more expensive operate. f.10 s public image, , of wooden-structured aircraft, suffered badly crash. twa needed replacement.

experimental twa test aircraft

the dominant manufacturer of day bill boeing, contract united air lines did not allow him sell 247 competing lines. frye , other members of twa approached several other manufacturers, including donald douglas, specifications larger plane. on september 20, 1932, contract signed douglas , dc-1 delivered twa in december 1933, sole example of type. followed delivery of 32 douglas dc-2s started operations in may 1934. phased out 1937 dc-3 started service, several dc-2s operational through years of world war ii. throughout 1934, tomlinson , richter tested dc-1, , tomlinson s extensive testing in 1934 , 1935 led higher-altitude over-weather flying , cabin pressurization.

on february 18, 1934 top-scoring american world war ace eddie rickenbacker , twa team including frye, tommy tomlinson, larry fritz, paul e. richter, si morehouse, harlan hull, john collings, , andy andrews flew dc-1 burbank, california, newark, new jersey, in record-breaking 13 hours , 4 minutes.

lehman brothers/hertz ownership: t&wa, inc.

in 1934, following charges of favoritism in contracts, air mail scandal erupted, leading air mail act of 1934, dissolved forced transcontinental , western merger , ordered united states army air service deliver mail. t&wa name, however, stick transcontinental twa. company facing financial hardship, lehman brothers , john d. hertz took on ownership of company.

the army fliers had series of crashes, , decided privatize delivery provision no former companies bid on contracts. t&wa added suffix inc. name, qualifying different company , got 60% of old contracts starting again in may 1934.

a twa douglas dc-3 prepared takeoff columbus, ohio, in 1940.

on may 18, 1934, dc-2 production version of dc-1 , forerunner of dc-3 entered commercial service on twa s columbus–pittsburgh–newark route. on august 1, twa started three-stop transcontinental flight: leave newark @ 1600, arrive glendale @ 0700, fare $160 1 way (about $2,227 today). transcontinental airline flights made @ least 3 stops en route until 1946.

on december 27, 1934 jack frye became president, paul e. richter, vice president (vp), , walt hamilton, vp maintenance, managers lawrence g. larry fritz, , tommy tomlinson, leader in high altitude research over-weather flying. new owners installed directional homing , runway lights @ facilities.

in 1935, tomlinson , northrop gamma (turbo-supercharged) began high altitude research, , last of 14 twa northrop alphas phased out. on november 16, 1936, richter headed airline s boeing 307 talks; on january 29, 1937, twa contracted boeing 5 boeing 307 stratoliners , first commercial plane pressurized cabin. first twa stratoliner delivered on may 6, 1940.

in 1938, richter elected executive vp, lawrence g. larry fritz became vp of operations, , tomlinson vp of engineering. twa subsequently received san francisco chicago route (via los angeles).

howard hughes

in 1938 lehman , hertz began selling interest , general motors began buying stock. frye approached flying enthusiast, howard hughes, buy stock. according john keats s biography of hughes, grumbled, $15 million! s small fortune! before agreed , bought 25% of airline.

on june 22, 1939, hughes tool co. ordered 40 lockheed constellations. on july 8, 1940, twa inaugurated boeing 307 stratoliner service; in summer 1941, stratoliner scheduled leave la guardia @ 2030 est , arrive burbank @ 0838 pst after 3 stops.