Muhammad Ali

Louisville Int’l Airport to be renamed for Muhammad Ali

Boxing legend and Louisville native Muhammad Ali now has an airport named in his honor.

On Wednesday, January 16, 2019, the Board of the Louisville Regional Airport Authority in Kentucky voted to change the name of the Louisville International Airport to Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.

The airport’s three letter international identifier – SDF – will remain the same, in part because another airport, Alice International Airport, in Texas, already has the identifier “ALI.”

Muhammad Ali at Heathrow Airport (date unknown)

Citing research showing that Muhammad Ali has much greater name recognition than Louisville, Ky., Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said the airport renaming is just one piece of a much broader effort to share and celebrate Ali’s Louisville ties.

As the city of Ali’s birth and the place that throughout his life he proclaimed as “the greatest city in the world,” the Mayor said, “It is our obligation and opportunity to showcase the many stories and complexities that made up the man known as ‘The Greatest of All Time.’”

Muhammad Ali was born on January 17, 1942 and died on June 3, 2016. The Muhammad Ali Center, on Louisville’s Museum Row, explores his life.

*Hat tip to Isaac Alexander, for alerting me to this airport news.

Heathrow’s photographer snapped them all

London’s Heathrow Airport is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year and digging into the archives for some treasures and special stories.

This is one about “the Godfather of Heathrow” – 84-year-old Dennis Stone – who has been a photographer at the airport for 70 years, starting work at age 14.

Heahtrow Dennis Stone then

Over the years, Stone has snapped it all, including the visits of a dozens of celebrities, including including Frank Sinatra, Goldie Hawn, Princess Diana and the Beatles. Here’s a video about Stone’s time at the airport and some of the great photos he took.

Liz Taylor at Heathrow Airport

Liz Taylor at Heathrow Airport

Clint Eastwood at Heathrow Airport

Clint Eastwood at Heathrow Airport

Heathrow MUHAMMAD ALI

Heathrow - BRAD PITT

Heathrow also has a website set up to gather stories about the airport, with a wide assortment of prizes for the best stories, including trips from London to Sydney, Australia with Qantas.

The Beatles, Jimmy Durante and more … at JFK

The New York Times has a great slideshow celebrating the earliest days of John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).

Built on “six square miles of swampy sand, part of it the site of a once-fashionable golf course…” in its first few years the airport welcomed everyone from Gregory Peck and Pope Paul VI to, of course, the Beatles!’

(Photo: The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey)

There are more photos here – including Jimmy Durante and Sammy Davis Jr.