1960s San Francisco International Airport - Part One

[@joedi6339]

Amazing exhaust of the engines. Unbelievable today! I am astonished, I expected many Propeller Planes, but there were more jets.

[@WhisperJetAmerica]

Thank you very much. I really enjoyed this. Brought back a lot of memories.

[@Dan.d649]

This is some of the best footage I've ever found!! Back in the day when airports were not so boring to be at if you love airplanes. This was the pure "glamour" of air travel when service was great and you could even visit cockpits too. Lots of smoke back then and lots of noise too. Classic paint schemes, airlines that have since been defunct and classic airliners/jetliners that have not been in service anymore for a long time. This is what it's really all about. REAL times with REAL airplanes!!

[@markbennett2170]

Wow! What wonderful footage! If only I had a time Machine!!

[@CorporateJetpilot]

This is super awesome. The time before real tech, real pilots planes. The beginning of the Jet age. Thank you for sharing this.

[@chrisybarra5000]

Caught a glimpse of the sea king airporter helicopter! Used to watch it take off from Berkeley marina in the 1960’s. Good times!

[@jerryconnors8663]

Great video of SFO. As an airline employee then in late ‘60s and ‘70s flew in and out SFO. Seeing all the PSA 727s brings back a lot of memories. ✈️

[@GeeBoggs]

What great introduction/opening credits music!

[@APW_Manbow]

JAL, JA8001 FUJIのカラー動画は、日本にもあまり無い貴重な記録です。 Convair880,990も同様です。 BOAC, 707-420のサウンドはこの動画で聞くのが初めてです。 昔よく見たCATHAYはJT3Dが付けられた-320を仕様していました。

[@gilliantracy7991]

Great vid! Worked for Aircal and AA after the merger. Worked at the Superbay which looks like it hadn't been built yet. Fun to see the old birds. Thank you for sharing!

[@kibashisiyoto6771]

Having dropped off and picked up my father going to/from business trips, I remember the main terminal building so clearly - one time we found a legal parking space on the sloping ramp exiting the building! And thanks fr showing some Air California - great little airline. Not to mention that Convair plane.

[@paulrom446]

Excellent shots of approaches over the Lighting Piers on the 28's! Classic stuff!

[@hattrick2219]

Delta 880 and American 990...sweet.

[@luchatrokaalvaradoguajardo5185]

I don't like the Convair 880 Arrow nor the 990 Coronado but the Convair 440 were very beautiful. Twin-engined. We never had a Curtiss C-46 in Mexico. It was a very beautiful plane and I think it was better than the DC-3. It's a real shame.

[@LouStuolz-w8r]

My cousin lived in a neighborhood in Inglewood California along the landing flight path of LAX. I remember as kids watching the planes flying over his house and how loud those jet engines from that era were!

[@mikezimmermann89]

Thanks for posting this fantastic footage… it makes me feel young! My dad and I used to go fishing at Oyster Point on Saturdays in the 60s, and when the fishing was poor (which was usually), we’d head down the road to SFO and watch the planes going in and out. It’s fun to see the old liveries for current airlines and some of the more colorful ones for airlines that are now gone. Anybody remember the TV commercial of that era with the big bird that would rather take a plane than fly himself? “Western Airlines… the O-N-L-Y way to fly!”

[@esseil]

Of course! Jim Backus did the voiceover.

[@cslan4]

Not a 787 or A380 in site thank god this so awesome thank you for posting!!!!

[@muzluv33]

And no 747s, 757s and 767;s either though I loved the 747.

[@paulj2948]

Black smoke from engines....smoking in the airplane while boozing it up. Ah the good old days!

[@eliascrookshank]

Great video. Thanks for posting. Love the music. So sixties.

[@simmybear31]

Back when jet engines smoking meant they were working and not on fire 😅

[@Starboard76]

No kidding..you didn't mind coming home and smelling like jet fumes.

[@gerardlang9690]

The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading... there's no parking in the white zone 😅

[@barryguerrero6480]

Too bad they didn't show the DC-8 that JAL (Japan Airlines) dumped in the shallow bay water out by Coyote point in the 1960's sometime. Seriously, I LOVED going to SFO as a kid, and still love going there today. It's easily the best airport in the S.F. Bay Area. Seeing the original livery for American Airlines and United is so cool. The BOAC 707 looked soooo classy! And I love just how much smoke and noise the old 727's used to make. I think they might have been the worst offenders of all. I also enjoyed seeing the TWA Convair 880. Those were rare. Thank you for sharing this, as it brought back great memories from my youth. I used to love going to Giants games at the old Candlestick Park too, just a few miles further north on 101. For a night time perspective on the SFO of yesteryear, be sure to watch "Bullitt" with Steve McQueen. Pam Am 707's abound in that movie.

[@luchatrokaalvaradoguajardo5185]

the best American Airlines livery was the one from 1965-76 also the one that followed but today it is the ugliest and I did not see any 707 727 or DC-8 from Pan Am and Boac with their luxurious livery in 707 VC-10super although the 2 that followed were also very beautiful and in Mexico City we saw them all Aerolíneas Japon with DC-8-62 1965-1974 JL-012 Tokyo Honolulu- SFO-MEX from 1975 TYO-Vancouver-MEX JL-012, -747-200 1980- with DC-10-30

[@muzluv33]

Terrific footage! At that time passengers used those mobile staircases to board - jetways were not yet around. And all the smoke coming from those 727s at the end of the video! usually I would take a taxi into the city and would always pass a hill a few minutes out that had a sign saying "San Francisco - The Industrial City" as conspicuous as the Hollywood sign in LA.

