The Sepia Saturday prompt image this week featured a large hot air balloon in the process of being inflated. I’ll admit, I was stumped. I have not one single photo in my vast collection of family photos with any sort of balloon in it! So, I went a little broader and settled on air transit with some newer photos. The top photo shows an unknown airport with a Pan American airplane in the photo up front and a Pakistan International plane behind it. I don’t think either airline flies anymore, so it’s neat to see photos of these planes. The two on the bottom show an Eastern Air Lines plane on the right with an unidentified man standing in front of the plane. The left photo is a view of the prop out of the window of a plane, but I’m not entirely sure where! I’d assume east coast of the USA, but wherever it is, it’s a beautifully framed photo with the prop with the bridge and land in the distance. For all of the photos, I’d guess a time range to be mid 1950s to early 1960s or thereabouts given the other photos that were in the set with these. Even though none of these are balloons and don’t get me any closer to figuring out who the man in the one photo is, they still fit the theme enough to call it a win this week!
Edit 24 Nov 2015: My husband, frequent flyer that he is, identified the aerial view as the Bayonne Bridge and Shooters Island — takeoff from EWR. Google Map Link.
It is good to see these photos. I always think that I need to go and take general photos as in 50 years, they may be interesting!
I was the same. No balloons but planes.
It is a win! I had such a hard time this week! That photo out the window in flight is perfect.
What caught my eye right off the bat were the stairs leading from the plane down onto the tarmac in that first picture. It’s been a while since I’ve alit from a plane that way. The last time was flying into the SeaTac (Seattle/Tacoma)airport from Sacramento. We’d had a great tailwind & arrived at SeaTac 20 minutes earlier than scheduled so there was no regular space available to connect to a mobile exit unit. We were given the choice of waiting on the plane until a space became available, or we could exit the plane on stairs down to the tarmac. The vote was unanimous. Stairs to the tarmac! Of course it wasn’t raining that day, else the vote might have been different…
I didn’t have anything I thought would go with the Sepia Saturday prompt either. Beautiful trio of old aircraft photographs. I should have thought of that too.
Maybe not balloons but you’ve still found images of a forgotten era of flight. Airplane travel isn’t the adventure it once was.