SPECIAL EDITION TWA – What ’ s in a Name ?
8 other destinations , in the process acquiring Standard Air Lines and other companies . By the summer of 1930 , WAE boasted that it was America ’ s largest airline in terms of route miles flown , its system extending from California eastward to Kansas City , Tulsa , and Dallas .
T & WA
Postmaster General Walter Folger Brown was tasked with creating a first-rate airline network in the United States through the award , once again , of air mail contracts . He took his job very seriously and was convinced that only wellfinanced outfits with months of experience could be entrusted with these contracts that literally meant life or death for an airline company .
In the process of awarding the highly sought after air mail contracts , Brown forced a merger between TAT and WAE in order to operate his selected Midwest – Southwest route between New York and Los Angeles . The so-called shotgun wedding of the two airlines formed a new company called Transcontinental & Western Air or , as it was originally known , T & WA .
A small part of Western Air Express was allowed to continue as an independent company operating only its originally awarded air mail route , Los Angeles – Las Vegas – Salt Lake City … back to square one .
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