Aviation history

A new LaGuardia Airport? It will happen.

Airports, Architecture, Aviation history, History, Hotels,

LGA Airport

On Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the long-awaited plan for the promised makeover of LaGuardia Airport, which U.S. vice-president Joe Biden likened to one found in “some Third World country.”

The make-over of the airport will be massive: it will cost at least $4 billion and include one unified terminal building “designed so passengers intuitively understand the airport’s layout,” an automated tram, business and conference center capabilities, better roadways and public transportation to and from the airport, better taxiways for the airplanes, a cell phone lot, a consolidated rental car center, a boutique hotel and the services, dining and shopping options now offered by first-class airports elsewhere.

A tall order? Sure, you betcha’. But something has to be done.

Here’s a video that details the design that just might make you believe it will happen.

And here’s a link to the full report.

No mention of bringing back the Observation Deck or the Sky Bar.

LGA SKYBAR

LAG SKYBAR

Amelia Earhart’s flight jacket – in Wyoming

Aviation history, ,
AmeliaEarhart-LeatherJacket

Amelia Earhart flight jacket – courtesy Buffalo Bill Center of the West

I’m putting finishing touches on a presentation I’ll be making at the Washington Museum Association conference this week about objects museums have that they rarely or never show to the public.

One of the treasures I’ll be featuring is Amelia Earhart’s flight jacket.

Not the one she was wearing on that last flight, of course, but one she clearly treasured.

The jacket is in the collection of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming (formerly the Buffalo Bill Historical Center) and there are photographs from the 1920s and 1930s showing her wearing jackets that look just like this one.

According to the museum, Earhart wore this jacket during a two week visit to a friend’s Wyoming ranch in 1934, when she an her husband were on a delayed honeymoon – and when they asked the friend to begin building a cabin for them on property they’d purchased in the Cowboy State.

In 1937, as Earhart was preparing for what would become her final flight, she began sending personal possessions – including this coat – out to Wyoming to have for use in her cabin.

But, as we know, Earhart and and her navigator, Frederick Noonan, vanished over the South Pacific on July 2, 1937.

That cabin never got finished and the jacket ended up in storage at the museum.

AmeliaRanchPhoto-OnFence

Amelia Earhart with with Carl Dunrud, who was building a cabin for Earhart and her husband in Wyoming. Courtesy Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Charles J. Belden, photographer, 1934.

Finding Amelia Earhart – in Cleveland

Aviation history, History, ,

hb with Amelia

I had the great pleasure of visiting the International Women’s Air & Space Museum this week for a tour and a look inside a few storage boxes, including one holding artifacts relating to Amelia Earhart.

Here are a few snaps from the visit:

Storage box - Amelia Earhart

Storage box for Amelia Earhart’s items at International Women’s Air & Space Museum

Amelia Earhart's flight suit

Amelia Earhart’s flight suit

Amelia Earhart's scarft

Amelia Earhart’s scarf

Living in the Age of Airplanes – preview on an A380

Air Travel, Aviation history, Events, ,
AIRPLANES_St_Maarten_Flyover_4

From “Living in the Age of Airplanes” – St. Maarten Fly Over

 

I was a fortunate guest for the in-flight preview of “Living in the Age of Airplanes”, a new National Geographic film by Brian Terwilliger, that is narrated by Harrison Ford, with an original score by Academy Award-winning composer James Horner.

The film opens this Friday in IMAX, giant screen, digital and other special specialty theaters but on Monday, Emirates hosted a reception in its new lounge at Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport and then invited guests on board one of the carrier’s newest double-decker A380s for a special film preview flight over the Los Angeles area.

The 47-minute “Living in the Age of Airplanes,” was shot in 95 locations in 18 countries across all 7 continents and starts off with a quick review of transportation history that reminds viewers that “in a single century aviation went from impossible to nearly perfected.”

After guests watched the film on the 20-inch seatback monitors in Business Class, filmmaker Brian Terwilliger chatted with reporters. “It’s not a movie about airplanes, but how the airplane has changed the world,” he said. “We don’t know what it’s like not to have airplanes, so it’s hard to imagine how life would be without them.”

Terwilliger is known to aviation enthusiasts for his 2005 high-definition documentary “One Six Right,” which told the story of general aviation and the role the local airports.
In his new film he calls airports “portals to the planet,” suggests that “If we couldn’t fly, we probably wouldn’t go,” and poses the question “And if we didn’t go, how different would our lives be?”

Airline ads from the Mad Men era

Advertising, Aviation history, ,

Mohawk

The final season of Mad Men kicks off tonight and that gives us yet another excuse to look back at the real work done by advertising men and women on behalf of airlines during the glory days of the industry.

We get help from an impressive new book – in looks, size (it measures 12.2″ by 16.1″), weight (it tips the scales at over 14 pounds) and price (it will set you back $400, although the pre-order price is about $250) – that details the artwork of airline ads from the mid 1940s through the mid 1970s.

Air_France_Nr_196

Created by M. C. Hühne, Airline Visual Identity: 1945-1975 is a lushly printed and encyclopedic tour though the artwork and the advertising images that helped build airline brands.

