TWA

Treasure trove of TWA toy planes in Kansas City, MO

Museums, , , , , ,

A favorite find from our visit to Kansas City, MO a while back is the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures.

The museum boasts both the world’s largest collection of fine-scale miniatures and one of the largest collections of historic toys on public display.

If you had a favorite toy when you were a kid, it is likely on display at the museum.

There are many aviation-themed toys in the collection, but we’d love to jet on over now to see a new exhibit in the museum’s Hall of Collections.

On display are more than two dozen Trans World Airlines (TWA) toy airplanes from the collection of retired TWA pilot Cooper Weeks.

Here’s some of the TWA history shared on the sign by the exhibit:

The collection ..”harkens back to the heyday of the airline, one known as the Airline of the Stars. Initially formed in 1930, TWA became one of four major domestic airlines after World War II. The airline was headquartered in Kanas City, MO and in 1962 opened a hub for international flights at Idlewild (later known as John F. Kennedy) Airport in New York. TWAS was acquired by American Airlines in 2001.”

Aviation exhibit at Lambert-St. Louis Int’l Airport

Aviation history, Exhibits, ,

Lambert aviation exhibit

What better place to see artifacts from aviation history than in an airport?

Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is hosting a new exhibition in Terminal 1 featuring items on loan from the Greater St. Louis Air and Space Museum.

On displays: pristine aviation instruments, flight attendant and pilot uniforms, posters and other aviation-related memorabilia, much of it highlighting Lambert’s own history.

Look for an old Ozark Airlines sign, samples of boarding passes from carriers past and present and a lot of items from the golden years of TWA, which once had a hub here. There are also items related to the military here, including an ejection seat from a fighter jet.

lambert

Museum Monday: The Museum of Bags

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Last week I spent an hour in front of my closet trying to pick out the best suitcase for my next international trip.  Nothing seemed right, so I fired up the computer to go shopping for something new.

There are oodles of satchel stores out there, but I went home empty-handed because I didn’t get much past The Museum of Bags

Shopping bag by Andy Warhol

I thought the museum would be about baggage, but the on-line-only museum is focused more on paper sacks and related ‘carry-things-home-from-the-store”-type bags.

Which is fine with me.

Especially when I discovered this TWA (Trans World Airlines) bag filed there in the collection under “Other.”

Here’s the description of the airline and the bag from the Museum of Bags website:


“Founded in 1925 as Western Air Express, Trans World Airlines became one of the “Big Four” U.S. domestic airlines. In 1961, TWA became the first airline to introduce regular in-flight movies with By Love Possessed which starred Lana Turner and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. in first class. On December 1, 2001, Flight 220, using an MD-80, was TWA’s last flight. It flew from Kansas City, Missouri to St. Louis.”