loading image

Transcontinental and Western Air Inc (TWA) was founded in July 1930 through a merger of several airlines and was one of the first airlines to offer transcontinental service. Its first all-air coast-to-coast service took place on October 25, 1930, in a Ford Tri-motor. The trip took 36 hours and included an overnight stay in Kansas City. During the late 1930s, TWA, under the leadership of its visionary controlling shareholder Howard Hughes, requested that the Lockheed Aircraft Company of Burbank, California, produce a fast, large capacity, pressurized airliner. Lockheed was already developing a pressurized airliner designated the L-44 Excalibur when Hughes approached the company to have it made to TWA’s specifications. Designed in complete secrecy under the leadership of Lockheed’s chief research engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, with ample direction from Hughes, the renamed 049 Constellation evolved into an extremely fast, revolutionary large capacity airliner with a unique dolphin-shaped fuselage and distinctive tripletail. This image was posted on December 01, 2022.

Similar Instagram posts

This image was posted on January 09, 2017. #onthisday #aviationhistory #avgeek #lockheed #tripletail #constellation #connies #twa #howardhughes #l049
The 049 Constellation was an extremely fast, highly advanced, and revolutionary large-capacity airliner with a unique dolphin-shaped fuselage and distinctive tripletail. This image was posted on January 15, 2016.
Happy 80th birthday to our most famous landmark! This image was posted on May 27, 2017. #hbd #ggb80 #myggbstory #goldengatebridge #ggb #goldengate #bridge #bridges
Manhattan has been featured in many travel posters throughout the history of commercial aviation as a popular tourist destination. This image was posted on June 28, 2024. #52posters
Are you excited for the Summer Olympics to start? This image was posted on August 02, 2016.
Los Angeles is only about 380 miles from San Francisco, but who would trade a four-hour plane ride for a lengthy train journey of over twelve hours? This image was posted on October 13, 2015.

This post mentions the following things involved with the SFO Museum collection:

TWA (Trans World Airlines). It is related to TWA (Trans World Airlines) (the company) .