Here are a few more samples of images in the book reproduced directly from the originals, with special care given to getting the colors and special effects just right.

American_Airlines_texas

TWA_Disney

Pan_Am_paris

(All images except Mohawk Airlines courtesy Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975)

SFO Museum celebrates aviators at the 1915 World’s Fair

Aviation history, , , ,
SFO_Art Smith ( left) with his biplane and fairgoers at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition,

Art Smith (at left) with his biplane and fairgoers at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco 1915. Courtesy SFO Museum

A new exhibition at San Francisco International Airport displays images of the popular aeronautical programs that were presented at San Francisco’s 1915 World’s Fair – known as the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

SFO_Lincoln Beachey performing in his biplane over the Panama-Pacific International Exposition grounds,

Lincoln Beachey performing in his biplane over the Panama-Pacific International Exposition grounds, San Francisco December 25, 1913 – courtesy SFO Museum

Included in Fancy Flying: Aviation at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition – are twenty-one recently created black and white gelatin silver prints made from the vintage glass plate negatives of the Cardinell-Vincent Company. Many show famous birdmen of the day, including Lincoln Beachey and Art Smith, who performed aerial acrobatics for the crowds.

SFO_Art Smith performing an illuminated night flight at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition,

Art Smith performing an illuminated night flight at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco 1915 – Courtesy SFO Museum

Many fairgoers got their first look at an airplane at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and many paid what was then a considerable sum of money – $10.00 – for an air tour over San Francisco Bay in a floatplane made by the Loughead brothers, who later changed the spelling of their name to Lockheed.

Fancy Flying: Aviation at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition is part of the citywide centennial celebration and is on display in the pre-security area of the SFO International Terminal through August 31, 2015. (Open Sunday to Friday; closed Saturday and holidays).

Can’t get to SFO before August? Here’s a link to an online exhibition of some of the images.

Smithsonian offers eye-level view of Spirit of St. Louis

Aviation history, Baggage, History, Museums, , ,
Spirit of St. Louis Image by Mark Avino, Smithsonian Institution

Spirit of St. Louis Image by Mark Avino, Smithsonian Institution

The “Spirit of St. Louis” – the plane in which a 26-year-old Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo transatlantic flight in May, 1927 – is one of the most popular artifacts at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

The plane is usually suspended from the gallery ceiling, but for the next five months the plane will be on the floor at eye level while it undergoes preservation work in preparation for an updated exhibition in the museum’s central space, also known as the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall.

The last time the plane was lowered to the gallery floor was in 1992.

Spirit of St. Louis. Image by Mark Avino, Smithsonian Institution

Spirit of St. Louis. Image by Mark Avino, Smithsonian Institution

Museum Monday: Up, up and away

Aviation history, Museum Monday,
Air and Space ballooning box

A bandbox celebrating the flight of Richard Clayton from Cincinnati, Ohio, 1835 from the Evelyn Way Kendall Ballooning and Early Aviation Collection. Image by Dane Penland, Smithsonian Institution

Today, airplanes take us from here to there in the air.

But back in 1783, traveling by balloon became the big thing.

That’s when the Montgolfier brothers made a hot air balloon out of paper and silk in Paris and took the first free flight carrying a human.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum recently shared news of the acquisition of a collection filled with items celebrating those ballooning times

The Evelyn Way Kendall Ballooning and Early Aviation Collection is filled with art, prints, objects, books, photos and manuscript materials documenting the history of flight from the late 18th to the early 20th century. And while the Air and Space Museum has no set date for exhibiting items from the collection, it has shared a few images.

Enjoy. And wave!

Air and Space ballooning fan

Fan dating to 1783 painted with the image of the first hot air balloons to carry living creatures aloft. Image by Dane Penland, Smithsonian Institution

air and space ballooning postcard

On the auction block: Elvis Presley’s planes

Aviation history, History, Souvenirs, , , , ,

Lisa Marie plane owned by Elvis Presley

If you’ve been to Graceland you’ve probably seen them. Now you can own them.

Two of Elvis Presley’s private planes, the Lisa Marie and Hound Dog II, both of which have been on display at Graceland for more than thirty years, are headed for the auction block.

One plane is a Convair 880 Jet that Elvis purchased from Delta Air Lines on April 17, 1975 for $250,000, refurbished, and rechristened the “Lisa Marie” in honor of his daughter.

Bedroom on the Lisa Marie plane

Inside the airplane cabin there’s lounge and club seating area, a conference/dining table, a club room and a master bedroom with a custom-made queen size bed, an executive bathroom with gold faucets and gold washbasin, a videotape system linked to four televisions and a stereo system with fifty speakers.

The Hound Dog II is a Lockheed JetStar that Elvis also purchased in 1975 for about $900,000 while waiting for Lisa Marie make-over to be completed.

Hound Dog II

The planes cannot be flown and are being sold as one lot, with an option to buy a piece of land next to Graceland (but unaffiliated with the Presley Museum) to display them.

Here a video from Julien’s Auctions, which is taking sealed bids for the plane through February 2, 2015 at 5 p.m. PST.