Our AMERICAN AIRWAYS My first trip on a commercial airline was in 1969. It was on TTA, Tree Top Airways, aka Tinker-Toy Airways or formally known as Trans-Texas Airways. From Little Rock to New Orleans. TTA used two prop engine planes, held about 50 passengers maybe. Later they got a bigger plane and called themselves Texas International Airlines. The one I rode in was a Beechcraft Model 99, a duel prop and it parked on the tarmac at a 45 degree angle because it used a tail wheel and all passengers fell toward the rear after boarding. They called it Tree Top Airways because on routes like from Little Rock to New Orleans the navigational equipment consisted of a pair of binoculars and a AAA road map, and a Mississippi River chart. The pilots flew low enough to read the road signs all the way to New Orleans. We followed Hiway 65 south and the Mississippi River. Then came the big planes, DC10 and L1011 and Jumbo Jet and the TWA and little TWAs that often crash and burn and...