departure

Theres this great little hidden museum at LAX that I love called the Flight Path Learning Center. (Its the building with the red circles pattern you'll find all over my website.) I went by today to see if they knew anything about the A380 landing on Monday and got caught up talking to the staff and perusing the exhibits (again). I think I'm more fascinated by airports and the trappings of flight than the mechanics of planes or flight. It may be in many ways how visible the changes are over time, down to the airline logos, and how fast the changes are. (I'm always fascinated by those 'then and now' books too.) The staff at the Flight Path is all volunteers, and if you talk to them a bit, you find out that they all have been a part of aviation. One lady I talked with was a stewardess and told me how lucky she was to have gotten to fly both props and then jets from LA. (The first jet at LA is shown in above from 1959.) She also told me about the rabbits that thrived on the property, and how the switch to jets was supposed to make them leave. They didn't.

I became engrossed in the photos of how the airport has changed over time, and took some shots of the photos that I've added my own labels to here (click them for larger versions -- theyre big). I really love the bottom pic from 1961, where you can see all three airports in one shot. One of the buildings from the 1920's airport is still there today as part of the FedEx cargo offices.

If you get the chance, stop by the Flight Path on Imperial highway, but be sure to talk to the volunteers - they're the best part of the museum.