Historical Photos of LaGuardia Airport

[KE5YTV]

These are some historical photos of LaGuardia Field and other aviation firsts. There is a great shot of the tower radios. A Super Pro and some Nationals.

Mike

 http://www.faa.gov/about/history/celebration/media/LaGuardia%20Exhibit%20Album.pdf   

 

[K4RT]

Mike,

Thanks for posting the link. There are some great photos in that collection, including the clipper seaplanes. I think FAA might want to check the year noted in the photo caption  "1940s San Francisco International Airport" ... the aircraft in the foreground appears to be a Douglas DC-8, which didn't enter service until the late 50s.

73,
Brad

[WA2OLZ]

Some of the dates are clearly wrong, but some interesting photos nonetheless.  It's a bit scary to realize how many of those types I have been aboard!

[k3msb]

Thanks for posting Mike!  Very nice!   I love the photo of the B-307 Stratoliner passing over the tower!

Based upon the nose and cowl flaps, I believe that the plane on pages 9 and 52 is really a DC-2 and not a DC-3.

[n1bnc]

Hello and thanks for posting. I enjoyed the pictures immensely and also forwarded the link to my brother who works in the airport industry.

[KL7OF]

I enjoyed the aircraft pictures...Especially the DC-6s  They still fly the 6 in and out of the King Salmon Airport here...They fly low right over my house on approach...I like the sound of 4 round motors.....

[KE5YTV]

Thanks everyone. I'm glad to get a positive response. I debated with myself whether I should post them here but I decided that since all of my friends love old planes as much as I do, maybe my friends here would to. 

Mike 

[K4RT]

Mike,

Very pleased that you posted that link. I enjoy piston-engine aircraft from the golden age. My first airplane ride was in a Ford Trimotor at an air show. If you were 12 or under you could ride for a penny a pound with an adult that paid the regular ticket price. My fare was 70 cents. What a deal. My dad took my brother and I on that ride. There was a DC-3 parked at that air show that was in commuter passenger service that we were able to board, but it was not flying that day.

I am fascinated by the flying boats. I think there are a couple of photos of Connies in there as well. I used to fly small planes, and one day when I flew a friend into Kansas City-Downtown to grab lunch (maybe 20 years ago) there was a Constellation decked out in TWA livery parked on the apron. Someone at the airport told me that Connie was still flying - not for TWA - but by a preservation group. Beautiful plane.

73,
Brad K4RT

[k3msb]

Hi Brad --

That Connie is owned by the Save-a-Connie organization.  That was the name of the group when I was a member, but I think they're now the National Airline Museum.     I was on a business trip to Saint Louis one year in the early 1990's and drove over to Kansas City on the weekend to look at the plane.  At that time it was not restored. As a organization member I could climb aboard the plane and stay as long as I wanted.  Since it was at it's home base, there was nobody else around, so I had the opportunity to take many detailed pictures of the original pilot and flight engineer's panels prior to restoration and without being rushed.  I don't think I left a rivet in the cockpit unphotographed.

Regarding your Ford Tri-Motor comment.  Around the same time, maybe a few years earlier, my wife and I were flying up to an airport in Northern Ohio.  I called in to the tower as I entered downwind and the tower replied "Cleared to land number two behind the Tri-Motor on short final"!  Our heads snapped to the left and there she was, about 10 seconds from touchdown.  I wish I had my camera on that flight.

For you fellow round engine fans, I recommend the DVD series "Ice Pilots NWT" about Buffalo Airways based in Yellowknife NWT;  It's an excellent series!

Ah, round engines and radios that glow in the dark!!

[KL7OF]

Went fishing the other day at Katmai Nat'l Park......This was on the beach

[w1vtp]

Check out page 15 and the Hammarlund Super Pro.  I had one of those back in the day

Al

[W3RSW]

Went fishing the other day at Katmai Nat'l Park......This was on the beach

Caught: a true Boat Anchor.

You can tell 'cause the lifting hook's still on it but it's missing cylinders... Not to mention where it was found after all these years.  

What is it,  A Wright-Cyclone?

[W2VW]

Needs a drop of oil or two.

[KE5YTV]

It makes you wonder if there's another "air mystery" at the bottom of the lake. 

[K4RT]

Hi Brad --

That Connie is owned by the Save-a-Connie organization.  That was the name of the group when I was a member, but I think they're now the National Airline Museum. 

