Sepia Saturday 728 - Busy Times

Some 15 years ago, a former colleague in Copenhagen saved many old KLM pictures from the dustbin. KLM is the Dutch national carrier. The complete story of how and where that happened, you can read here. Obviously, among those pictures, there were many taken at airports. And having been a frequent traveler, I can testify that airports can also be busy. So most of my busy pictures are very much airport-related. They go back to the period before WWII or shortly after that.

The first one is about something many of us fear, customs formalities. Just after the war, oral declarations were obligatory and thus time-consuming. There were currency regulations and all kinds of import restrictions. Green and red lanes were nowhere near in sight.

Anything to declare?
Customs and Immigration at Schiphol Airport in the 1950's

Customs officers are not curious, it's just that they like to know everything. Judging by the carnation, the gentleman in the picture below looks like he is on his way to a/his wedding. Seemingly, he has difficulty explaining what he bought for the/his bride.

Convincing a customs officer is an arduous task

On October 16, 1961, one of the best soccer teams in the world, Real Madrid, made a transfer at Schiphol Airport. They were on their way to Denmark where they played the B 1913 Odense team during the European Cup competition two days later. The team consisted of legendary players such as Ferenc Puskás and Alfredo di Stéfano. They participated in this match so they appear in the picture below but I cannot pinpoint where exactly. If you want the result, Real Madrid beat the Danes bij 3-0.

Real Madrid at Schiphol Airport in front of the
PH-CGC Jacob Maris, a Convair Liner CV-340 

Speaking of legendary people, on May 8, 1946, Sir Winston Churchill and his wife and daughter, paid a visit to The Netherlands. They arrived from Croydon in a Dakota C-47A (DC3) with registration PH-TBO.

Sir Winston Churchill, Lady Clementine Churchill, and Miss Mary Churchill
and next to the great man, the Dutch ambassador to the UK, and his wife and
the KLM UK director.

In 1946 KLM was busy restarting its operations. One of the main handicaps was the lack of suitable aircraft. KLM obtained this Dakota from the USAAF on January 14 of that year. Barely 10 months later the plane flew into treetops on a hill shortly before landing at Croydon airfield and crashed. All (20) aboard survived.

45" video of Churchill's arrival at Schiphol 1)

My contribution to the Sepia Saturday theme of this month is best demonstrated by the crowdy picture below. Although I don't know when it was taken, several clues indicate a certain timespan. First of all the location. This is clearly on the apron of the old Schiphol Airport, currently known as Schiphol East. It was in operation until April 28, 1967, when the (new) Schiphol Centrum terminal was opened. Another indication is the KLM logo on the Volkswagen vehicle half hidden behind the mobile stairs on the right. It looks like the logo that was used in the 1959-1963 period. Seeing the many spectators including children, the event could be the arrival of sportsmen or a celebrity. On the mobile stairs, a couple of microphones are visible. So someone needed to be welcomed after having accomplished something admirable. During the period mentioned Olympic medal winner Sjoukje Dijkstra 2) (figure skating) and European Songfestival winner Teddy Scholten 3) arrived at the old airport attracting thousands of people. But I don't believe this picture was taken then. The reason is that I recognize one of the three gentlemen standing under the conveyor belt next to the mobile stairs. The man in the middle, with the brownish coat, is Dick J.M. Koek, at that time already one of the leading KLM Cargo managers. His office was in nearby building 205. And I can't imagine him leaving his desk to welcome one of the celebrities I mentioned. So the photo is likely to have been taken on another occasion.

Schiphol East 

To discern more detail, I colorized the picture 4). But that did not help me any further. Still, it is a quite different experience.

If there is any truth in the saying 'two's company, three 's a crowd', the family below certainly deserves to be called a crowd. 

After WWII many people from Holland emigrated to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. Rotterdam milkman Sybrand van der Dussen, his wife Johanna van Keulen, and 11 kids were among them. (If you count just 9 children, a twin is in the wicker baskets...) The family flew to New York Idlewild Airport (today JFK) and from there by train to Southern California.

The Van der Dussen family departing from Schiphol
on April 24, 1947

The flight to New York took place in one of the most elegant aircraft ever built, the Lockheed Constellation, also known as Connie or L-049. 

The PH-TAU that carried the Van der Dussens to
Idlewild Airport  5)

Should you wonder why the fuselage is so high above ground level, that has to do with the length of the propeller blades. And in turn, that has to do with fuel efficiency, which was an important aspect in the longer trans-Atlantic runs. 

