Some more pictures from 1956

[Everskyward]

Bill's thread and the other historic pictures which have been posted recently reminded me of these pictures which I found recently in an album. Mostly I'm posting this for the airplane interest but you can try to guess where they were taken. It may be hard, or easy to figure out...

 

[AdamZ]

I'm pretty sure both photos were taken at the airport. Seriously since its an NWA photo my first stab is Seattle second id Detroit.

On another note that Connie is a damn sexy aircraft.

 

[Everskyward]

I'm pretty sure both photos were taken at the airport. Seriously since its an NWA photo my first stab is Seattle second id Detroit.

Yes, the pictures were taken at the same airport probably within a few minutes of each other but not in Seattle or Detroit.

On another note that Connie is a damn sexy aircraft.

True.

 

[Lance F]

Northwest Orient back then. Tokyo?

 

[Everskyward]

Northwest Orient back then. Tokyo?

Yes. The woman in the center of the second picture is my grandmother, returning to Japan for her first visit after 45 years in the US.

 

[Lance F]

Great airplane (My commercial airplane favorite that I have actually flown on). Great family picture. Thanks.
(BTW, what do I win? )

 

[Everskyward]

Great airplane (My commercial airplane favorite that I have actually flown on).

Very cool that you have actually flown on one!

(BTW, what do I win? )

Hmmm... let me ponder that.

 

[Graueradler]

I rode a TWA Connie from Kansas City to San Francisco on my way yo Navy boot camp in 1958

 

[wsuffa]

Wonderful pictures, Mari! I continue to be fascinated by old pictures and the stories behind them. The last couple of generations have had the ability to capture "life" as no others have. Imagine if we had photographs to capture the events in the Bible or other historical document.

Very cool that you have actually flown on one!
Hmmm... let me ponder that.

I have, too. As a child, when we would fly from DCA to PVD or BOS in the CAR days, it used to require a change of planes at either LGA or JFK. One leg would usually be on a Connie, the other on a DC 6 or an Electra. They rattled, they belched black smoke when starting, but they sure were great airplanes to ride in. I think I posted pictures of me boarding my first flights - a National Airlines Electra and an American Airlines DC-6. IIRC, it was on Eastern that I flew the Connies.

 

[Lance F]

Very cool that you have actually flown on one!

Just shows my age I was quite young, but do remember it a little. My mother, little brother and I flew from the east coast, probably Boston, to LAX with a stop a Midway.

 

[flyersfan31]

Awesome.

My BIL has a great picture of his dad, all grey suit and fedora-ed up, out on the ramp while they're boarding an SAS 707 in the background. Classic shot. I need to get a copy of it.

 

[Ghery]

I remember seeing my Dad off on a trip of two out of SFO back in the 1950s. Great planes. By the time I flew commercially for the first time, jets. Turbojets, none of this turbofan stuff. It was quite some time before I was in a prop driven airliner. And to be honest, the Q400 isn't all that bad.

 

[Laurie]

Wow, Mari, what a photo! You should really have that framed.

 

[Everskyward]

By the time I flew commercially for the first time, jets. Turbojets, none of this turbofan stuff.

That's the same for me. We would travel to SFO from EWR every few years when I was a kid and I can't ever remember taking anything other than a jet. I can remember my dad being excited about that fact that it was a jet.

I was curious how they even got from the US to Japan in a Connie and what the range of the airplane was. I found this route map which seems to imply they might have stopped somewhere in the Aleutians but it's hard to tell.