On 31 March 1931 , the airline suffered after the 1931 Transcontinental & Western Air Fokker F-10 crash near Matfield Green , Kansas . The crash killed all eight on board , including University of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne . The cause of the crash was linked to the wooden wings , one of which severed in flight . As a consequence , all of the airline 's Fokker F. 10s were grounded , and later destroyed . TWA needed a replacement aircraft , but Boeing 's first 60 247s were promised to United Airlines . TWA was forced to sponsor the development of a new airplane design . Specifications included the ability to fly the high altitude route between Winslow , Arizona and Albuquerque , New Mexico with one engine inoperative . Other specifications included the capacity to carry 12 passengers , and an 1080 mile range . On September 20 , 1932 , the development contract was signed with Douglas Aircraft Company and the DC-1 was delivered to TWA in December 1933 , the sole example of its type . This was followed by the delivery of 32 Douglas DC-2s that started operations in May 1934 on its Columbus-Pittsburgh-Newark route . Most were phased out by 1937 as the DC-3 started service , but several DC-2s would be operational through the early years of World War II . Throughout 1934 , Tommy Tomlinson set load and distance records with the DC-1 . TWA used their Northrop Gamma as an " experimental Overweather Laboratory " , in a desire to fly at altitudes above the weather
1931 Transcontinental & Western Air Fokker F-10 crash
1931 Transcontinental & Western Air Fokker F-10 crash
Trans World Airlines