Returning to the Vander Dussen emigrants, father Sybrand continued in the dairy business. His son told me 12 years ago that their family business expanded to milking approximately 100,000 cows! If that doesn't keep you busy... Quite an impressive achievement!

In more ways than one, this is the last picture. I took this picture of the Canadian Cemetery in Holten in The Netherlands during a visit last December. It is one of the largest military cemeteries here. It saddens me to say that it is a busy place, with almost 1,400 memorial stones belonging to Canadian soldiers who lost their lives during the first months of 1945. They liberated the eastern and northern parts of my country including Apeldoorn, where I lived at the time. Can't say I remember that 17th of April as I was only a little over a year old.

Canadian Cemetery, Holten, The Netherlands

The Canadian liberators in the Deventerstraat
in Apeldoorn on April 17, 1945
Source: apeldoornendeoorlog.nl

For more 'busy times' please see the contributions of my fellow Sepians.

Credits and notes

1) Polygoon Hollands Nieuws (producer) / Dutch Institute for Images and Sound (administrator)

2) March 19, 1962

3) March 13, 1959

4) Colorized with the My Heritage tool

5) Source: https://www.klmsafetyherald.com/klm-l-constellation-fleet

Flying the Piper Cadet

Yesterday weather conditions for flying were good. A cloudy but sunny day with a visibility of more than 20 miles. The day started with force 6 winds from the south west but the prediction for the rest of the day was that the winds would diminish to force 3-4.
I have the good fortune to have a son-in-law with a pilot license for small aircraft. So yesterday we set off for the airport of Lelystad, Hollands' largest airport for general aviation. There we embarked in a Piper Cadet which would fly us to the island of Texel, some 90 miles north west of Lelystad airport. I never flew in a Piper before so I can add this aircraft type to my 'our aircraft' series.

Piper Cadet PH-VFB in the hangar at Lelystad Airport.

Upon take off our captain obtained permission to fly through the Schiphol CTR (control area) and to pass the Schiphol traffic tower at an altitude of less than 1000 ft. Having worked at Schiphol for more than 20 years, it is nice to have a look at it from a different angle.

Schiphol Airport with the WTC (the white building to the right), the tower
in the middle and the cargo handling area top left. 

Our next goal was to have a look at our apartment building in Castricum. So from Schiphol we flew in the direction of Zandvoort and then along the coast towards IJmuiden. As also Castricum is situated in the Schiphol CTR, there are limitations as to the maximum altitude. But for our purpose, flying at around 800 ft was exactly what was needed.

Castricum

From Castricum to the village of Heiloo, where members of the family live, is just a very short hop. 

Heiloo, with the Laan Eindeloos (Ypestein) running from left to right.

Flying over Holland in this time of the year makes clear that the bulbs are flowering. Colored rectangles are visible everywhere.

Bulb fields in the province of North Holland north of Alkmaar.

 After a flight of a little over an hour we touched down at De Kooy, de airport of Texel. Here was another first for me, it was my first landing on a grass strip.

The PH-VFB with captain H. (r) and my fellow passenger at De Kooy. 

After a decent lunch we flew back tot Lelystad. Our route went via Lemmer and Zwolle. As we paid a visit to the latter city recently, we circled the city center to see how it looks from above. I added a  picture of the Grote Markt to the blog post 'Zwolle & Assen'. Around 17.00 hours we safely returned at Lelystad Airport. During this flight we covered 190 miles bringing my total mileage flown at 474,082. 
Earlier that day we learned that the Aviodrome will reopen its doors to the public today (April 28). And that is good news! Final closure of this aviation history museum has been looming around the corner for some time. The PH-PBA, a Dakota in old KLM-livery keeps history alive (and roaring) there.

Scenic flights are made from Lelystad Airport.

Update May 1, 2012 Below the air map with our outbound route. It is not very clear but we followed the purple line via the yellow stars. The yellow star a little below the center of the map, is Lelystad Airport (EHLE). Then west via Schiphol (EHAM) and to the north, to De Kooy (EHTX) via a.o. IJmuiden en Castricum.

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. 

Saved from the dustbin (3)

Thanks to my former colleagues Bert Besseling and Aris Zwart, a large number of old pictures have been saved from destruction. One way or another they all relate to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. You may read the details of this find in 'dustbin #1'. To enlarge a picture please click on it.

