I saw a mention of an Air Festival on the City of Cape Girardeau Facebook fan page. That, in turn, led me to the Cape Air Festival 2010 homepage.
Follow that link to get tickets for the 2010 Cape Girardeau Regional Air Festival to be held June 19 and 20. The U.S. Navy Blue Angels will be among the performers.
10,000 attended 1963 Aviation Day
Sounds a whole lot bigger deal than the July 26, 1964 Aviation Day I covered. I don’t have any details because that week is missing from the Google Archives. An advance story said that about 10,000 people attended the show in 1963.
Today’s tower looks more substantial
I don’t know if the thing that looked like a plywood tower in the old photos was something cobbled together for the air show or if it WAS the tower.
Municipal Airport Terminal
Today’s Cape Regional Airport has a modern tower, but I don’t think it’s populated. In fact, I’m not sure there are any commercial flights coming into Cape these days. I can remember climbing onto those old lumbering DC-3s for the Ozark Airlines hop into St. Louis.
Airport Security 1964-style
Flying was still special
Flying in those days was still special.People dressed in their Sunday go-to-meetin’ clothes and were greeted by stewardesses (they were all young women then) who were actually pleasant. Kids were given tours of the cockpit and given pilot’s wings, among other things.
Airlines worked hard to hook young fliers by promoting discounted “student standby” flights. I recognize my caboose has expanded since those days, but I believe the seats WERE larger back then.
I cheated a bit with the shot on the right. It wasn’t taken at Cape. We talked an airline into letting us shoot an illustration of some kind on one of their jets while it was at the gate at Palm Beach International Airport.
My son, Adam, who was used as a model, took advantage of the opportunity to see what’s behind the curtain.
Cape Girardeau Regional Airport
Holy Crap Ken! If there is no commercial air traffic in and out of the Cape airport I’m in trouble. I have connecting flights to and from there this summer!
Which carrier still flies into Cape? I had seen on-again, off-again stories in The Missourian that led me to believe that there was no commercial service.
Cape Air (how appropriate) flies in and out of Cape Airport.
http://www.capeair.net
CAPE AIR recently won the contract to service Cape Girardeau-StL. 3-4 flights per
day. Smaller planes seat 8-9 plus pilots. No Stews. Company already had the name as they service the “real capes” on the East coast.
Cape Air supplemnts income by “dusting crops” along the way. Makes for
an interesting trip. Takes a little longer but you get to really experinence rural
Missouri.
Thanks for the update.
I found it hard to believe that a city like Cape wouldn’t have air service.
I hadn’t been west on Nash Rd. in years. I was amazed at how many big buildings, warehouses and shipping depots are down there.
Wow…seeing those old pictures of the airport bring back memories…i used fly an L-4 of of there and was in the Civil Air Patrol in 1964, I don’t think I am am in the pictures but nice shots of the era…In the sixties teh airport was the portal to the great outside world and for those of us that where bent on seeing the rest of the world then that was the place to be…
The CAP member with the cool shades inthe top picture last name was Greyson….don’t rember his first name…
I’ve flown out of there many a time with Ernie Chiles on photo flights.
I started to publish a shots of us lined up on final and continuing on down to touchdown, but there was really nothing of interest in the photo except the strip of concrete and empty fields around it.
I had a sleeve of negs of a tornado that ripped through airport hangars and flipped a bunch of planes from Dec. 1967, but that turned out to be in Perryville, so I set them aside, too.
My dad’s sign shop was and still is on Nash road. General Sign still going along…
In the close-up group shot the tall kid looking at the camera is Johnny James. I believe you posted some photos recently about his father, Joe James, and his wrecker service.
A few years earlier, a huckster convinced the Cape fathers to build a go-kart track of Indy quality to attract karters from around the country (this wasn’t the same guy who hyped hydroplane racing on the Mississippi.) The TWIKA track was still visible when these 1964 photos were taken. Any shots of it?
Terry,
I hadn’t thought of TWIKA in years. I’ll have to do some digging around to see if I have anything on it.
It’s strange that I don’t recall shooting anything down there.
One of our neighbors – I think it was the Garner brothers – had a gocart in that era. I remember saying to someone that anything that cost as much as a gocart COULDN’T be a passing fad.
Maybe that explains why I’m not rich.
Terry,
Fred Lynch posted information about TWIKA on his blog, including a couple of photos.
Follow this link to see the story.
As a child I got to visit the TWIKA TRACK only a couple times as I remember. Only once during a race with many carts competing. Yet to this day 50 years later, when I occasionally get a whiff of that distinctive smell of burnt rubber and gasoline, I think only of TWIKA.
Good evening Mr. Steinhoff,
I am writing a paper for Dr. Santoro’s Local History class about the Cape Airport. You have quite a collection of really nice photos and I was wondering if you would mind if I use some of your pictures in my paper. Thanks for your consideration.
-Jake
I’ll send you an email.
Ken do you have any pictures of the TWIKA Entry Globe?
I don’t have any shots of the globe, but I think Fred Lynch might.
Ken Do you have any pictures of the TWIKA Globe. All I can find is a description.