VintageAirTravel.com

It was the summer of 1985, and at the time I lived in Carson, California. I can remember from a young age being fascinated with aviation. I have flown numerous times before, but I was too young to understand or recall details of those trips.

In the spring of the year “We Are the World” a charity single originally recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985 was released. I was completing the 1st grade, but they held me back because we moved so much.

Back to the Future and Beverly Hills Cop were some of the top movies of the day.

I would get excited of just the thought of going to the major airport. If there was something with an airplane on the TV, I wouldn’t want to change the channel. When going to an airport, I enjoyed all the activity on the tarmac and the terminal. Back in the day, if you were picking up or dropping off a relative, you could go into the terminal and meet them at the gate. It was a really different time and the security was relatively non-existent. The smell of jet fuel, coffee, cigarettes and airplane grease ruled the air and smelled good to me. The noise was live and loud in 85′.

Please note: I am writing this all from memory. I searched the internet for the applicable TWA timetable, to no avail. I was too young to own much of anything, no photos, video, however they gave me and my sister some plastic wings which was awesome. I probably did not even think to bring a tape recorder.

It was July 5, 1985. Me and my mom and sister had to fly out of Los Angeles to Philadelphia via John F. Kennedy International Airport to see family and visit for 2 weeks. I was 6 going on 7. We got a ride to the airport for the late night flight. Once we got to the airport, our plane would be at terminal 3 at LAX for our Trans World Airlines flight.

Upon arrival at LAX that evening my first observations were, it was loud considering the types of aircraft that operated then. I noticed a twin jet being pushed in the distance. It was the first time I laid eyes on a Boeing 767-231(ER)? I really did not know about any other airplane at the time than the Lockheed Tristar L-1011.

Some time before the trip occurred my mother showed me the fight ticket, told me that the type of aircraft we would ride for the trip would be the Lockheed Tristar L-1011 and that it was powered by Rolls-Royce engines.

We did the ticket counter and check in. We were all dressed in our Sunday’s best and looking sharp for the flight. I had the shoes, the slacks, the shirt and all. It was a different era.

Walking through the terminal was interesting, seeing the elegant structure and large glass around the building. The architecture of the time was appealing entertainment before the flight. We made our way to the gate at the northwest side of terminal 3. The plane was parked at a gate where you could not really see much of it. Of what I could see there was the red stripes on the fuselage.

We ended up walking through the gate and jet bridge. Our seats were relatively towards the rear of the plane. We did not get window seats because we were sitting in the center rows of this Trans World Airlines Lockheed Tristar L-1011. Despite the lack of window seats, I was able to look over and see out the window from a distance.

The aircraft was huge. The seats we sat in were large to me as a kid and comfortable. I don’t remember exactly the look of the interior, but it had red seats. The aircraft was clean and inviting as a large living room with comfortable seats. The side panels were beige or off white. It smelled like jet fuel, coffee, and cigarettes.

Another thing that I remember about this L-1011 aircraft was that one of the doors opened up into the ceiling of the fuselage. I thought it was cool and different. At one point during the trip whether it was the boarding and loading or the deplaning process I had seen the door go into the ceiling.

Eventually everyone was seated. I was so excited and full of questions. At the time, I had no clue of the concept of flight, but I was trying to comprehend how this vehicle, is as large as a building, flies.

The engines were loud enough where we could hear the purr and rumble as the engines were started. The Tristar had a nice sound to them and reminded me of riding a bus with a nice diesel engine sound. So given my current knowledge of LAX flight ops, I estimate that we made a taxi for runway a 24L Take-off. The engines got loud for the takeoff setting, then we began to accelerate down the runway and off we went. Over the Pacific Ocean and a turn to the east and we were on our way.

When in flight, the air seemed dryer. There was also the air over the fuselage noise so I had to talk louder. It was very cold, and the crew at one point passed out some tiny TWA pillows and blankets. I imagine that this was done after the meal service.

For entertainment since I really enjoyed music, I believe I received a pair of headphones that consisted of hollow hoses and no electronics. It was a strange pneumatic system they were using in those days. I flipped channels just to see what was on. I don’t remember what I heard, but classics were coming from the 60’s.

They served a full meal in flight, although I don’t remember exactly what they served. On this flight I remember having some salad with cauliflower. At the time, I did not know such a thing existed and learned that it was genetically modified broccoli.

At points during the flight we would hit some light turbulence as the plane bounces and rattles. I was a bit concerned about the why the aircraft was shaking and it made me nervous. It felt like hitting some bumps on the road, instead it was in the air. Was it the jet stream or clouds, I could not know looking back.

I remember at some point that a white screen were pulled down and a film projector protruding from the ceiling. I don’t remember which movie they played in flight, because I was more interested in the flight itself. The movie screen seemed too far for me as I was one of those that likes to be close to the TV.

Going to the flight deck was something that kids could have done back in those days, however I was too shy to do so. In hindsight, I probably would have learned a great deal more about the flight from the pilots perspective. I told my mom I wanted to drive the airplane, and she kindly corrected me to say “fly the plane”. Oh, and I thought the runway was a “running way”.

At one point in the flight we had to go to the lavatory. Such a cool word for an airborne outhouse. We walked to the back of the plane and they had 5 lavatories rounded in the back of the plane in a U shape. Because we had the engine in the back it was really loud.

I may have fallen asleep during the course of the flight because it occurred during the hours I would have been sleeping. The flight made its way to JFK airport. When it landed, some passengers deplaned, others such as our party stayed onboard for the short hop to Philadelphia.

The whole experience seemed to be very magical as in riding a magic carpet across country because at that time I had a great amount of questions and did not understand how any of it worked. I really enjoyed this experience and it further cemented my interest in aviation. From that point on, I learned that there were some great books on the topic. Then the internet came alone years later and answered questions that the books could not answer.

After the two weeks that we stayed in the Philadelphia area, we flew a Trans World Airlines Lockheed L-1011 from PHL to LAX. I am not sure that there is enough to write about for this particular leg, so I decided for now to include it here. On the day we are to return to Los Angeles, we took an afternoon flight from Philadelphia. We took off to the south on 27R because when the plane lined up for the take off roll, I could see the red checkered painted fuel tanks off to the side. It was raining that day as we left PHL. I must have been tired because, I remember climbing through the clouds and not much else from the flight. However when we arrived in Los Angeles, I felt sad because now discovered flying and loved it so much but did not know when I would fly again. It would be a full 4 years before I got to fly commercially.

As life demands were in a different direction, I would never get the chance to fly Trans World Airlines again. They seemed to be struggling throughout the years before being acquired by American Airlines. Just to think at one time this airline was one of the “Big Four” domestic airlines in the United States at one time was amazing.