Continuation of these threads:
Where Are They Now?
http://www.pprune.org/where-they-now...ca-1957-a.html
Jet Blast
http://www.pprune.org/jet-blast/5412...ca-1957-a.html
Trying to identify old airport/desert/ca.1957
I am new to this forum. I hope someone can point me in the right direction or help. I am trying to identify an airport we landed at when I was a small child - I had an artist help me draw some sketches to help - please email me if you would like to see them. Circa 1957 (exact date unknown). Flight had left from somewhere in Europe (perhaps Paris or Rome). 4 engine propeller, perhaps 100 passenger capacity; about 40%full; landed at night; plane parked overnight; very hot; allowed to walk outside on tarmac, but not allowed through fence into small terminal building (dark); 2-3 fuel trucks parked; man looking like Bedouin having drink (tea) in small corrugated shed at edge of tarmac; about 5 similar corrugated metal sheds in line along edge of tarmac; much larger maintenance shed (lights on, one worker - later fueled the plane); those were the only two people we encountered; what looked like 55gal or similar oil drums standing on tarmac outside maintenance shed (perhaps 100 or more of these drums); one other plane was on tarmac when we landed - like a Fairchild Flying Boxcar type (twin tail, twin propellers) - possible mail plane - it took off (very noisy) shortly after we exited plane to walk around. Very bright lights visible in desert just over horizon in one direction; dark everywhere else. Our flight waited for passengers in morning - none showed up, then took off sometime early morning (very bright, sunny). Please let me know if this is familiar to you. I am trying to identify the airport and then the airline itself. Thank you very much!
Old airfield circa 1957 desert.
I do not know how long we were in the air en route to this particular airport. My best guess is that our immediate destination was Cairo, where we went sight seeing to the Pyramids of Giza and other places. There may have been at least one other stop before we arrived there. This is only a guess.
The pilot sounded Scandinavian, or possibly German. We never saw him.
The aircraft was 4 engines. I will try to post drawings as someone suggested.
Thanks very much!
P.S. Our final destination was the Far East, and we went through India en route, but by other aircraft and trains.
Text and images below by LarSearch1. To reduce the size of the post, I have removed the aircraft images, which were of a Fairchild Packet, DC-6B and DC-7C
Please refer to the “Key to airport/runway numbers” and the Airport Diagram.
This is #14:
This is the large corrugated metal exterior maintenance shed or hangar - perhaps used to service the fuel trucks, as viewed from the front after exiting the aircraft parked near the edge of the runway. There were two fuel trucks parked just beyond the open door, just to the right of where light is shown streaming out from the interior, and there was a fence between the trucks and the pavement in front of the open door. One fuel truck is visible in this drawing, albeit rather dark, beneath a pole light over that parking area. This scene is a bit darker than it should be, and the light at the top of the pole was much brighter than shown here. The fuel/oil barrels are true to life, and there were many more in the same area to the left. This maintenance shed or hangar was in a direct line with the other perhaps 5 smaller corrugated metal sheds to the left, with all of them at the edge of the paved tarmac.
The two aircraft shown in the drawing above are #16 and #17 in the airport diagram.
#17: (viewed from the edge of the tarmac standing near the corrugated metal sheds and looking back at the aircraft)
The smaller plane shown in front of the passenger aircraft had a twin tail, was partly in shadows on the tarmac, had a rounded front/nose, one propeller on each side, and was perhaps ¼ the length of the passenger aircraft. It may have been shiny steel, but at the distance from us and in the darkness, it appeared to be very dark – ccould have simply been gray or gray-blue. (It was definitely not yellow, red, bright green or white.) It resembled a Fairchild Packet, but had no pod on top of the main body. See the photo just below, for similar outlines of the aircraft we saw.
[PPRuNe contributors have suggest the Packet could have been a Noratlas. I42]
Rough preliminary drawings from the artist’s sketch book.
On the right is a sketch of the desert side of the runway/tarmac along which were located the perhaps 5 corrugated metal sheds and the large maintenance shed/hangar, as well as the two fuel trucks (bottom right in the drawing). The terminal building would be at the top left of the right drawing.
