Flight Around The World

An autobiography by Captain Lyle D Bobzin; a 36 year veteran pilot for Trans World Airlines. Growing up during the Great Depression, he was inspired by the solo flight of Charles A Lindbergh to pursue a career in aviation. Follow the author as he is hired by Transcontinental & Western Air, "The Lindbergh Line", the forerunner of Trans World Airlines, known as the airline of international celebrities and motion picture stars. During the 1940s under the ownership and direction of Howard Hughes and President Jack Frye, read about the vision these men shared of creating and implementing an around the world airline and the opposition they overcame, and how these events influenced his world perspective as seen from the flight deck.

The formative years cover the expansion of Trans World Airlines from a domestic airline to an international air carrier when in 1946 TWA flew a Lockheed Constellation from New York to Paris and established the TWA International Division. Thus began the route expansion into the cities of Paris, Geneva, Rome, Athens, Tel Aviv, Cairo, Bombay, and Colombo, Ceylon. In addition, flights were flown to the Azores, Lisbon, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli to Cairo. Later Madrid, London and Frankfort were added. TWA was the first airline to fly into Tel Aviv, Israel.

Innovative and pioneering, TWA was the first airline to fly the Lockheed Super Constellation, the "Connie", and the Super "G". Discover how world politics influenced the route awards. As the airline industry grew, so did government regulation as CAA evolved into the FAA.

With the advent of the Boeing 707 and award of landing rights into Hong Kong, TWA now completed the around the world route structure in which TWA flight crews flew completely around the world. In the 1960s skyjacking and terrorism began targeting the airline industry. Enter the Boeing 747 and you have just some of the challenges this pilot and his company faced.