Historical Significance

This is the cap of a captain in Trans World Airlines, an airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. In the mid-20th century, airline captains were not only ambassadors for the airline, they were an iconic symbol of the Jet Age and, beyond that, the Airlines they flew for. 

Captain James A. McIntyre was one such captain, yet he was also well-known pioneer not solely as a pilot, as he often was selected to fly the inaugural flights of many TWA aircraft, but also as an air safety advocate. Throughout a career spanning 33 years, he served as a Captain and Line Check Airman, garnering over 20,000 hours on various airframes, including being among the first group of pilots qualified to fly models like the Boeing 727 and 747. However, his primary legacy comes from his work in aviation safety. He served as President of the International Society of Air Safety Investigator (ISASI) in the late 1990s and chaired the ISASI Human Factors Working Group, since he was a pioneer in Crew Resource Management (the study of how a crew operates whilst under pressure, such as in emergency situations), and also as Chairman of the TWA Accident Investigation Committee. He was the lead investigator for ALPA in the TWA Flight 841 inquiry. He also flew Archbishop of Boston Bernard Law to Rome to receive the pallium from Pope John Paul II.

On April 4th, 1979, TWA Flight 841, a scheduled flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, suddenly entered into a spiral dive over Michigan. The pilots heroically regained control of the aircraft and managed to safely land at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. In the years following, an inquiry was conducted and the NTSB concluded that the crew was at fault for manipulating the flight controls, a decision that McIntyre heavily disagreed with and famously requested that the NTSB's chief investigator, a former Brigadier General and pilot himself, be removed from the case, accusing him of failing to remain impartial. McIntyre fought to prove that mechanical failure was possible, and in 1981, personally presented the crew with a meritorious service award from the ALPA (as seen below). 

Captain McIntyre was not only involved in the investigation of Flight 841, as he was later involved in investigations into the 1986 bombing of TWA Flight 840, where he was a security expert and investigator, and testified to Congress about the airport security gaps in Rome and Athens and identified a Lebanese woman, May Elias Mansour, as the likely suspect who planted the bomb. He was also involved in a specialised board that analysed the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 and worked with ALPA to push back against the NTSB's initial focus on pilot error in the 1974 crash of TWA Flight 514. Furthermore, McIntyre frequently met with lawmakers and regulators to push for policy changes that prioritised mechanical fail safes over simply blaming human error. 

Outside of the civilian airlines, McIntyre also served as a Naval Aviator, reaching the rank of Lieutenant commander. He flew several key aircraft, including the Lockheed P2V Neptune, Douglas C-118 Liftmaster and the North American SNJ. The experience he gained in his Navy service, including significant over-water navigation and heavy transport, became critical for TWA's international route expansions in the 1950s and 60s. His naval tenure gave him a high level of operational discipline, an attribute that made him a formidable investigator when he transitioned to ALPA and allowed him to confidently challenge government agencies, as he did during the investigation of TWA Flight 841. 

Unlike the uniforms of flight attendants, the pilot's cap remained entirely unchanged from the 1960s until the acquisition of TWA by American Airlines in 2001. The visor features a unique style of gold bullion oak leaves, signifying the rank of Captain. The tradition of naval uniforms for pilots comes from Pan Am in the 1930s, who made pilots of their flying boats wear naval uniforms to reassure passengers of the safety of air travel, which is a tradition that remains even today. The metal insignia depicts two jetstreams merging into one, which was a design choice created due to the transition into jet-powered flight, and replaced the earlier Transcontinental & Western Air 'Indian Head' motif, which was kept on the buttons (as seen in the technical gallery. Curiously, this cap was produced by Thorngate Uniforms Inc., a prestigious British contractor, which shows not only the durable, structured tailoring that came to define TWA, but also the international scale that TWA's operations commanded.  

Select References & Further Reading:

• PBS/Nine Network. Sky High... The Story of TWA. St. Louis: KETC 9.

• TWA Skyliner Magazine Volume 48 Number 14

• US House of Representatives. Hearing before the Subcommittee on Aviation: Terrorist Activities Affecting Civil Aviation.

• National Transport Safety Board. Aircraft Accident Report: TWA Flight 841, Saginaw Michigan (NTSB-AAR-81-8)

• International Society of Air Safety Investigators. Forum, Vol 19, No. 2. 

• United Press International. "Veteran TWA Pilot James McIntyre, a Member of the accident investigations board of the Air Line Pilots Association" UPI Archives, April 10, 1986.

• Koza, Patricia. "Actions by the Flight Crew Triggered events that sent a TWA Boeing 727 into a six-mile supersonic dive over Michigan in 1979..." UPI Archives, June 9, 1981.

• Corsetti III, Emilio. Scapegoat: A Flight Crew's Journey from Heroes to Villains to Redemption. Odyssey Publishing

• Bender, James. Aviation Uniforms of the Golden Age.

Header image: Convair 880 climbs away from LAX, Terry Waddington (c.1960). Image sourced via Public Domain.

Image used: 'Jim McIntyre Receives Safety Award', from TWA Skyliner Magazine Volume 48 No. 14. Image sourced via Public Domain.

Image used: 'James A. McIntyre awards the pilots of TWA Flight 841 the meritorious service award', Photographer Unknown, (c.1981). Image sourced via Public Domain.