TWA (Trans World Airline)   Douglas DC-3  NC18565            (c/n  4911)

                                     

                                        Now we come to the inauthentic, and maybe for some, controversial bit.  During World War II
                                        TWA gained a great deal of experience in overseas flights.  Not only with their Boeing 307s in the
                                        early stages of the war, but later in pioneering North Atlantic routes.  This effort was rewarded,
                                        after hostilities had ceased, with routes from the US to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and
                                        India.  Most of the capitals of Western Europe saw TWA serving them (except London, which was
                                        the domain of Pan American and American Overseas Airlines only).  TWA also provided service to
                                        Cairo, Jerusalem, Dhahran, Karachi and Bombay.  Incidentally, all flights had to make a stop at
                                        Shannon, in Ireland, for refueling.  However, because of this overseas scope the airline became known,
                                        universally, as the "Trans World Airline".   Note:  No "s".  And this was the titling carried on the fuse-
                                        lage in the period 1946 through 1950.   It was only on 17 May 1950 that the name of Transcontinental
                                        & Western Air was officially changed to "Trans World Airlines"  (With the "s").  Therefore, because of
                                        the general perception in those days that TWA stood for the "Trans World Airline", I shall refer to these
                                        three immediate post-war entries (DC-3, DC-4 and Constellation) as such, in lieu of their correct title
                                        of Transcontinental & Western Air.   NC18565 was to have been built as a civil airliner, but was divert-
                                        ed on the production line in 1942 to become a C-53-DO (42-6459).   TWA received it on 9 February
                                        1945, and it operated on domestic schedules.  It was traded in to Lockheed Aircraft in 1948 as part
                                        payment on a Constellation.  It then went to the German Air Force as XA+117 and wound up back in
                                        the US as N3101Q
                                     .  N1948 seen below was a purpose-built DC-3-362, delivered to Transcontinental & Western Air in
                                        1941.  It went to Union Steel when disposed of in 1953 (still as N1948).

                                      Douglas DC-3-362  N1948       (c/n  3298)