nc4458

Fokker F-10 airplane

from Smithsonian Institution

• dazzling aftermath said:

  Western Air Express merged with Transcontinental Air Transport in 1930 and later became Trans World Airlines.

• Colin Howell said:

  [https://www.flickr.com/photos/20087013@N02] : Yeah, the story of Western Air Express's relationship with TWA is a bit complicated. As you said, Western Air Express (WAE) merged with Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) in 1930, forming Transcontinental & Western Air, which is what TWA originally stood for. In 1934, the former Western Air Express broke off from TWA, initially calling itself General Air Lines, but it fell back to its original name of Western Air Express after several months. It retained that name until 1941, when it became Western Air Lines. In 1954 this was altered slightly to Western Airlines. Western would remain one of the major carriers in the western U.S. until it merged with Delta in 1987. TWA retained its name of Transcontinental & Western Air until 1946, when it started to pursue international service and rebranded itself as the Trans World Airline (singular). The company's official name remained unchanged until 1950, when it became Trans World Airlines (plural). TWA lasted until 2001, when it merged with American Airlines. The reasons for all the intricate business shuffling in the 1930 to 1934 period are rooted in the politics of the U.S. Air Mail. It's much too complex to describe here, but look up the "Air Mail Scandal", whose results led to the merging, breakup, and renaming of a whole bunch of U.S. airlines. Oh, and in the bargain, a push for reform in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Like I said, it's complex--but interesting. :D One more historical note: famed Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne died in a 1931 crash of a TWA Fokker F-10 trimotor like this one. The resulting investigation revealed serious problems with the integrity of the aircraft's wooden wing. The design wasn't fundamentally flawed--Fokker had used it for many years--but it was difficult and expensive to inspect and maintain, and money was tight in the early years of the Depression, so it's possible that TWA was trying to cut corners. Anyway, the public reaction killed Fokker's reputation in the U.S., and the U.S. Fokker division never recovered. Meanwhile, TWA was forced to fall back on its fleet of all-metal Ford Trimotors and needed replacements for its now stigmatized Fokkers. The situation became more desperate when its competitor United Air Lines acquired a fleet of new revolutionary Boeing 247s, much faster than both Fords and Fokkers. TWA was locked out from buying its own Boeings, because Boeing and United had common ownership and United had first dibs on production. So TWA went shopping, and Douglas Aircraft, which had never built an airliner before, proposed an alternative that, after some refinement, became the DC-2. This was a world-beater, even better than the Boeings, and every airline wanted them. Douglas then expanded the DC-2 to make the DC-3, which became a legend. Douglas would dominate airliner production with its DC- series until the jet age, when Boeing was finally able to seize its crown.

• dazzling aftermath said:

  Colin, An excellent history of TWA , their merger with Western Air Express, and the reason for the development of the DC-1---3 aircraft. If you recall Western Air Express had an Indian Head painted on the side of their aircraft. When I started with TWA, in 1964, that emblem was still used on the buttons which held the golden bands on our hats. Years later mine was stolen and the replacement no longer had the Indian head on the buttons. A loss I still regret.

• Colin Howell said:

  [https://www.flickr.com/photos/20087013@N02]: Thanks for the compliments. I have indeed noticed Western Air Express's Indian Head emblem many times in images of their aircraft and other paraphenalia. (I've even seen it on one Fokker marked as General Air Lines!) I'm surprised to learn that TWA was still using it on their crew uniforms in the early 1960s! My sympathies for your loss. :( My personal interest in this subject, and particularly in its relationship to Douglas, comes from my dad, Ron Howell, who worked for the Douglas Aircraft division of McDonnell Douglas for many years, starting just around the time of the merger, and concentrating on airliner marketing and sales. So I got pretty heavily steeped in the airliner industry growing up, and despite the fact that I never entered the field, my interest in it has never really waned.