TWA Hotel

 

In 1955, Trans World Airlines (TWA) commissioned renowned architect Eero Saarinen to design a “flight center” at New York’s Idlewild Airport (now JFK). Shaped like a futuristic bird, the project quickly became one of the most famous and fabulous airport terminals ever built. Unfortunately, the center, which was abandoned after American Airlines bought TWA, sat empty for 18 years. That is, until last week when it reopened as the luxury TWA Hotel.

Huge fans of modern architecture, we of course had to see the hotel for ourselves and so booked a room the night before flying home from JFK. Entry to the hotel was via a red elevator, at the far end of JetBlue's terminal 5 baggage claim, that took us to a long corridor. Everything was still new and not yet quite ready—calling it a “luxury” hotel, at this point, would be extremely generous—but the hotel's interior was absolutely phenomenal: enormously high ceilings, swooping architectural lines, and minimal barriers to accommodate busy travelers rushing from one end to the other. Entirely breathtaking. To complete the experience, an old TWA Constellation (“Connie”)—now a cocktail lounge—was parked on the tarmac out back. Truly a mid-century modernist’s dream.

 

Exiting the baggage claim elevator, we were greeted by a 

recreation of the TWA president's desk—photo ops galore!

 

"TWA red" carpeted corridor to the hotel

 

First glimpse of the interior. Restaurant on second floor, but

you need a reservation (we did not have one).

 

From other side of interior

 

Registration "desk" below, display of flight attendant uniforms above.

Check-in is done all online—the computer had a hard time

finding us . . .

 

Entrance from the front of the hotel

 

Skylight

 

View from the second floor

 

Panoramic view of the hotel's front

 

Plenty of seating upstairs

 

And red carpet

 

Old arrivals and departures board

 

Rotary pay phones

 

View of the Connie from the red sunken lounge

 

The Connie

 

"Up, up and away . . ."

 

The Connie cocktail lounge

 

Flight attendant logo

 

Fabulous uniforms!

 

A bar and bathrobe in our room, but no closet or cabinet.

Travelers are not expected to stay long at this hotel.

 

Everything is branded

 

Tiny rooms, but stylish furniture

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Pima Air Museum & Boneyard

My favorite type of airplane: on the ground!

I may hate to fly, but I do love airplanes. So while we were in Arizona, we took a short side-trip to Tucson, home of the Pima Air & Space Museum and Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARG). The museum is great: 300 old airplanes and helicopters from the past 100 years of aviation history.

Vietnam War era helicopter—the famous Robert Duvall

beach scene from Apocalypse Now was on continuous

loop nearby—"Ride of the Valkyries," anyone?

Lockheed Electra—similar to the one Amelia Earhart

was flying when she disappeared

Various WWII aircraft

But it’s the some 4000 mothballed military planes, jets, etc., that really caught my imagination. Housed on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, AMARG uses the planes to replace parts on active aircraft—saving the military about $400 million a year in replacement costs. Since the planes are on the base, access to the “boneyard” is via tour bus only, offered through the Pima museum. 

Bus tour through the boneyard

Tim was less enthused than I was about spending an entire morning looking at rusty old warplanes. He perked up considerably, though, when he noticed not one but three B-52 bombers parked in the back of the museum. Even we liberal anti-war pacifists were thrilled to see such magnificent aircraft.

Enormous B-52

NASA cargo plane

Another B-52

Three-fin tail of a TWA Constellation

We highly recommend visiting the museum, as well as the boneyard, the next time you’re in Tucson.

National Airline History Museum

So we missed the space shuttle flying over Los Angeles, Friday morning—major bummer—but at least we got to see the National Airline History Museum in Kansas City. Karen had visited several years ago and came back with tales of such fabulous artifacts, that I've wanted to go ever since. Lucky we knew about it beforehand or else we never would have found it.

Located to one side of the city’s former “downtown airport,” the museum celebrates the history of passenger flight and TWA, in particular. There is a small room filled with airline ephemera and uniforms—noteworthy, but not nearly as fascinating as the exhibits at our own Flight Path Learning Center at LAX. What sets the Kansas City museum apart from others is its small but exciting collection of aircraft: a 1951 Martin 4-0-4, built in Burbank at the Lockheed plant not far from my childhood home; a 1941 Douglas DC-3, built in Santa Monica; a 1972 Lockheed L-1011; and the true centerpiece, the first Lockheed Super G Constellation to be restored to flying condition. We got to board the Martin 4-0-4. But it was the “Connie” that really took our breath away: a wallpapered interior, sleeping bunks, and a relatively wide body for its time. Little wonder the Constellation was such a popular passenger airplane.

Martin 4-0-4

DC-3

The Constellation

Connie's distinctive three-fin tail

Map of the world interior wallpaper

Artist's rendering

The absolute pièce de résistance for us Disney fans, however, was the third-scale replica of TWA’s “Moonliner II” from the long defunct—and much loved—Rocket to the Moon ride of our youth. I had a vague memory of it being part of the museum, but nearly collapsed when I saw it. 

      Moonliner II replica

Disneyland

And if that wasn’t enough, we found yet another Moonliner atop the former corporate HQ of TWA in present-day Kansas City! Just too fabulous for words!

18th and Baltimore in downtown Kansas City