OT..cool old airliners

[peabody]

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

[Tom Niebuhr]

Rich,
Love those Connies, and all the others. Seems like the jet airliners have no personalities in comparison.

[afml]

'Once upon a time', the Pittsburgh, PA Airport, before it became a BIG International Airport, had an outdoor observation deck. ONE of my favorite plane watching spots! Running from side to side to locate which plane was about to fire up the engines & depart the terminal. The Family was going to visit my Aunt & Uncle in LA. Yep! The mode of transportation was a TWA Super G. Made a short layover in Chicago. We sat by the wing so I could watch the engines fire up and the exhaust glow at night. What a trip for a youngster! The next day, Dad located a Friend and we flew over Disneyland in his small plane. The following day was filled with visits of Knotts Berry Farm and Disneyland.
Tomorrow Land still had the rocket standing tall & ready and we spent a lot of time at 'the cage' where C/L flying was still active.
Sorry to ramble on.....
"Tight Lines!"  
Wes

Check this out!!

[Jim Kraft]

I have been in the plane pictured 4th one down. That is Eisenhower's presidential plane named after his wife's home state of Colorado. To make a long story short it was flown into Abilene Kansas airport during the Eisenhower centennial. They made many flights over the town both day and night. Very cool to see one flying again.

[Douglas Ames]

'Once upon a time', the Pittsburgh, PA Airport, before it became a BIG International Airport, had an outdoor observation deck. ONE of my favorite plane watching spots! Running from side to side to locate which plane was about to fire up the engines & depart the terminal. The Family was going to visit my Aunt & Uncle in LA. Yep! The mode of transportation was a TWA Super G. Made a short layover in Chicago. We sat by the wing so I could watch the engines fire up and the exhaust glow at night. What a trip for a youngster! The next day, Dad located a Friend and we flew over Disneyland in his small plane. The following day was filled with visits of Knotts Berry Farm and Disneyland.
Tomorrow Land still had the rocket standing tall & ready and we spent a lot of time at 'the cage' where C/L flying was still active.
Sorry to ramble on.....
"Tight Lines!"  
Wes

That Observation deck at the old Airport is what peaked my interest in Aviation as a kid. I remember seeing the 707's and DC-8's in the mid - late 60's. The smell of Jet exhaust was thick back then. Didn't smell that again till I crewed a KC-135A in the Air Force in the mid 80's. Moved away from the area in 1980.

[afml]

I have been in the plane pictured 4th one down. That is Eisenhower's presidential plane named after his wife's home state of Colorado. To make a long story short it was flown into Abilene Kansas airport during the Eisenhower centennial. They made many flights over the town both day and night. Very cool to see one flying again.

Got any pics Jim?

The NMUSAF has it in their Presidential Hanger. Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.
The aircraft and several others including Kennedy's Air Force One, are open for 'tours'.
We were the first ones aboard Kennedy's plane after it's move from the Restoration Hanger for a re-paint.
Got pics of the interior as well as MANY other aircraft there if interested.

"Tight Lines!"
Wes

[55chevr]

The TWA retirees at Kansas City Municipal Airport had a flying Super G Constellation.   I saw it about 10 years ago.   American Airlines similar deal with a DC3.  They flew to JFK in 2009.  In better condition than when they flew commercial.


Joe

[Mike Keville]

. . . American Airlines similar deal with a DC3 . . .
Joe

========================================================

Yep. "Flagship Knoxville" - on display not far from DFW in Dallas.

[Howard Rush]

The TWA retirees at Kansas City Municipal Airport had a flying Super G Constellation.   I saw it about 10 years ago.   American Airlines similar deal with a DC3.  They flew to JFK in 2009.  In better condition than when they flew commercial.

I visited Delta in Atlanta awhile back.  They had found and restored the first Delta DC-3.  In each seat pocket was a copy of Life magazine from the week it first went into service, found on Ebay.  They invited me to go aboard, but I refused.  It was so perfect I didn't want to touch anything.   

[dale gleason]

If it ain't a
Boeing,
Howard
ain't a-
goin'

[Mike Keville]

If it ain't a
Boeing,
Howard
ain't a-
goin'

====================================================

Same here.  If it's a Scarebus, I'll wait 'til later for a Boeing.

[Dan McEntee]

I have been in the plane pictured 4th one down. That is Eisenhower's presidential plane named after his wife's home state of Colorado. To make a long story short it was flown into Abilene Kansas airport during the Eisenhower centennial. They made many flights over the town both day and night. Very cool to see one flying again.

   Hi Jim;
  It's named the Columbine, which is the state flower of Kansas, is it not? And Ike was from Kansas also? I know there is a city in Colorado called Columbine, but I think it was named after the flower?  And I believe that there was more than one, or currently are more than one, one of which is a replica? I saw one at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson during a VSC trip several years back and it's probably the "second" one, and the original is in Dayton. I might be wrong on this but I think it's correct.  I know Dayton was trying to round up all the presidential airplanes that are available. I've toured the "Save-A-Connie"/TWA Connie out of KC several times. We got to watch it really beat up the field at some air races in Olathe Naval Air Station in 1993, I think it was. MAde about 5 or 6 low passes, each lower and faster than the previous, before they landed to display it. Very cool!! I have lots of memories of all the big prop liners flying over our house in and out of Lambert Field here in St. Louis, and the terminal had a observation deck as others described also. The was the good old days!!!
  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Norm Faith Jr.]

