Plane Spotting - Stapleton Int'l. Airport - 1990 Takeoffs Part 2

Various aircraft take-off on runway 26L at Stapleton International Airport in December 1990. Incidentally, this was recorded a few weeks after the large fuel farm fire of Nov 24, 1990. The burned tanks visible in some shots. The 727's use a lot of runway. The rare De Havilland Dash 7's of Continental Express operated by Rocky Mountain Airways. Some new American Airlines MD-80's parked overnight on the E concourse. A Heavy United DC-10 take off. A Continental Boeing 727 on People Express colors.

[@odayobalthazar]

The UA D.C. 10 is such a beauty

[@keenbug]

agree!

[@pandasonic1294]

It looks so historic too. Time flies man

[@joejordan1259]

Back when jets were still loud I missed those days.

[@seeburg220]

Man I miss these wide body babes. I rode in the cockpit into Stapleton right around this time frame on a UA DC-10. Great fun! Thanks for posting this.

[@zeom76]

The good old times! Times when planes had souls! Times when planes were noisy! Thanks for this post!

[@ccwalker050]

WOW! Thanks for the memories and for showing this. I'm from Denver and as a kid I use to ride my bike out to Stapleton and I'd bring my 12 band radio and I would sit up against the fence along where the old restaurant use to be called 94th Aero Squadron and watch them take off and land all day listening to the controllers. If they changed the pattern I'd move over to Quebec street and watch them from there. Man thanks for showing all of these. The only thing missing from this video are Western Airlines, Eastern Airlines, Texas International, Ozark Airlines, and of course the king of kings for me BRANIFF INTERNATIONAL. WOW! Memories!!! Thanks!

[@keenbug]

My pleasure. I spent many hours there as a kid as well.

[@johncapone7184]

ccwalker050 spent many afternoons watching planes there as well,, also worked at the 94th as a busboy in 87..

[@ccwalker050]

Thanks awesome! When I grew up I ate there many times before it burned to the ground. Not sure how but I heard it caught fire.

[@daktarioskarvannederhosen2568]

used*

[@ryankenyon5010]

Thanks you. So little footage exists from this era. I last flew through Stapleton in August 1992.

[@shawntyrrell5473]

Thanks for a good video, and a travel down memory lane. Loved Stapleton, especially the bridge over I70.

[@keenbug]

Thanks for watching!

[@TheBavers]

Excellent video. Love the old Stapleton Airport.

[@keenbug]

+TheBavers thanks

[@TRKEWEENAW]

Ahh, great memories from when I moved out from the UP of Michigan as a carefree youth to live in Denver for a couple of years in 1983-84. We lived in Aurora off of Peoria St to be close to Stapleton. Being of aviation background (my dad was station manager at cmx for North Central/Republic) I used to go to the runway off of Peoria St near the old restaurant was it the Lafayette Escadrille?, park for hours and watch aircraft in the liveries of United, Continental, Delts, Aspen, Denver Ports of Call, Western, Frontier, TWA, Republic, Northwest, Southern, cannot name them all. A bygone era, we will never get that close to the airliners again and never see the likes of 727s, older vintage 737s with the old JT8D stovepipe engines that rattled like a rocket, DC10s, L1011s, DC9s, DC8s, MD11s, Convair 580s, Boeing 720s, Convair 880s and 990s.. Wonderful memories they are.

[@keenbug]

Great memories indeed! Thanks for that. Lots of great names and aircraft you listed!

[@AccessAir]

I just love this...Id to watch the entire unedited version.... It makes we want to cry to think that all this cool stuff is just a thing of the past. I like the Dash 7 takeoff as well as the United Expres-Mesa Beech 1300!!

[@keenbug]

+Gary Orlando Glad you liked it. Thanks for watching!

[@afridgetoofar1818]

The DC-10 always struck me as powerful, but clumsy. Kinda like the moose of the airliner world.

[@andrewkemp1882]

Invaluable video. Thank you. In the second half of 1989 my family flew on Continental Airlines from Sydney to the US, via Honolulu. I recall that we flew to Denver at some point. Looking at a route map from back then, it seems likely we flew Honolulu direct to Denver, rather than from Honolulu to Los Angeles. If this is correct, we must have flown into Stapleton. I was too young (and probably too jetlagged) to appreciate the experience at the time, though I recall the lovely stewardesses and how kind they were. I wish I'd known I was in an airport that was only a few years away from shutting forever and on an airline that would cease to exist. I also wish I'd paid closer attention to what aircraft I was travelling on. I assume it was a 747-100 though maybe a DC-10?

[@kyokushinkuma]

Only flew through Stapleton once in 1991, United Airlines If I remember correctly. But I miss the roar of those JT8D engines on the 727.

[@planesandcooking5142]

July 1985 I was a passenger on a United 747-100 Den-Lax. I wish someone had filmed that takeoff!