[@jeffrodrigues3176]

Wow, Air California -what a catch! Never thought I’d see a video of it ❤❤❤❤❤

[@Picosto]

The 727 was a pretty interesting looking plane as well ....boarding from the back was unusual

[@johnsanders6695]

😮All that Pollution!

[@Picosto]

Ah that 707 ...i flew in one when i was a child on olympic airways ...one of the coolest looking and loudest aircraft ...i dubbed it the " metallic vulture " :))

[@muzluv33]

Looks like there was a United 707 in that vid. Thought they only had DC-8s in their long range fleet.

[@cchris874]

@@muzluv33 They had the 720 but only in the 1960s

[@JeffK787]

Clippers, Mainliners, Astrojets!

[@kibashisiyoto6771]

Don't forget TWA's Star Stream Jets!

[@toddmichaelwillis]

That yellow Hughes AirWest was from the early- to mid-70s.

[@anthonyhunt701]

❤ it!! Starboard i’m an O’Hare boy ( flew into SFO during this era from ORD lol) more old ORD please!!

[@Starboard76]

on the way, look for 1970s/80s Chicago O'Hare: Enter the Jumbos

[@maxon-m3c]

Great memories! My father worked for UAL at SFO. As a kid we'd take trips on his passes. Rarely seen is the front of the terminal building at 0:30 as most documentaries and movies show only the flightline side. I remember parking way back in the parking lot and hiking to the terminal and up that ramp on the left. Good workout! 😃

[@muzluv33]

Unless I am mistaken the opening credits of the TV series The Streets of San Francisco showed the front of the terminal building in one shot.

[@douggilmore3]

Wow! Forgot about AIr California! Dang those old airliners, especially the 727s put out a lot of visible exhaust. Something else striking, except for BOAC and Japan Airlines, no other foreign carriers. Thought I possibly caught the tail of a Phillipine Air DC-8 on a short clip, but compared to today, what a difference! Thanks for sharing!!

[@paulrom446]

Gravel lot off of East Millbrae Avenue! Good place for spotting!

[@rlee3966]

Yes it was.

[@ILoveLucy21.]

I was a flight attendant for American Airlines in the late 80's-90's and was based in SFO. I miss those days. When I see PSA, I think of that awful crash in the late 70's.

[@Diodorus79]

Them B727 were incredibly smokey!

[@DaBlazesUSay]

Ah, the Sixties, when airfares were high but jet fuel was dirt cheap; when passengers dressed up, then walked across the apron (in any weather!) and up airstairs to board; when so many jets were powered by ear-splitting Pratt & Whitney JT3D turbojets; and, when jet engines and people smoked heavily!

[@swbrand]

:53 seconds.....That's DB Cooper!!!!

[@ChrisZoomER]

This almost looks prehistoric!

[@jonberg1356]

Interesting how at 11:20, an American 707 and United 727 are apparently both moving, as they are in close proximity, at taxiway intersections. A potential ground collision. I don't think that would happen today, not intentionally, anyway! Or is it just the camera angle?

[@esseil]

Actually two parallel taxiways, but not obvious in that shot.

[@alitoranj1559]

Pratt & Whitney JT8D b727 SMOKY 😷😷😷😷

[@glennsaviationlove669]

I wasnt around then as I was born 1966 but Have to admit there was alot of Smokey planes on that video lol

[@OSTARAEB4]

Great footage and forgotten how smoky they were. That 727 at the end was unusually so. Many of these pilots were post war pickups. Interesting colors.

[@Starboard76]

I like when those guys would pump the brakes pushing hydraulics to ease the stoppage at the gate. The jet would bounce up and down slighty a bit - have a clip focusing on that move.

[@kibashisiyoto6771]

I remember when PSA advertised their fleet had given up smoking (probably when they replaced all turbo jet with fanjets.)

[@luke4641]

Is the Braniff 727 at Washington Dulles?

[@rlee3966]

Yes it was. I worked at IAD. 1986 till 1994.

[@luke4641]

@rlee3966 thanks for confirming

[@esseil]

I was going to ask the same. SFO never had the mobile lounges, and in those days BN flew only DC-8s to SFO (SFO-LAX-PTY/BOG/LIM).

[@AndreiTupolev]

Crikey, that 727 coming in at1:23, I've never seen JT8D's smoking like that before. You might think it had JT3D's

[@petezess]

United livery was so much better then.

[@allenwinston9225]

Wonderful. All those pilots of these aircraft in thus video have past on now. These were all ww2 vets.

[@jimurquhart9466]

Boeing ruled the sky. ✈

[@Jeff-sp7bg]

Actually mcdonnell douglas did

[@johnleinen7167]

My first jet plane ride was in 1969 LAX to SFO, Western airliles 737 about 48 minutes and the stewardess served soda pop in a glass!

[@midcenturymoldy]

11:27 A bit close there.

[@ligeiasinistra879]

Did I see F27s with orange empennage?

[@AccessAir]

Yes, Air West....

[@TheUtuber999]

1:48 Rare 721.

[@user-ky6vw5up9m]

Steve McQueen in Bullett

[@jamestravis1037]

LUMBA

[@christopherwillson4703]

What is this incredibly annoying blue rectangle on the screen? It got in the was of a F-27 that I was trying to identify. Not happy.

[@Starboard76]

a more annoying counting time code

[@Springbok314]

Didn’t know SFO had mobile lounges ala IAD. Fantastic old footage!