A Nice Story

5–6 February 1946: Transcontinental and Western Airlines—TWA—”The Trans World Airline,” flew its first revenue international passengers on a scheduled transatlantic flight from La Guardia Field, New York (LGA) to Aéroport de Paris-Orly, Paris (ORY).

The airplane was a Lockheed L-049 Constellation, serial number 2035, NC86511, named Star of Paris, under the command of Captain Harold F. Blackburn. Captains Jack Hermann and John M. Calder, Navigator M. Chrisman and Flight Engineers Art Ruhanen, Ray McBride and Jack Rouge completed the flight crew. Purser Don Shiemwell and Hostess Ruth Schmidt were in the cabin along with 36 passengers.

Star of Paris departed LaGuardia at 2:21 p.m., EST, 5 February. The flight made brief stops at Gander, Newfoundland (YQX) and Shannon, Ireland (SNN), and arrived at Orly Field, at 3:57 p.m., February 6. The elapsed time was 16 hours, 21 minutes.

Confusion exists over which TWA Constellation made the first scheduled flight from LGA to ORY. This is probably because on 5 December 1945, another L-049, Paris Sky Chief, NC86505, s/n 2026, also commanded by Hal Blackburn, flew from Washington National Airport (DCA) to Paris Orly as a trial flight. On that flight, the Constellation averaged 316 miles per hour (509 kilometers per hour). This non-scheduled trip took 14 hours, 47 minutes, total elapsed time, with 12 hours 57 minutes actual flight time. Paris Sky Chief‘s TWA fleet number was 505, while Star of Paris was number 555.

(Note : That A/C had a rather short life span - and with other names before it was christened “the Star of Cairo” which ended in the Shannon crash in December 1946. Also extracts from Irish accounts of the “Start of Trans Atl Svc thru SNN” this A/C NC86505 was the first Connie to land at Snn, on November 26th/1945 on a proving flt from Gander in the record time of 6hrs55mins and the return flight on December 08th/1945 also set a new record of 7hrs46mins to YQX)

Harold F. Blackburn was born in 1901 at Urbana, Illinois. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1928, and studied aviation at the University of Southern California. He received his Air Corps pilot’s wings in 1930. In 1932, Blackburn participated in the relief of the Native American reservations near Winslow, Arizona, which had been cut off by a winter storm. His entire unit, the 11th Bombardment Squadron, based at March Field, Riverside, California, was awarded the Mackay Trophy.

Hal Blackburn began flying with TWA in 1934 and remained with the company for over 25 years. During World War II, he flew Boeing 377s across the South Atlantic for the airline’s Intercontinental Division, of which he would become the manager. In addition to the New York-Paris flight in 1946, Blackburn flew TWA’s first Boeing 707 from New York to Paris in 1961.

Captain Blackburn was the subject of Like a Homesick Angel, a biography by John Bainbridge, Houghton Mifflin, 1964. He died at Oakland, California, 4 August 1989, at the age of 87 years.

The Lockheed Constellation first flew in 1942, and was produced for the U.S. Army Air Corps as the C-69. With the end of World War II, commercial airlines needed new airliners for the post-war boom. The Constellation had transoceanic range and a pressurized cabin for passenger comfort.

The Lockheed L-049 Constellation was operated by a flight crew of four and could carry up to 81 passengers. The airplane was 95 feet, 3 inches (29.032 meters) long with a wingspan of 123 feet (37.490 meters) and an overall height of 23 feet, 8 inches (7.214 meters). It had an empty weight of 49,392 pounds (22,403.8 kilograms) and maximum takeoff weight of 86,250 pounds (39,122.3 kilograms).

The L-049 was powered by four 3,347.662-cubic-inch-displacement (54.858 liter) air- cooled, supercharged, fuel-injected, Wright Aeronautical Division Cyclone 18 745C18BA3 (also known as the Duplex-Cyclone) two-row 18-cylinder radial engines with a compression ratio of 6.5:1. They were rated at 2,000 horsepower at 2,400 r.p.m., or 2,200 horsepower at 2,800 r.p.m. for takeoff, (five minute limit) and drove 15 foot, 2 inch (4.623 meter) diameter, three-bladed Hamilton Standard Hydromatic 43E60 constant-speed propellers through a 0.4375:1 gear reduction. The 745C18BA3 was 6 feet, 4.13 inches (1.934 meters) long, 4 feet, 7.78 inches (1.417 meters) in diameter and weighed 2,842 pounds (1,289.11 kilograms).

