Only one prototype was produced and served Transcontinental & Western Air (later Trans World Airlines or TWA) and two Spanish ...

But at $450,000, the Model 049 was also the most expensive ... through which Hughes ordered 40 aircraft. Lastly, Hughes and TWA had Lockheed keep the project under wraps so that TWA’s main ...

In 1996, Paris-bound TWA Flight 800 was carrying 230 people when it exploded minutes after taking off, killing everyone on board. The plane’s wreckage fell into the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island.