Mark,

I believe "Save A Connie" was part of the TWA livery, so that must have been the group. Maintaining that plane must be a labor of love for those involved!

Brad

[KE5YTV]

Mark & Brad,

Here are a few of those fabulous Connie's.

http://tripletails.weebly.com/photo-gallery.html

 

[k3msb]

Brad

In the early years of Save-a-Connie, they wanted to restore the aircraft to original TWA colors and schema.  However, for liability / legal reasons TWA did not want this to happen.  If I recall correctly from talks with some of the founders (or maybe it was from newsletters -- I can't remember it's going on 25 years.....) TWA was concerned about potential liability if the Connie went down in TWA colors.  So, they weren't against the idea in principal and would have loved the free PR,  but we were a litigious society even back then.   Obviously, this changed sometime of the interim years.   I have "official" photos of both the Connie (which is a 1049H) and their Martin 404 in "SAC" colors. 

This thread has dredged up some good memories.  I was rooting around my box-o-photos recently and came across photos I had taken of aircraft on approach into STL around 1990 or 1991.   I just climbed a hill with my camera and BHL (Big-Honkin-Lens) and sat there for quite a few hours.  Nobody cared.   I have quite a lot of TWA ships on approach, and a couple EAL ships in the mix.   On of these days I need to add an aircraft section to my web site.

Hi Brad --

That Connie is owned by the Save-a-Connie organization.  That was the name of the group when I was a member, but I think they're now the National Airline Museum. 

Mark,

I believe "Save A Connie" was part of the TWA livery, so that must have been the group. Maintaining that plane must be a labor of love for those involved!

Brad

[WB2EMS]

Great pictures, and good memories indeed. As a cub scout, many, many moons ago we went to Idelwild airport for a tour. We got to walk around a real Jet (707) but the high point for me was getting up in the cockpit of a Constellation and sitting in one of the seats. I was gobsmacked by the number of levers and dials, especially the 4 throttles sticking up and all the gauges associated with them in sets of 4. As I recall they were doing some ground run ups on the engines while we were still nearby enough to hear. Amazing piece of engineering. Living on Long Island I'd occasionally see them in the air on approach to one of the big airports nearby.

[K4RT]

Mike - Thanks for posting the link to the Connie photos. That plane had beautiful lines. Nice shots of the freight pods in some of the photos.

I recall reading years ago that when Howard Hughes was majority TWA stockholder he flew a Connie decked out in TWA livery as his personal plane.  Years ago I sat next to an elderly ham at a local radio club dinner who said he worked at National Airport when Hughes flew his Constellation into National and gave a talk to the TWA employees about the plane before the initial ships were delivered.

Mark - That Constellation at KC-downtown would look great with "TWA" painted on the side. Maybe it's okay to slap "TWA" on there now that TWA is gone!

[n1ps]

I liked the nice photos of LaGuardia.  Good history there.  I must admit that today this airport is one I try to avoid.   

I recently took a military flight out of North Island NAS in San Diego.  The terminal walls were covered in mural sized photos of the history of the NAS going back to 1917.  It was very nice and I really enjoyed the history on those walls.  I think I was the only one gawking at the walls, probably because most of the people there, both military and civilian, seemed to be regulars there. 
p

[John Holotko]

Anyone here recall the name Idlewild Airport ? Anyone remember what it was changed to ? As a Brooklyn kid I remember the Lockheed Constellations rumbling overhead. I also remember the fateful day in 1960 when a DC-8 collided with a Constellation on approach to Idlewild.  I remember hearing a loud thunderous sound in the distance which turned out to be the DC8 crashing into Park Slop Brooklyn.

[w8khk]

Anyone here recall the name Idlewild Airport ? Anyone remember what it was changed to ?

Originally it was known as New York International Airport, dedicated in 1948.   It was changed from Idlewild Airport to John F. Kennedy Airport in 1963, in memory of the 35th president of the United States.  I still recall what I was doing when I heard he had passed.

[KB2WIG]

" Anyone here recall the name Idlewild Airport ?'

Not that I'm old enough....


There's a holdup in the Bronx,
Brooklyn's broken out in fights;
There's a traffic jam in Harlem That's backed up to Jackson Heights;
There's a scout troop short a child,
Khrushchev's due at Idlewild!
Car 54, Where Are You??


klc