Mystery airport new scenery

[Dennis the menace]

Well, I have found just enough time before my move to finish a project that I have wanted to do earlier this year. It's a new classic scenery. It is one airport, and I have backdated 3 other smaller airports, because of local airline service. This scenery will use a brand new local service AI DC-3 which we do not have at this time, and Tom was generous to schedule it correctly from his documents. The scenery is for the year 1961, but it's fine for 1959 as there was no changes. In the next day or so, I will send all the files to Tom, he can review them and then upload them. But for now, let's see if anybody out there can recognize this scenery.

Some hints. This airport is in a hot climate, and has palms. This airport is served by both TWA and KLM but not Pan Am. It had one runway and 4 old unused runways dating from the 1930s. The local service has no service on Fridays. This is a duel military base and civilian airport, and everything in the scenery is today bulldozed or so changed its unrecognizable. I have seen a Britannia there, and this scenery was served by Starliners. It is a holiday destination.

Ok, now for a few pictures.
First, an overhead view of the runways and taxiways:


Here is the front view of the terminal:


Here is the apron view of the terminal:


any guesses?

Mike

[Wolfgang]

Hi,

looking very nice Mike !

Mexico ? Acapulco ?

Best Regards

Wolfgang

[Wolfgang]

Hmmm

KLM......Arruba ? Curacao ? ;D

[Dennis the menace]

No, sorry, it's not in the western hemisphere. It's also near the coast. People from all over the world have moved to this city in order to live there.

Mike

[hobofat]

Hrm, tourist destination, rapid expansion of outsiders, hot, palms, TWA and KLM...

I'm guessing Athens?

[chris_c]

Tel Aviv Lod(?) International?

[Wolfgang]

Goa ?

[railrunner130]

That second picture seems to have a German Eagle on it. Possibly with the swastica replaced by something more palletable for the post-Nazi era. I may be leading this into knowhere though.

No airline service on fridays would lead me to believe it's largely jewish.

[hobofat]

Oct 21, 2008 21:48:55 GMT -5 railrunner130 said:

That second picture seems to have a German Eagle on it. Possibly with the swastica replaced by something more palletable for the post-Nazi era. I may be leading this into knowhere though.

No airline service on fridays would lead me to believe it's largely jewish.

Hm, I was trying to decide between Athens and Tel Aviv because both cities seem to fit the bills, and both airports have been razed, Athens for the olympics and Tel Aviv was transfered to Ben Gurion. Both cities had substantial growth in the post-WWII period, and both are popular tourist destinations. To confound the dilemna, both Hellenic Air Force and ISDF utilize logos that are somewhat similar to what was in the picture!

Sigh, no service on Friday so perhaps you're right that it's Jewish and Tel Aviv.

[Dennis the menace]

Yes, it is Tel Aviv Lod airport circa 1961. The original terminal had a large German looking eagle on it, with a wreath. I can't make out what is in the wreath, but I suspect a star of David. This eagle does not appear to be any casting or anything bolted on, but instead appears to be actually carved into the stone of the building itself. It could be paint also, but I suspect it is carved into the structure.

Here is the terminal building in mid 1960s and you can barely make out the eagle on it:


Here it is just a little clearer, but you will have to look hard, but its in the center above the doors


There was one main runway built after WW2, and it was lengthened for the Connies, and later for the jets. To the north is the military area, just south of the terminal is the Arkia terminal and hangar, and across from the terminal is a storage apron with old Palestine Airways hangars.

Here is the original layout for the airport.

Using Google Earth, it is still possible to see the outlines of most of those runways, but now aprons cover all the taxiways, and everything but the terminal building is gone. Even that, is so grossly changed it's unrecognizable. With just one runway, and such a small apron to park all large jets at, Lod was so crowded that in 1962 Arkia airways was moved across town to Sde Dov airport. All food had to be kosher, and no airline operations were allowed during the Jewish Sabbath, thus no flights from Friday evening to Saturday evening.

I do admit, that carved eagle is very very odd. I was very surprised to see it on these postcards. It is difficult to find vintage photos of the terminal, especially the streetside view. Here is a link about eagles
www.chabad.org/kids/article_cdo/aid/114799/jewish/Bald-Eagle.htm

So now, we will have vintage scenery for a nice long Starliner flight: San Francisco to Los Angeles- polar to London or Paris, then on to Tel Aviv.

Mike

[Maarten]

Fabulous!

Cheers,
Maarten

[hobofat]

It's exciting because I'll now be able to fly my Misr Airlines flights into Lydda instead of Ben Gurion Of course back in those days you would have been flying into Palestine (no Israel yet)...

[Harry]

To use Maarten's words:

Fabulous!

Harry

[wwtowers]

Really nice job. I have had a couple of runs there on the TWA route and it will be great to land at a "real" airport. Thanks again.

[Tom/CalClassic]

FSAviator has some comments:

The Lydda (Greek/Latin) were an ancient tribe who settled in the relevant location long before the rise of the Roman Empire. The sculptor E. Harvey's allegorical design for this British air terminal has no relevance to either fascism or zionism. It may have inspired the design of various 'pilot insignia' and eventually became 'pop art'.

popartmachine.com/item/pop_art/LOC+1480548

Construction of Lydda aerodrome was mandated by the British Administration in 1936. Palestine, which encompassed most of both modern Israel and Jordan, was a British mandated territory seized from the Ottoman Empire during WW1. By the mid 1930s a new airport at Lydda (English) or al-Lydd (Arabic) was required to expand British aviation interests in the region and beyond. Lydda is home to the tomb of St.George (the patron saint of England) and this probably influenced the location chosen for this major new British airport. It was immediately much used by KLM and became their western terminus for flights from the Dutch East Indies after the invasion of Holland in 1940. In practice KLM made more use of Lydda than Imperial Airways (later BOAC) as they continued to concentrate on flying boat services via Lake Tiberias.

cas.awm.gov.au/photograph/003151/11

Both Deutsche Lufthansa and Air France continued to use Beirut in Lebanon to access the middle and far east even after Lydda opened in 1937. Due to the threat posed by Vichy French air forces and consequential Luftwaffe presence in Syria the airport became RAF Lydda in March 1943.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Lydda

After the war Lydda became a dual RAF station and airport. Lydda was fully demilitarised again during 1948 in the hope that it would become the region's principal airport (displacing Beirut). It was immediately bombed by Israeli aircraft followed by an Israeli ground campaign for its control. Quickly under Israeli military control both the city and the airport were renamed Lod (Hebrew). Consequently many regional and some international airlines rerouted their services to and through Beirut in Lebanon, enhancing the strategic and international importance of that city and its airport, with a substantial reduction of commercial traffic through Lydda which became a joint Israeli air force base and airport from 1948.

FSAviator