Come Fly with Me: The Rise and Fall of Trans World Airlines

The only comprehensive history of TWA and its predecessors.

This book recounts how three larger-than-life personalities—Charles Lindbergh, Howard Hughes, and Carl Icahn—shaped the history of Trans World Airlines (TWA) and determined its fate. It’s the story of how powerful, strong-willed individuals created and ultimately destroyed an American icon that had deep roots in Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri. Come Fly with Me traces the airline from its origins in the 1920s to the twenty-first century. By using unprecedented access to the entire TWA corporate archives and interviewing key business leaders, the authors have crafted a compelling tale of a corporation, an industry, and an era.

Daniel L. Rust is associate professor of transportation and logistics management at the University of Wisconsin–Superior and the author of The Aerial Crossroads of America and Flying Across America. Alan B. Hoffman is a historian and the author of Up There with the Biggest: The Story of Ozark Airlines.