Obviously KLM carried its share of celebrities. Some arrived at what was then known as the Municipal Airport of Amsterdam, Schiphol. The gentleman pictured below is Henry Ford II. Presumably, and also based on the presence of a KLM official I happen to have know, this picture is possibly taken on June 29, 1954 when Mr. Ford arrived in the KLM Dakota C-47A PH-DAT. At the time he was touring the European Ford factories.

Henry Ford II descending the Dakota stairs at Schiphol Airport.
The second man from the right is D.J.M. (Dick) Koek, a KLM Cargo Executive.
(My thanks to Hans Kindl for also identifying our colleague.)

Another celebrity was famous English science fiction author H.G. Wells (1866-1946). One of his more well known novels was/is The war of the worlds. In 2005 Steven Spielberg used this book as the basis for a movie with the same title.

H.G. Wells boarding a KLM aircraft in Calcutta.
The plane is either a pre war DC2 or DC3*.

Seeing giant aircraft, such as the Boeing 747-400 and the Airbus A380, taking off from 10,000 ft long runways, is an impressive sight. In comparison the picture below looks like it has been taken on Hollands' miniature city airport Madurodam in The Hague. The aircraft, a Lockheed Constellation, looks like a toy plane on a runway which was considerably shorter  than 10,000 feet. 

KLM Lockheed Constellation 749A, the PH-TDI 'Enschede'
on Schiphol runway 14-32 (SE-NW) probably in 1949.

 The Schiphol runway system developed from a prewar simple grass strip to a more sophisticated multi runway operation in the years shortly after the second world war. The picture below must have been taken in the early fifties. In any case it cannot be shot earlier as the Fokker aircraft factory is already visible. The factory moved to Schiphol from the northern part of Amsterdam in 1951.

Schiphol (East) Airport in the early fifties seen from the south east.
The dark line below is the Ringvaart (Circular Canal); the Fokker factory
is the building with 'Fokker' written on the roof. On the top right hand of
the picture, the village of Badhoevedorp is visible.

Update June 3, 2016: According to Dick Weber of the Crash 40-45 Museum, the above picture has not been taken in the early fifties. He says it is pre war and the Fokker building does not belong to the factory. Instead it is a shed belonging to Flight Services. Whose deed!
_____________________

Since those days the development of Schiphol didn't stop. The picture below was taken from the ISS space station by Dutch astronaut André Kuipers on March 12, 2012.

The Schiphol runways (r) seen from an altitude of approx. 220 miles.
The Port of Amsterdam is on the left. Enlarging the picture clearly reveals
the Ringvaart and the old location now called Schiphol East.
The current airport is situated at Schiphol Center.
Foto ex Flickr, courtesy ESA/NASA.

Like ships aircraft are being baptized as well, usually also with champaign. Aircraft names can be anything. In KLM celebrities, geographical names and birds have served in the past to also identify aircraft. There are always certain ceremonial festivities involved. 

The KLM Douglas DC4 PH-TCF was baptized 'Friesland'.
Very appropriately a Frisian folk dance group was invited for the
celebrations at Leeuwarden Airport on August 23, 1946.

If you recognize members of this group, please let me know by making a remark via 'reacties' below. I may be wrong but I think the man with the grey coat (l) is Mr. Albert Plesman, KLM's founder.

Update March 18, 2012 The Frisian Historical Centre 'Tresoar' pointed out to me that the 'Friesland' was baptized at the airport of Leeuwarden, not at Schiphol. So that has been corrected. Also, they suppose that the folk dance group is the skotsplouch either from Leeuwarden or Bolsward.

*Update Oct. 28, 2014 I received a comment from Mr. Joop Witbaard. Mr. Witbaard is a former radio operator later combining this with being a navigator as well. He worked for KLM and is now 85 years old. He can therefore be called an old hand in this business.
There was some doubt about the type of aircraft H.G. Wells was boarding. Mr. Witbaard tells me the aircraft is a DC3 and more in particular the PH-ALT Torenvalk (kestrel). The pre-war DC3 was fitted with the passenger entrance on the right-hand side as opposed to the DC2 where it was on the left.
Thank you, Mr. Witbaard!

Update Aug. 1, 2024 I learned that the a.m. Mr. Joop Witbaard passed away on July 18, 2024. Mr. Witbaard reached the age of 94 years. He must have been the last KLM radio operator alive. May he rest in peace.