Wow. Brings back so many memories of traveling to see my brother back in the 70s and changing planes in Charlotte. The growth in that area has been overwhelming...
How wonderful to see these aviation legends still active! It's just charming and spectacular! At the time of these images I was only 4 years old, and how amazing it is to have such a record! Thank you for this beautiful record!!
Great video, for those wondering, this is now the south cargo terminal at CLT, the current passenger terminal (one building, 5 concourses) is across the field to the north of this one. The airport still has an overlook, it's located off the 18 end of the center runway. I believe it's been there since the airport began using jets even before this footage was shot.
Actually the overlook you're referring to didn't exist until the last decade or so. The original overlook including at the time of this video was at the north end of 18L/36R just across the train tracks and is now part of an airport parking lot, which I believe is an employee parking lot.
OMG..Great video..brings back many memories. I used to fly out of the airport with my family to Greece - always flying Eastern or Piedmont to NYC for the int'l flight. Many many memories...love the old planes - miss Piedmont
My mom and I used to pick up my dad at this airport in the late sixties. I loved going up on the observation deck to watch the planes. I believe it was located near the Piedmont Airlines gates as I saw a lot of Piedmont prop and jet planes pulling away from the gates. I also enjoyed the plastic TV seats near the gates. Used to watch TV while waiting for my dad to arrive. I believe it cost 25 cents for 30 minutes of TV.
70s, what a great time to be a kid avgeek when the regional airline of the day flew 737s, 727s, DC-9's, BAC-111's, etc....such as Piedmont, Allegheny, Ozark. Big original Piedmont Airlines fan.
Thanks for the compliments. The widebodies were not diversions believe or not. For a few years in the late 70s Delta used an L-1011 for the early morning flight to Atlanta. Eastern had a respectable operation at CLT and routinely used L-1011s and A300s to various destination such as LGA.
Great video, thank you for sharing. Good old days of Eastern, Piedmont Airlines, Delta Air Lines livery, United Airlines Saul Bass livery & tulip logo, Boeing 727's, DC-9 & L-1011. I've never been to this airport but I was 12 years in 1979.
I have movies that I made taken from the same place, from 1971. Piedmont YS-11's, FH-227's, Southern Airways Convair, and Eastern Cargo Lockheed L-100. Didn't realize that Eastern had so many A300's.
Those two guys at 0:12 are my dad and grandfather! My grandfather used to drive my dad out there all the time to see all of the planes. He even remembers how overcast it was that day was... What a coincidence!
The DC9's and 737-200's were the smallest airliners in that video. No barbie jets! Still can't believe that L1011's and A300's were used on such short hops like CLT-LGA. A different time indeed.
I was hired as a pilot for Piedmont in 1979, and you are correct Roanoke was pretty much the hub for us, though GSO (Greensboro) had some conections to longer haul flights. The company originally wanted the cities of Roanoke and Lynchburg to go together to build a regional airport between the two cities. This idea never got off the ground, Piedmont starting building a hub and spoke system out of Charlotte and the rest as they say is History,
Outstanding compilation... Ah.. for the good ole days of Eastern & Piedmont... Really enjoyed this clip.. Check out my takeoffs and landings when you have some kill time...
