13R departure from JFK, er, IDL....in 1953!!!

[Nonstop2AUH]

In 1953, in an effort to get the American public comfortable with the idea of air travel and to promote Eastern Air Lines, TV & radio personality Arthur Godfrey (himself a pilot) took viewers in the cockpit for a Super Connie flight from IDL to Miami. Recently, most of it was posted on YouTube and I kind of found it by accident. It's all very cool, but note that "Captain Eddie" seeing them off is apparently the legendary Eddie Rickenbacker, and notice that JFK (IDL) is a bit less busy (and less developed) than it is today...Enjoy!

Preflight and departure from IDL:

[youtubetp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rgzAnrI6Bw[/youtubeInflight and arrival at MIA:

[youtubetp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCL7FglFapY[/youtube"Okay, we've finished our climb check, now it's time for a Chesterfield!"...

Someone also posted the whole thing apparently in 8 segments, if you want to see start to finish, first segment is here with links to others:

9Qw0O4VlUyY

[Art at ISP]

It was a very interesting video-I actually have the VHS version of the whole thing.

Then again I am a big Connie fan.

The captain is Dick Merrill, who was a very famous personality in his own right.

[RDU-JFK]

Nice find.

[Derf]

It looks a little different than when I did to low passes at JFK in Connie Mats!
Great Stuff.... The only difference between that takeoff an my low pass, is
that I had a 4mp camera! Ahhhh Technology! :lol:

[LGA777]

Just watched this interesting and enjoyable trip back in time and to me the departure from IDL sure looked a lot like MIA to me, anyone else catch that ?

LGA777

[Derf]

Just watched this interesting and enjoyable trip back in time and to me the departure from IDL sure looked a lot like MIA to me, anyone else catch that ?

LGA777

Yep, it sure is very odd to see JFK and NOT really see it at all! This was way before my time and I have been pausing the video like crazy!!!

[Nonstop2AUH]

Fred that is so cool you got to ride in the Connie, thanks for sharing those pics...Can see the overall look of the flightdeck is identical to that in the original video...

I just love this stuff, maybe because when I see that Eastern Connie video I can just imagine my dad flying off to college in Miami or my uncles flying home from the Army, but it's everyone's local history here really. I imagine in '53 there just wasn't much going on at IDL, because it had only been open for 5 years and was mainly for international service (which was not mainstream travel in the early '50s). As it says on the Wikipedia entry, "The 1948 Temporary Terminal was the sole terminal until 1957, when the International Arrivals Building opened." I tried to find a picture of the 1948 temporary terminal, but in fact, the earliest pics of IDL on a.net are from 1958, when things seemed to finally get going, with the new facilities opening and it being the dawn of the jet age. Prior to that, the largest commercial aircraft like the Connie and DC-6 were able to use LGA, so there was likely not much demand for domestic service at IDL. If anyone knows where there are pre-'58 pics of IDL on the web, I'd love to see.

[727C47]

I'm 46 years old,and I remember the last of the Connies flying out of JFK in the mid 60's, still beautiful ! The last one I saw at JFK was a tramp freighter in the late 70's.