Mr. Hughes' biography states that he was once the owner of an airline called TWA, an acronym that stood for two different names during the life of the airline. In the spirit of Howard Hughes and with the movie about him in theaters, this seemed like a good time to feature this once-storied airline.
As with many other airlines that trace their beginnings to the 1920's, TWA also got its start as a contract airmail carrier for the United States government. In the case of TWA, that beginning starts with an entity known as Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT). Transcontinental was formed 16 May 1928 by a group led by Clement M. Keys. Keys was a Canadian-born businessman whose career began with The Wall Street Journal. What originally set Transcontinental apart from other mail carriers offering passenger service was the unique coast-to-coast service being offered. Passengers would ride both air and rail travel to get from one coast to another. A typical two day journey across the continent would have passengers fly in a Ford Trimotor by day and in a Pullman car by night.
But TAT would soon become TWA at the prompting of the United States government. Postmaster General Walter Folger Brown was the government agent who handled the mail contracts. He was of the opinion that no route should be served by two airlines. He reasoned that the government should not pay two separate airlines for the same service. I wonder if he thought of having the airlines issue competitive bids each week or month for the service? He urged Transcontinental to merge with an airline called Western Air Express.
Western Air Express was formed in 13 July 1925. (So, actually, you can take your pick which date to use in the birth of TWA-Western's 1925 inauguration or TAT's 1928 commencement; it appears TAT was the more dominant partner, but Western started operations first.) Western Air Express flew six Douglas M-2 mailplanes and employed 20. In 1930, Western Air Express agreed to merge with Transcontinental Air Transport on 24 July 1930 to form Transcontinental and Western Air Inc. (the original use of TWA). The new airline began flying coast-to-coast flights on 25 October 1930 with an overnight stop at Kansas City. However, the deal seems to have fallen apart and Western Air Express was later revived and signed its first ALPA contract in 1940. The carrier became Western Airlines in 1941.
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