I looked real hard to maybe see my Dad in one of the "Eastern Connie pictures," the ones that looked like they were at MIA (Wilcox Field), He did 33 years with them as an A&E/Maintenance Superintendent. I did a year and a half with them in 66-67.
BTW: I flew on the Connies, the 6's the 7's and the 404's many times growing up in an Eastern family, I got candy handed out by Rickenbacker at company picnics. Yep! things were far different then, people would get dressed in their Sunday best to fly. It was a "grand majestic experience on majestic flying machines" a long...long time ago.

[Jim Kraft]

Hey Dan; The Columbine is the Colorado state flower, and Mamie was from Colorado, and that is how the Connie got named. The Kansas state flower is the sunflower. The Eisenhower museum is here in Abilene along with the house that Ike grew up in. There is also a presidential library and chapel.

I talked to the crew that flew the Columbine in here, and they related this story to me. The owner of many Connies was looking through the Smithsonian where they had all of the connies listed with their serial numbers. He was using Connies to spray crops in Canada. He found that he had been using the Columbine for parts to keep the others flying. They then started restoring it and flew it to Arizona to get it finished for the Eisenhower Centennial celebration here in Abilene. They had the outside all finished but did not have time to do the inside, so they just flew it up here in that condition. It was beautiful. At night when they flew it one engine was putting out way more flame than the others as it just had the stub pipes on each cyl. as they had not found an exhaust collector for that engine.


When I was a kid my dad use to fly Connies from KC to Georgia alot, and so I always watched from the observation tower.

[Jim Kraft]

Hey  Wes; I think I have some pictures here somewhere but so far have not been able to find them.

[afml]

Hey Jim,
If you can't locate them...Lemme know!
I got pics of both the inside & out.

"Tight Lines!"
Wes

[Mike Keville]

Lockheed Lodestar, National Airlines, Daytona Beach, FL, winter 1950.  The little geek on the far left is me.

[Bill Mohrbacher]

'Once upon a time', the Pittsburgh, PA Airport, before it became a BIG International Airport, had an outdoor observation deck. ONE of my favorite plane watching spots! Running from side to side to locate which plane was about to fire up the engines & depart the terminal. The Family was going to visit my Aunt & Uncle in LA. Yep! The mode of transportation was a TWA Super G. Made a short layover in Chicago. We sat by the wing so I could watch the engines fire up and the exhaust glow at night. What a trip for a youngster! The next day, Dad located a Friend and we flew over Disneyland in his small plane. The following day was filled with visits of Knotts Berry Farm and Disneyland.
Tomorrow Land still had the rocket standing tall & ready and we spent a lot of time at 'the cage' where C/L flying was still active.
Sorry to ramble on.....
"Tight Lines!"  
Wes

Check this out!!

I used to watch planes at the old Greater Pittsburgh airport too.  When it first opened my mom got me a big "I Like Ike" lolly pop in one of the gift shops .  Those shops also had gas models, Firebabys and the old Anderson .065 swept wing balsa RTFs.

My mom took a trip on a Capital Vickers Viscount that I think was the first turboprop airliner.  Later on I flew in one.  It had nice large windows so you could really look around; not those mini things they have now.

The big deal in the 50s was to take your date up to the airport after a dance and go out on the observation decks.  That's all gone.

What is a shame is how many of the old simple freedoms (like the observation decks and kissing your mom goodbye on the tarmac) are gone thanks to a few scums.

[afml]

Hey Bill,
You are so right! What a shame.....
On the vid, I gotta kick out of Arthur smoking in the cockpit.

There was an amusement park close to the Pittsburgh airport, I believe it was 'Idlewild Park.'
Mom packed a picnic lunch and we headed toward that local. Dad turned on the side road next to the park.
When a ways down the road, through a farmer's gate and onto a steep, grassy hill.
I thought it was an unusual place for a picnic fer sure.
Mom got the red checked picnic cover out and then it happened.
There was a low deep sound that began far off.
The sound gradually became louder & louder.
Then the ground began to shake a little.
Or maybe it was my knees....
And then....
There it was!
Right over our heads!
We were having a picnic right over the end of the runway!!!
TWA...All the way!
Back then the pilots & co-pilots could open the cockpit windows and wave at ya.
What a day!!
"Tight lines!"
Wes

[55chevr]

I recall a movie from early 50-s with Fred Astaire. He met an arriving Lockheed Connie at LGA Airport Marine Air Terminal. There was a chain link fence 4' high separating the parking lot from the planes.  No gates, maybe 20' openings.  Fred Just walked up to the plane when it stopped and was chocked. I asked a Al Blackman, a mechanic that worked there at that time.  He said that there was no fence until the 50-s and no gates until the 60-s. People would be underfoot while he was working on the planes. My how times have changed. Al Blackman started with American Airlines in 1942. He is an active employee with 70 years service.

Joe

[Chuck Feldman]

Rich,

Nice thank you

Chuck Feldman

[john e. holliday]

Rich, thanks from the old DOC also.  Brought back memories of laying in the front yard grass watching the planes flying out or coming in to the Downtown Airport(KC Municipal).  Also some of the planes from the old Fairfax Airport of KCK.