SPECIAL EDITION TWA – What ’ s in a Name ?
TAT
The first passengers to be transported by the company that would become TWA departed from New York ’ s Pennsylvania Station on the evening of July 7 , 1929 , aboard an all-Pullman train christened ‘ The Airway Limited ’. They were bound for Port Columbus , Ohio – a new railroad station and airfield combination that had been built on the outskirts of the city of Columbus – where they would board a Ford 5-AT Tri-Motor for the next segment of their cross-country journey on the morning of July 8 .
Also on July 8 , at Glendale Airport in suburban Los Angeles , none other than Charles Lindbergh piloted the company ’ s first eastbound flight after the Tri-Motor had been properly christened by screen actress Mary Pickford .
These were the inaugural services of Transcontinental Air Transport ( TAT ), which operated a combined air travel by day , rail travel by night , cross-country service between New York and Los Angeles in 48 hours travel time ( actually , 50 hours westbound and 46 eastbound ). This was the fastest transcontinental service that had ever been offered to the public .
TAT had been founded on May 16 , 1928 , as the brainchild of aviation entrepreneur Clement Keys and Pennsylvania Railroad president William Wallace Atterbury . Passengers rode the Pennsylvania Railroad from New York to Port Columbus , flew aboard TAT as far as Waynoka , Oklahoma , where they boarded an overnight AT & SF ( Santa Fe ) train to Clovis , New Mexico . After breakfast in Clovis , they were hustled aboard a TAT Tri-Motor to fly them the rest of the way on to Los Angeles .
1 Douglas DC-2 NC1934D was photographed in 1989 , 47 years after TWA disposed of its last DC-2 . This aircraft was lovingly restored by Douglas Aircraft volunteers and now resides at the Museum of Flight in Seattle . Note the accurate TWA 1934 livery . Overnight , Charles Lindbergh ’ s solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic in 1927 changed the nation ’ s perception of aviation ’ s possibilities . Lindbergh became a hero and TAT ( later , TWA ) hired him as a consultant for all matters technical . The company proudly emblazoned the words ‘ The Lindbergh Line ’ above the window band on its DC-2s . // BOEING CO . PHOTO
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