Clearly an advertising shoot with daisy-fresh 'overnight passengers' disembarking from a TWA 'Luxury Sky-Sleeper'. Although the 'widebody' DC-3 was expensively redesigned from the DC-2 as a sleeper plane, it never became popular as such. TWA's DC-3B already had a smaller, convertible sleeper cabin, with fewer upper windows than the original DST. NC17312 was commandeered by the USAAF as a C-84, but returned to TWA in 1943. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

Photo from: Civil Aviation Historical Society, Melbourne, Australia

Michael Gormly supplied photo to the Coates Collection. Photo from: Civil Aviation Historical Society, Melbourne, Australia

Beautiful picture by a TWA mechanic, shared by his grandson Patrick Rodwell. The aircraft ended up in Vietnam and crashed in 1965. Photo by: Kent Moser

The future of air transport is ready for boarding. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

The sole Douglas DC-1 during tests after its first flight from Clover Field, Santa Monica on 1 July 1933. This head-on shot shows the slender slab-sided fuselage and the squarer-tipped wings of this prototype aircraft. See other image for further information. Photo obtained from Douglas.

The forerunner of all Douglas Commercials. The sole DC-1 was ordered by Howard Hughes for TWA and first flew on 1 July 1933. Here used by the airline for tests before delivery for commercial use on 15 September 1933. Bought by Hughes in 1936. Later to G-AFIF, EC-AGN and EC-AAE being damaged beyond repair in a forced landing at Malaga with Iberia in December 1940. Note the slender slab-sided fuselage, original fin shape and spatted tailwheel. Photo obtained from Douglas.

TWA flew five of the ten 307s built. NX19906 first flew in early 1940. Painted temporarily as NC1940 for publicity purposes. Served on US coast-to-coast services. Impressed as C-75 42-88623. Returned to TWA in 1945 as NC19906. Used on US regional services. Sold in 1951 to Aigle Azur as F-BELU. From TWA 60 years ago.