Earlier, I posted some of LC Gagnon's postcards from a visit to LaGuardia Airport in New York.
LaGuardia Airport Postcards from 1945
This 18 year old went to LaGuardia to see and photograph aircraft and operations ... and obtained those postcards along with a few schedules for the various airlines. Most of his originals are 1.5 inch by 2.5 inch prints. To economically obtain large format prints, my father built an enlarger which he operated on the kitchen table in their apartment in Montreal.
At the time, my grandfather was working (mostly by correspondence) to obtain his Master of Arts degree from Columbia and his summer accommodation would have been LC Gagnon's 'hotel' in New York.
His trip to LaGuardia began on the Elevated and here is a nice panned shot of a train, taken with his box camera ...
Below, the environment back then and his destination:
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| from: New York municipal airport: North Beach; 1939; United States WPA (Work Projects Administration ... at archive.org). |
This large modern airfield was being created using coal ash, earth fill, and selected garbage from the city dump known as Rikers Island - seen immediately to the left of the circled area.
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In every single case, my identification of any aircraft should be preceded by the word probably .
... As in: This is probably a Beechcraft Bonanza - also known as a Fork-tailed Doctor Killer.
A Lockheed Model 12.
A Douglas DC-6.
The running figure is the era's version of the 'Ground radio frequency'.
The pilot dialed up this frequency by simply opening his window.
Engines 1 and 2 are taxiing the aircraft precisely to 'the Gate'.
Well-heeled, well-dressed passengers enjoyed the luxury of air travel
before hijackers and terrorists and deregulation made it into somewhat of an ordeal.
A DC-4 is attended to by ground crews.
Another DC-6.
And I'm guessing another DC-6.
Finally, the workhorse which led the expansion of commercial passenger aviation, the DC-3.