On the left was an early version of the light hanging from the ceiling of the shed in which the Bedouin was sitting and having tea. The lower light is the more accurate version.
Rough preliminary drawing from the artist’s sketch book.
The building at the right was what I believe was the terminal building – two stories (maximum of three stories), with one large post light on the left and one large post light on the right, with a chain link fence between it and the tarmac/runway area where we were standing. There was some type of chain link gate in the fence, for passengers to walk through. It was a very simple gate, and could probably have been easily climbed over. No barbed wire and not more than perhaps 2-3 meters height.
There was no visible airport tower as is generally seen in most airports, where air traffic controllers monitor the runways and aircraft.
This is #7, 8 and 9 (only partially visible in shadows at right). The Bedouin was in #7 at the far left where the doorway is open and light is streaming out. The doorways of all of the buildings are not accurate in this drawing. In the distance to the left and behind the furthest left shed (#7) can be seen some light at or over the horizon. By walking around shed #7 and turning perpendicular to the right, then walking along the shed out into the desert, it was immediately possible to see very bright light coming from somewhere just beyond the horizon, that appeared to be from a city or man-made area of some type. Stars were visible in that direction as well. The area was all sand in all directions towards the horizon and to the left and right (from behind shed #7) except for the sheds (pitted, corroded, weathered, corrugated metal), the fence (it did not run all the way up to the side of shed #7).
The terminal building would be to the left of the furthest left shed (#7) shown here, i.e., the one with the open door and light streaming out from the bare bulb ceiling light. However, the details of the 3 buildings shown here are not quite correct. What is correct is spacing between each building. These buildings were perhaps 30 feet long if viewed perpendicular to the front view shown, i.e., projecting back and to the right in this view. All were corrugated steel or perhaps tin, weathered as though sand blasted, pitted, corroded/oxidized, but solid. A wire fence runs the entire length of the runway/pavement to the left of the furthest left building all the way to the terminal building, where it intersects another fence (perhaps chain link instead of this more easily passable wire fence) that ran almost perpendicular and to the left in this view, in front of the terminal building. The passenger aircraft would be just behind the observer in this view, as though one had just exited the aircraft and was walking towards the open lighted doorway. The doorway is not correct as already noted. And the scene is a bit too dark.
Behind these buildings (to the right) is desert, with no street lights or visible signs of roads. There are stars visible overhead and in the distance, and just beyond the horizon, again, to the right in this view, as though you had walked behind these buildings and were looking off into the distance, very bright light indicating what was probably a city of some type. It could also have been a large industrial complex of some sort, or some other type of human activity. Sunrise was still many hours away, and this was clearly man made light.
Looking at these 3 sheds, there was at least one more nearly identical shed to the right, and perhaps one more, but all in darkness as there was no overhead lighting there. Much further to the right were perhaps 100 or more of what may have been oil or fuel drums, some stacked to the left in that view (i.e., in line with the sheds at the edge of the pavement), and others standing much further out into the paved area, but not stacked on top of each other. Walking through them was challenging, and a bit like maize of barrels. Beyond the barrels to the right is the larger maintenance shed (#14) (this was perhaps twice the height of the smaller 4-5 sheds), with bright light streaming out from the open door. There were no oil/fuel drums near the open door; and the view as already depicted in the drawing is okay from this standpoint. As already noted, there should be more oil/fuel drums to the left in this view, where there are already drums shown.
Artist’s rough sketch of Bedouin having tea as shed is approached from the tarmac after exiting the passenger aircraft. This is #7.
This view of the Bedouin in the shed at the far left, closest to the terminal building (but still perhaps 100 yards or more away from it) is not correctly depicted here. The opening with man should be more to the right side. The interior of his shed was very dark behind him and nothing was visible in the back of it; only the man, his tea cup(s) and teapot (or similar), a counter (some type of nondescript dark wood perhaps), that may have been the top of an old desk or box, and behind that against the left wall (which would be the outside/left wall) if facing the shed and looking at it from the front view as shown here, with the desert directly behind the shed. There was a single bare bulb lamp hanging from the ceiling - very crude, but functional. It was not possible to see what was in the cabinet on the left wall behind the counter. The man was on some type of stool or perhaps rather high chair.