The L-049 had a cruise speed of 313 miles per hour (503.72 kilometers per hour) and a range of 3,995 miles (6,429.3 kilometers). Its service ceiling was 25,300 feet (7,711 meters).

22 C-69s and 856 Constellations of all types were built. Designed by the famous Kelly Johnson, the Lockheed Constellation was in production from 1943–1958 in both civilian airliner and military transport versions. It is the classic propeller-driven transcontinental and transoceanic airliner.

On 18 November 1950, TWA’s Constellation NC86511 suffered failures of the two inboard engines while taking off from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The airliner was diverted to nearby Long Beach Airport (LGB) for an emergency landing. The crew made an instrument approach and could not see the runway until the last moment, touching down at approximately midway. The runway was wet and the airplane could not be stopped before running off the end. The right main landing gear collapsed. The Constellation was damaged but repaired and returned to service. It was later renamed Star of Dublin.

On 1 September 1961, NC86511 was operating as TWA Flight 529 from Chicago Midway Airport (MDW) to Los Angeles, California. Shortly after takeoff a mechanical failure caused to airplane to pitch up and stall. The flight crew was unable to regain control of the Constellation and it crashed in a field near Hinsdale, Illinois. All 78 persons on board were killed. .

Busy Day At TWA (early 1946)

TWA flights grew through Shannon, the company decided to recruit Irish people to train Flight Dispatchers and Passengers Services. American staff had initially been transferred to Shannon to oversee the operation The original aircraft used by TWA were old military aircraft, DC-4s which carried about 29 passengers. Flights operated from New York to Shannon via CYQX. After refueling, the flight then went from Shannon to Paris, Rome, down to Bombay and vice versa.

Both TWA and PAA decided to establish their own Flight Dispatch Centres “They were looking for people with aviation experience, who were willing to be trained as Flight Dispatchers..

All U.S flight operation are controlled by the U.S Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) in respect of operating procedures, air worthiness etc. It’s an FAA requirement that all flight operations are conducted under the joint authority of the Captain of each flight and a ground-based Flight Dispatcher holding a licence from the FAA. The document, signed by both parties is known as a flight release.

The Flight Dispatch Centre was under the control of Captain John Harvin, former chief Pilot of TWA’s North Atlantic Operations. After an extensive training course, Irish employees received their licences at the end of 1946, then gradually replaced the U.S Dispatchers.

TWA continued to expand and operate into Shannon until 1979, when they ceased operations as stopping at Shannon for refueling became uneconomic because of larger aircraft. _____

In 1987 TWA re-open International Dispatch in Paris, under the control of TWA Captain Claude Girard Vice President Flight International Operations, Lucien Bigeault Director, Guy Gossez Manager, re-hiring of former Shannon Dispatchers, Noël Deasy, Denis Egan and Des Keany, Paris Dispatchers Mike Johns, Jean-Claude Bonneau, Jean Ferran, Guido Reuter, from Saudia Airlines, Bob Everest, Paul Palmer, new Dispatchers from CDG/Ops Yvan Fulchiron, Marc Brécy and new hiring Keith Crawford Yann Cofmat.

To enhance fuel saving objectives, TWA Captain Claude Girard even proposed and obtained that Paris Dispatch took responsibility of Eastbound dispatching from and into U.S gateways during a six-month period. This was a daring experience managed to sell to NYC Flt Ops. However U.S dispatchers union raised serious objections as it meant that American jobs were taken over by overseas dispatchers and this trial had to be stopped. During the first Iraq war in 1992, Paris Dispatch Office, under active Claude’s involvement, dispatched Mac Flights to and from Saudi Arabia and later on MAC cargo flights via Pacific up to Honolulu where flights were taken over by Lax Dispatchers. Claude Girard by John Gratz Click Here TWA Captain Hal Blackburn

Marc Brécy Former Flight Dispatch Officer based at CDG. (Info from Internet,Valerie Sweeney, Lucien Bigeault and my personnel archives)