Aerial photos of airports, with a detour into abandoned airstrips
December 11, 2015 1:28 PM   Subscribe

MeFite backseatpilot likes airplanes, airports and photography, and combined those into a collection of photos of New England (and beyond!) from a mile high. [via mefi projects]

Dig into the collection and you'll find some interesting airstrips, like Lakehurst, which may then lead you to an annotated layout of the Lakehurst facilities and an extended, visual history of Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurston, one of more than 2,000 Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields of the United States, cataloged by Paul Freeman and others.
posted by filthy light thief (12 comments total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields was included in two prior posts, as parts of the whole: a post on the opening of the Greater Fort Worth International Airport at Amon Carter Field on April 25th, 1953, and a post on reminders of WW2-era military action present in the day-to-day lives of many Micronesians.

You may have also caught a mention of the site on CBS This Morning! at the end of a recent clip on revitalizing abandoned airports, which was not included in the YouTube clip of that segment.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:32 PM on December 11, 2015


In the 1950s, rail guided jet donkeys pushing dead loads at 200 knots tested carrier arresting gear cables and tailhooks.

aaaand the race is off to be the first mefite to register "rail guided jet donkey"
posted by indubitable at 2:27 PM on December 11, 2015 [5 favorites]


I played in a volleyball tournament at Lakehurst in 1966. The hangar we played in was so gigantic it literally had it's own weather systems inside. Rain, fog and yet it could be fair weather outdoors.
posted by notreally at 5:47 PM on December 11, 2015


Ha. started browsing before clicking into the post. Got to the Lakehurst photo: "Weird, that looks like catapults."
posted by ctmf at 7:34 PM on December 11, 2015


Why does Maine have so many airports -- it's like one for every ten residents!

But these are a lot of fun! Have you got any from northeast Rhode Island?
posted by wenestvedt at 8:39 PM on December 11, 2015


You mean Attleboro?
posted by maryr at 9:39 PM on December 11, 2015


Thanks. Really appreciate the pictures and the post.
posted by AugustWest at 11:32 PM on December 11, 2015


Hey now. Maine only has one airport for every 10 residents in the winter. In the summer it's one for every 100 residents.
posted by bile and syntax at 9:32 AM on December 12, 2015


Thanks for posting, these are lovely.
posted by bile and syntax at 9:33 AM on December 12, 2015


Hey, neat! Thanks very much! I hadn't heard of that abandoned airports site until it was linked to in the Projects page, but the information there is great.

Why does Maine have so many airports -- it's like one for every ten residents!

Northern Maine especially has a very torturous coastline and a lot of islands that people live on, so your options are frequently a multi-hour drive to get around all the inlets or a 15 minute flight over the terrain. The coastline around Boston is fairly straightforward, but we have the Cape to contend with; I could either drive 3 hours to Provincetown or fly there in half an hour.

As I said in the Projects page, I'm always happy to take passengers so hit me up if you're around here!
posted by backseatpilot at 10:48 AM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Great pictures. I recognized Northampton airport without reading the caption. I did ten hours of flight lessons there in the 90s.
posted by bendy at 11:10 AM on December 12, 2015


backseatpilot: "As I said in the Projects page, I'm always happy to take passengers so hit me up if you're around here!"

Now I'm sad that I live in the wrong part of flyover country.
posted by double block and bleed at 3:05 PM on December 12, 2015


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