"SBA Thanks You For All The Fish" (santabarbarianlsx)
02/12/2020 at 18:39 • Filed to: None
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"SBA Thanks You For All The Fish" (santabarbarianlsx)
02/12/2020 at 18:39 • Filed to: None | 2
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We were talking about JJ Abrams a little bit ago... and he famously borrowed “Cloverfield” off a billboard as a name to use for his movie series. Only, the thing is, the actual history of Cloverfield is probably more interesting than Abrams’ monster movies. It was the name of the original Santa Monica Airport— where Douglas built DC3s in huge numbers, the rich-and-famous flew and Harrison Ford crashed five years ago.
Ironically, despite the success and prosperity the airport brought the city over the years, the City Fathers want the airport closed. It will almost certainly fold by 2028. But, it had quite a storied history.
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ttyymmnn
> SBA Thanks You For All The Fish
02/12/2020 at 22:14 |
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Also this. Lots of great photos here.
https://waterandpower.org/museum/Aviation_in_Early_LA.html
I had never heard of Ruth Elder . Sounds like an interesting lady, and a charter member of the Ninety-Nines. I used to play in the orchestra in Abilene, TX, about an hour from Sweetwater, TX where the WASPs trained at Avenger Field. I met a member of the Ninety-Nines on one of my trips to photograph the little museum they have out at Avenger dedicated to the WASPs.
I thought I had more photos of the museum, but I guess not. Or else I lost them, which would suck.
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SBA Thanks You For All The Fish
> ttyymmnn
02/12/2020 at 22:36 |
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It’s amazing how many “early aviation fields” there were scattered over the LA basin. Grand Central Terminal (which your link has cool pictures of) was a commercial aviation center for years, especially as Lockheed (founded here in Santa Barbara, oddly. I think Jack Northrup worked with them for awhile before they all decamped to LA to change the world...) grew to dominate Burbank.
If you know what you’re looking for, as you land on 24L at LAX, you can actually still spot the original-original Mission Style terminal when LAX was still Mines Field.
They’ve pretty well paved over Hughes’ airstrip in Culver City, but his original hangar (and his office, left pretty much intact) is still there. Some internet giants (and a marketing company IIRC) took over the Hughes campus.
Odd bit of trivia— If you ever watch It’s A Mad, Mad World, all the airport and aviation stunts were filmed out in Conejo Valley in the early 1960s. There were hundreds of GA aircraft based there after the war-- but that didn’t last. Soon thereafter Janss and his corporate minions came in and turned it into Thousand Oaks. I think there’s a huge Amgen facility where the airport used to be.
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ttyymmnn
> SBA Thanks You For All The Fish
02/12/2020 at 22:43 |
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If you ever watch It’s A Mad, Mad World
A number of times, actually. It’s an old favorite. The stunt flying in the Beech 18 was done by Frank Tallman . If this sort of thing interests you, you might like this site.
http://www.airfields-freeman.com
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SBA Thanks You For All The Fish
> ttyymmnn
02/12/2020 at 23:07 |
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Yep, it’s been bookmarked a long time. He’s put together quite a repository.