What we’re reading: books about airports

If you’re looking for the perfect gift for someone who loves history or aviation, take a look at the Images of Aviation series by Arcadia. The prolific publishing house puts out hundreds of photo-rich books on local and regional history.

There are more than 100 titles in the series. Each one is written by a local writer and/or historian using the standard Arcadia format of about 200 black-and-white photos with explanatory captions.

Airports, historic aviation sites (such as Area 51), airlines, and notable people in aviation history are covered and include the Denver Airports, Los Angeles International Airport, US Airways, LaGuardia Airport, Boeing Field, and many, many others.

New to the series is a book on Dallas Love Field, by Bruce A Bleakley, the former director of the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas, Texas. This isn’t Bleakley’s first Arcadia rodeo; his other books in the Images of Aviation series include Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Aviation. So it’s pretty clear he’s the go-to expert for anything aviation in the Dallas area.

The Stuck at the Airport book club received a copy of the Dallas Love Field book and is leafing through it now. But we wanted to share some of the photos and stories that stand out so far.

This is a photo of Bessie Coleman, the first Black person (man or woman) to earn a pilot’s license. We knew about Coleman, but we didn’t know that in 1925 she bought her last airplane – a Curtiss “Jenny” – from the Curtiss Aeroplane Company at Love Field. Coleman died in an airplane accident a year later. Photo courtesy of Amanda Potts).

This photo, from 1938, shows aircraft from the three largest airlines serving Love Field at the time. From front to back, there’s a 12-passenger Delta Air Lines Lockheed Electra, a 14-passenger Braniff Airways Douglas DC-2, and a 21-passenger American Airlines Douglas DC-3. (Photo credit: Frontiers of Flight Museum).

In 1973, Braniff International Airways commissioned Alexander Calder to come to Dallas to create a Latin-themed livery, The Flying Colors of South America, for one of its Douglas DC-8s. Calder came back in 1975 to create another special livery, The Flying Colors of the United States, (pictured above) on a Boeing 727 for the US Bicentennial. As with all the images in the Arcadia series, these special liveries appear in the Dallas Love Field book in black and white. But Bruce Bleakley was kind enough to share this color version of Calder’s bicentennial livery.

(Courtesy of Frontiers of Flight Museum)

When Dallas Love Field opened a new terminal in 1958, it was the first airport to feature moving walkways. (Courtesy Frontiers of Flight Museum).

Dallas Love Field was also where Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president of the United States aboard Air Force One on November 22, 1963, less than two hours after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

That photo is in the Dallas Love Field book, along with a photo of the bronze marker inlaid in a concrete ramp at Love Field at the spot where Air Force One was parked.

(White House photograph by Cecil Stoughton).

Thanks for visiting Stuck at the Airport. Subscribe to get daily travel tidbits. And follow me on Twitter at @hbaskas and Instagram.

 

One thought on “What we’re reading: books about airports

  1. Heather Dickie says:

    Love the history of the Dallas Love Field book!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *