Saved from the dustbin (6)

The subjects covered by the pictures that were saved by my colleagues Aris Zwart en Bert Besseling, vary a lot. They range from photo's of pre war aircraft to repair of Schiphol after WW2, from an aerial view of the Egyptian pyramids to a shot of what is believed to be downtown Houston. To start with the last subject, possibly a Houston based reader can confirm our presumption that indeed this is Houston.

Downtown Houston in the late forties?

For whatever reason a group of Scottish boy scouts visited The Netherlands shortly after the war. A photograph of the same group was published in Vliegwereld on August 15, 1947. So the picture below must have been taken before that date. From the above mentioned magazine we know that the boy scouts came from Edinburgh.

The 148th Edinburgh Boy Scouts Group at Schiphol Airport in front
 of a KLM Super Constellation. Can you identify some of these scouts?

The next shot shows Schiphol Airport probably in the early fifties. The new traffic tower is visible and opposite the Europe and intercontinental (ICA) passenger terminals, you can see the building that was known as the 'Atoomgebouw'. A.o. it housed the KLM telephone exchange operators, the mail office and a barber shop. Just over the center of the picture, there are two hangars. The left one is named Le Bourget, the other one Croydon. Building 205 (it was nicknamed Kremlin because it housed KLM's management) and the socalled H-canteen (named after the shape of its construction) are not there yet. In the rear you may distinguish the Fokker production facilities.

Schiphol Airport in the early fifties. Left the Circular Canal (Ringvaart)
essential for the water management of the polder in which Schiphol is situated.
The airport ground level is 4 mtr/13 ft below sea level.

The next picture shows a fairly unique aircraft: the Fokker F.XXXVI a.k.a. F.36. Of this aircraft type only one was built. The type number 36 was based on its capacity. It was capable of carrying 32 passengers plus 4 crew. The PH-AJA 'Arend' came into KLM service on March 22, 1935. In the background you can see a Junker 52 with German registration D-ASUI (please note the later infamous logo on the tail). This aircraft crashed near Nüremberg on November 17, 1936 thus determining the period this photo is taken. Also visible is the PH-AEI, a Fokker F.VIII, and a DC-2, the PH-AKT 'Toekan'.

Fokker F.XXXVI PH-AJA 'Arend' at Schiphol Airport in 1935/36.

The Junker 52 D-ASUI in less fortunate circumstances near Nüremberg
Airport on November 17, 1936. Fourteen out of sixteen occupants
survived this crash.

Update April 17, 2012 via twitter:

Caroline lives in Houston and reacts to the first photograph in this blog.