TWA  FIRST.

On February 5, 1946, the Constellation "Star of Paris" Inaugurated International service for Trans World Airlines the aircraft used on this flight was a Constellation 049 model 49-51-26, plane number NC86505, TWA fleet #550.

Before take off at La Guardia, it was christened by Mrs Jack Frye with Henri Bonnet, French Ambassador and Robert Brennan, Irish Minister to the US.

The crew of "Star of Paris" the TWA Constellation which inaugurated scheduled air service across the atlantic.
Captain Hal Blackburn, was in command with him on the historic flight were Co-Captains Jack Hermann, and J. Calder; Purser Don Shiemwell, hostess Ruth Schmidt, Flight Engineer A. Ruhanen and Navigator M. Chrisman.
There was a total of 36 passengers on board (4 had boarded at Washington DC where the flight originated).

Star of Paris departed LaGuardia at 2:21 p.m., EST, 5 February. The flight made brief stops at Gander, Newfoundland (YQX) and Shannon, Ireland (SNN), and arrived at Orly Field, at 3:57 p.m., February 6. The elapsed time was 16 hours, 21 minutes.

New to the international airline field, despite its wartime initiation, TWA was faced with many complex problems. Inauguration of international service reauired worldwide mobilization of the airline's resources. Foreign contacts had to be established and key personneel trained to operate the foreigh offices and bases. This had to be done when many necessary materials were unavailable and the manpower shortage was still acute. Individual agreements had to be concluded with various countries, and the airline soon discovered that private version of the Marshall Plan for the development of aviation in certain countries had to be undertaken.
Consequently the airline started a large scale program that involved financial investment and or organizational guidance to many local airlines, including those in France (Air France) Italy, Greece, Iran, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia...etc... 

(Note: That A/C had a rather short life span - and with other names before it was christened 'The Star of Cairo' which ended in the Shannon crash in december 1946. Also extracts from Irish accounts of the 'Start of Trans Atl Svc thru SNN' this A/C NC86505 was the first Connie to land at SNN, on november 26th/1945 on a proving flt from Gander in the record time of time of 6hrs55mins and the return flight on december 08th/1945 also set a new record of 7hrs46mins to YQX.

 

 

TWA FIRST .
On March 13, 1974 at 6 a.m., five days after the inauguration of Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle by Prime Minister Pierre Messmer, the TWA B747 from New York becomes the first commercial aircraft to land on the tarmac at CDG.
Quickly nicknamed the "Camembert" because of its circular shape, the "T1" has an annual capacity of 10 million passengers per year. It initially welcomes TWA, then Pan Am and UTA (which until then was based at Le Bourget with Aeroflot), JAL, Air Canada, Air Afrique and Air France which transfers most of its activities there.

 

TWA FIRST February 1 1985 

Trans World Airline (TWA) Flight #810 BOS-CDG operated the first 120-minute ETOPS.
TWA Flight 810, a Boeing 767-200ER, departed Boston for Paris, the first commercial passenger flight in history under the 120-minute ETOPS rule. Sixteen TWA pilots underwent intensive simulator training and specialized ETOPS training that included landing at Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland, the airport designated for the 120-minute diversion.

Initially, TWA called these operations EROPS (Extended Range Operations).

Specialized ETOPS that included landing at Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland, the designated airport for the 120-minute diversion.

Initially, TWA called these operations EROPS (Extended Range Operations).

TWA 810 had eleven FAA observers and fuel burn was 7,000 pounds/hour less than the Lockheed L-1011 on the same route. Needless to say, the savings demonstrated by TWA's 767s were a marketing coup for Boeing.

TWA was so pleased with the efficiency of the 767 with the 120-minute rule that it spent $2.6 million per plane to retrofit all of its 767s to the 120-minute ETOPS standard.

But Dick Taylor and Boeing were not going to stop there. The 120-minute ETOPS rule was not enough to allow 767s to fly to Hawaii.