Abba Tor, whose engineering prowess helped the landmark Trans World Flight Center take wing at Kennedy International Airport — and kept it from cracking apart — died on Feb. 11 in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. He was 93.

The skylight ribbons in the Trans World Flight Center at Kennedy International Airport emerged after the engineer, Abba Tor, told the architect, Eero Saarinen, that joints must be created between the concrete roof vaults.
The skylight ribbons in the Trans World Flight Center at Kennedy International Airport emerged after the engineer, Abba Tor, told the architect, Eero Saarinen, that joints must be created between the concrete roof vaults. © Credit Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Associated with Eero Saarinen and Louis I. Kahn, pillars of modern architecture, Mr. Tor worked with Mr. Saarinen on the John Deere World Headquarters in Moline, Ill., and the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center in New York, and with Mr. Kahn on the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven.

But he earned his reputation with Trans World Airlines’ birdlike terminal, designed by Mr. Saarinen. It was completed in 1962 and has since been celebrated as a symbol of the jet age.