“What did they do with any money they got? They went out and bought Hilton International and Century 21. “TWA after Howard Hughes was really run by a group of people who never believed in the airline industry,” says Don Casey, who joined TWA’s marketing department in 1968. TWA began to gain ground, but more trouble was on the way. After more than 25 years of litigation, the airline won one and lost the other, pocketing damages of almost $50 million.) (TWA eventually filed two lawsuits against Hughes. Six years later, he would sell his TWA stock. In 1960, with TWA facing bankruptcy, Hughes finally gave up control of the airline. “He was a genius in many aspects of aviation, but he maintained a very spotty record of financial achievement.” “We were subject to very stiff interest penalties as a result of Hughes’ involvement,” says Jerry Cosley, who held several executive and staff positions with TWA from 1960 to 1985.
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TWA was in desperate need of money, but no bank would give the airline a cent as long as Hughes was still in the picture. He began playing games with the manufacturer-refusing delivery of planes, sending his own inspectors to place them under armed guard, preventing TWA inspectors and Convair workers from boarding, even blocking test flights-in a bid to delay payment. But with the Convair order Hughes found himself nearing the end of his financial resources. (Indeed, he had been known to keep a TWA plane on hand for his personal use for months at a time despite his top executives’ entreaties for its return to service.) “Eight domestic Boeings, while better than none, were not sufficient to preserve TWA’s markets against the forthcoming onslaught by American and United,” wrote longtime TWA executive Robert Rummel in Howard Hughes and TWA.įinally Hughes ordered 18 international Boeings and 30 Convair 880s, and it seemed that TWA might be back in the game. but cagily told TWA that the airline would have no rights to them. He eventually ordered eight short-range Boeing 707s through his Hughes Tool Co. In the mid-1950s, when United, American and Pan Am placed large orders for the latest jets, Hughes wouldn’t allow TWA to follow suit. He loved jets and wanted TWA to be one of the first airlines to have them-but, as with everything else, it had to be done on his terms. But he also brought the eccentric behavior that foreshadowed his descent into an obsessive- compulsive prison years later.įiercely secretive and famously indecisive, Hughes was the millstone that kept TWA from staying at the front of the high-stakes jet race.
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He brought to the table glittering celebrities, a true aviator’s love of flying, and money, money, money. At first, TWA was thrilled to have him at the helm. Hughes would own TWA for the next 27 years-without ever holding an official position. Already a famed aviator, tycoon and playboy, Hughes was asked to invest in TWA by its president, Jack Frye, a universally respected pilot who had run the airline since 1934. In 1939, legendary Leonardo DiCaprio vessel Howard Hughes gained control of the airline. TWA was born in 1930 when Transcontinental Air Transport merged with Western Air Express. But as glorious as TWA’s image was, its history was rife with missteps, misfortunes and miscreants. Glamorous, tragic, gone before its time.Īnd even though TWA’s demise didn’t involve pills or rumors of mob involvement, it was every bit as controversial as Marilyn’s suicide.Īsk any ex-staffer what went wrong with the airline, and you’ll get one answer: Carl Icahn, the corporate raider who took over TWA in 1985 and systematically stripped it of its assets. TWA was the Marilyn Monroe of the airlines: an American icon done in by powerful men who wanted a piece of its magic.