[@Angry.General1461]

I remember Stapelton airport when i was in elementary school. I lived very close to there. I use to watch planes fly over the house. They would wake me up when i was trying to sleep at night.

[@gaguy1967]

really good

[@johncapone7184]

Spent many afternoons on 25th ave plane watching as a kid!!

[@jocelynharris-fx8ho]

I jloin others in thanking you for posting this. I used to drive from colorado springs to Denver, to watch the planes take-off. This looks like the area where I used to hang out. The parking lot used to belong to a restaurant that shut down and the road was close to Frontier's headquarters on Smith Road. Am I right? That's another piece of Denver's aviation history that I miss ; the old Frontier Airlines. The "new" one does a dis-service to the name.

[@ryandoe9278]

Airplanes are like cars today. They all look alike.

[@MCO2ATL2DTWby777]

back when both United and Continental had their best liveries. Didn't know United Express had King Airs

[@TripleAAAviation]

Wow very nice video! I was born in 1996 so unfortunately I never got to see many 727s or DC-10s (and I've never seen a Dash-7). Thank you for posting these videos, as it's very cool to look back and see how much more variety there was 20-30 years ago! Liked and Subscribed!

[@keenbug]

Thank you very much!

[@vf84tcat1]

c17

[@joeknight4250]

Beautiful days, when you had many diferents aircrafts to film.

[@bayviation]

WOW! I never knew that Great Lakes(?) flew B200s for United Express! First time I have ever seen one on the web, thanks for this.

[@keenbug]

Thanks for watching!

[@Dimewick21]

I noticed the B200 series in UAEX colors and did the same double take. It was Mesa, however, not Great Lakes. GLA never had the 200 series, just the C99, 1900s, and Brasilias. I didn’t think Mesa ever operated these in UA colors, would love to know where it was headed.

[@ChrisZoomER]

Like many others, I miss the diversity of aircraft in the late 20th century, or even the diversity of aircraft in the early to mid 2010s as they were still more diverse in the 2010s than they are now! I fear that the diversity of airliners will continue to decrease, let's hope that if it does it will do so at a minimum!

[@CairnTerrier69]

The Continental 727 is still in basic PeoplExpress colors three years after the merger. Lots of aircraft of different types in the fleet at that time, the Frank Lorenzo era.

[@nigeldallas9054]

Great shots of DC-10s and 727s. I know that stapleton is closed, however the existing airport has weak euro connections, as it is gateway to the Rockies, I would have thought there would have been flights to Dublin (Aer Lingus) Madrid (Iberia) Copenhagen (SAS) Amsterdam (KLM) Paris (Air France) and Vienna (Austrian Airlines). Perhaps these routes will come to pass with the future Airbus A321 Xtra Long Range, Frontier has 18 on order , also United , which has 50 on order. The A321XLR has a 4,700 mile range , which airlines could fly from Denver to the capitals of Europe quite comfortably.

[@Dimewick21]

A Mesa King Air in UAEX colors!? I had no idea that these operated for United Express. Would love to know where that was going!

[@pip12111]

1977 Flew a United 727 from Sacremento to Denver, the a DC8 to Washington Dulles. Great memories of this Airport, but I alway thought that was a short Control Tower for way the runways were configured. Oh well I guess thats what binoculars are for

[@bryanbaker2591]

Worked there in the mid 80's

[@daktarioskarvannederhosen2568]

Jean Stapleton et Vincent Furnier

[@joshuadunford3171]

5:23 is it just me or is the pilot of that DC9 pcking his head out of the plane?

[@jacksonskyline]

It really looks like it, but I have the tiniest suspicion, that it’s an ‘Eyebrow’ window.

[@Angry.General1461]

This must have been before the 757, 767 and the 777 were invented.

[@varig933]

The Angry General 757 and 767 have been already invented, 777 in 1993

[@Angry.General1461]

@@varig933 must not have been that many at the time.

[@daktarioskarvannederhosen2568]

Mrs. Quimby

[@LocoMan123]

It’s weird to think that’s where my uncles house is

[@tvflight7858]

this old B727...

[@JMMT7022801]

What the fuck has happened to American aviation?

[@ccwalker050]

Agreed! what the hell happened??!! I see that Eastern Airlines is back flying out of Miami again. I'm not sure how old you are but there use to be about 11 different American carriers that use to fly everywhere nationally and internationally now we have what we have and that ain't much anymore. We use to have to name a few Braniff International, TWA, Western Airlines, Piedmont Airlines, Northwest Orient, Ozark Airlines, Continental, and on and on....Damn Shame what's happened to the American aviation industry.

[@arlanwidiansyah]

@@ccwalker050 Yeah‚ for the present day Eastern Airlines‚ its named: Eastern Airlines‚ LLC

[@arlanwidiansyah]

For the past‚ its named Eastern Air Lines

[@skipcampbell4226]

It's all about efficiency. Stuffing as many passengers as possible in a narrow body aircraft. And making as much money as possible and beating your work force to death.