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"Now, I told him what a mess TWA was, except for the flying operations," Breech recalls. Tillinghast insisted that Breech become TWA's chairman (he still is). For himself, he arranged a contract that would continue his in come even if Hughes regained control of TWA and—as was fully to be expected—fired both of them. "It was kind of a dirty trick," Breech says today, "taking him out of Bendix where he was doing well and putting him in a business he knew nothing about."
Crossing the Cartel. Tillinghast learned fast. TWA had only 28 jet planes as against its chief rivals' 124 (Pan American had 46, United 44, American 34). It took Tillinghast ten days to make up his mind to order 26 Boeing 707s for $150 million. With good luck, he was soon able to buy six Convair 880s for immediate delivery when General Dynamics repossessed them from troubled Northeast Airlines. The planes helped TWA catch up in the equipment race. Still, TWA continued to lose money, and for a time Tillinghast seriously talked merger with Pan American. Before the deal jelled, the CAB flashed a red light, and as airline business picked up in 1963, the idea died.
TWA's biggest traffic gains have come across the Atlantic, largely at Pan American's expense, and owing in significant part to Tillinghast's decision to plunge into free in-flight movies, at a cost of $60,000 per plane just for the apparatus. Though the earphones needed to hear the movie sound track were pretty uncomfortable, and the programming was often dreary, the novelty lured passengers. But it jolted the International Air Transport Association, the fare-fixing cartel dominated by European lines, which couldn't stand the cost of competing. Delicately hinting that TWA would otherwise face harassment from foreign governments, or perhaps even suspension of its landing rights, I.A.T.A. persuaded a reluctant Tillinghast to go along with a $2.50 charge on overseas flights for the earphones (just watching the films without hearing the dialogue is free, and often an improvement).
Privacy's Penalty. TWA opened new terminals in 17 cities, including its architectural masterpiece by the late Eero Saarinen at New York's Kennedy Airport, developed such an efficient maintenance center in Kansas City that several other lines have engines overhauled there.
Now Hughes made his worst mistake. Chivvying Tillinghast about his Boeing purchases—he argued that other planes should have been bought—Hughes threatened to sue the airline for ignoring his wishes. Instead, backed by Breech and his star-filled board, Tillinghast sued Hughes for $145 million treble damages on antitrust charges. While he had control, the suit charged, Hughes had forced the company to buy planes that did not fit its needs, notably 20 Super-Constellations. TWA wrote the Connies off its books as a $38 million loss after flying them only a year and a half. Hughes countersued, but when his penchant for privacy kept him from testifying in court, a federal judge held him in "willful default" and threw out his case.