Former US carrier Trans World Airlines (TWA) operated several different varieties of Boeing’s legendary 747 quadjet family. We recently took a look at the history of the airline’s 747SPs, but what about the 747-200? TWA flew seven of these in the 1980s and 1990s.
1980s arrivals
The story of TWA‘s relationship with the Boeing 747-200 began in the mid-1980s. Boeing produced this version of the 747 to offer operators of its jumbo jet greater range capabilities. The 747-200 also had more powerful engines and a high maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) than the original 747-100 (of which TWA also operated 29 examples).
According to data from ATDB.aero, the first of a total of seven 747-200s joined TWA in June 1984. Registered as N301TW, this aircraft was 12 years old at the time of its arrival. It had previously flown for TAP Air Portugal since 1972. N302TW also joined TWA in 1984, albeit in October that year. This was also an ex-TAP Air Portugal aircraft.
1985 saw three more 747-200s join TWA. These (and indeed all seven in total) were examples of the standard passenger-carrying -200B version of Boeing’s second 747 series. The 1985 arrivals came second-hand from Egyptair (two aircraft) and Olympic Airlines (one).
_JP5891237.jpg){kind=link}
The second batch of 747-200s ended up joining TWA in the mid-1990s, when there were three arrivals. However, it is important to understand that only two were ‘new’ in terms of not serving the airline before. Specifically, one of them was N303TW, which joined in 1994, having already flown for TWA under the same registration between 1985 and 1990.
As far as the other two arrivals were concerned, the first to come onboard was N306TW. This 23-year old example had previously flown for Dutch flag carrier KLM and, most recently, America West Airlines. TWA’s last 747-200 arrival was N307TW in June 1996.
Stay informed: Sign up for our daily and weekly aviation news digests.
Where did they end up?
All seven of TWA’s 747-200s left the airline over the course of the 1990s. As already mentioned, the first to go was N303TW. This aircraft left in 1990 for Air Atlanta Icelandic, only to return between 1994 and 1998. Folloiwng its second departure from TWA, it joined Aerolíneas Argentinas. It is now in storage at Marana-Pinal Airpark in Arizona.
As it happened, N304TW also joined Air Atlanta Icelandic in 1990, just 16 days after N303TW. After a brief spell at Saudia, it came under the ownership of Wells Fargo Trust, before being scrapped in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Meanwhile, TWA’s first two 747-200s joined Tower Air in 1993. Another two were scrapped directly after leaving TWA in 1997.
The final 747-200 to leave the airline was N307TW. Having been the last example to join TWA in May 1996, it left in September 1997 after just over a year of service. Much like N303TW, this aircraft’s first post-TWA destination was Aerolíneas Argentinas. After a varied last decade of service, it was eventually scrapped in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2007.
What are your memories of TWA’s Boeing 747-200s? Did you ever get to fly on one of these red and white jumbo jets yourself back in the day? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments!
from Simple Flying https://ift.tt/3srH5kz
via IFTTT
Comments
Post a Comment