The ‘Spirit of TWA’ came home last week to Kansas City’s Trans-World Airlines (TWA) Museum with the fly-in of a 1937 Lockheed Electra Junior last week.
The small plane, dubbed “Ellie,” came to Kansas City from its previous home in rural Kansas on Thursday, June 20 to the cheers of a crowd of aviation enthusiasts at the old TWA hangar at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport. Ellie, owned by Ruth Richter Holden, was operated by TWA from 1940-1945 as an executive transport and airborne research laboratory, used to develop such technology as static discharge wicks — the small devices used on wings and stabilizers to bleed off excess static electricity from the body of the plane.
Holden is the daughter of Paul Richter Jr., one of the three founders of TWA. The plane was recently acquired by the TWA Museum and will become part of its permanent collection.
According to museum director Pam Blaschum, Ellie is the last flying TWA aircraft remaining in existence. It’s only fitting for Ellie to return to Kansas City to become a part of TWA’s lasting legacy.
The history of Kansas City — especially Platte County — and TWA are intertwined, with many TWA retirees calling Platte County home and the airline’s overhaul base located at KCI for decades.
Founded in 1930 as Transcontinental and Western Air, TWA became one of the four major domestic airlines in the United States. In 1939, Howard Hughes acquired and expanded the airline, which was headquartered in Kansas City — for a time in the building where the museum stands today. After celebrating 75 years of aviation in 2000, TWA was purchased by American Airlines in 2001. Since, the TWA brand has mostly been retired, with one American Airlines passenger plane carrying TWA livery in its “heritage” line honoring past airlines acquired by American.
The TWA Museum — previously located in the KCI Expo Center — opened in its current location in 2012. For more information, visit twamuseum.com.
