The Aero Experience Road Trip: TWA Is Focus of Two Museums in Kansas City

By Carmelo Turdo

It's the start of Road Trip season, and The Aero Experience set out today to make some new friends at two museums in Kansas City, MO that focus on the history of TWA - the former Trans World Airlines.  The Aero Experience contributors  Carmelo Turdo and Mark Nankivil, also officers on the Board of Directors for the Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum, visited the National Airline History Museum and the TWA Museum, both located at Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport.  The Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum will assist both museums with projects of mutual interest in the coming months. 

We first stopped at the National Airline History Museum and were impressed at the progress made in restoring their aircraft in TWA livery - Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, Martin 404, Douglas DC-3, and Lockheed L-1011.  Along with the aircraft, the museum displays a Curtiss-Wright Dehmel Flight Simulator, L-1011 cockpit procedures trainer, a replica rocket representing the one constructed for Disneyland, aircraft engines and other memorabilia.  Here are some views from our visit:    

The Aero Experience also visited the TWA Museum, also located at Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport, in the Signature Flight Support building.  The museum preserves and displays TWA memorabilia that cannot be found anywhere else, including a significant number of uniforms, models, awards and other priceless items used by TWA employees to carry out their daily jobs.  The TWA Museum was celebrating its one-year anniversary at its current location, with guests arriving from all over the Midwest.  Here are some views from our TWA Aero Experience: