This is the last post from my epically long Southern California series. It’s a trip I took back in 2019, BC (Before Covid) — a different era, to be sure. It started with Disneyland, then a couple of museums, and a quick spin through Santa Monica, Little Tokyo, and Beverly Hills. Not to mention a side trip to downtown LA.
For this last post, I’m at the famous In-N-Out Burger at the corner of LAX. A tasty burger sounded good before our flight back to Austin. Even if Austin now has its own In-N-Out burgers. The restaurant is on the flight path, and you get to marvel at low-flying planes about to land.
I didn’t realize until I got there that plane spotting is a thing. Multiple people were there taking pictures of the incoming craft. Some even knew of the arrival of coveted planes and airlines to add to their collection. This Airbus A380 attracted my attention. Something you don’t see in smaller markets like Austin.
The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger plane ever made. It was perhaps a technological marvel, but a commercial failure — Airbus is halting production at the end of 2021. The typical configuration holds 525 passengers, though with a maximum capacity of 853.
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When I was a child (1970s), plane spotting was a great weekend activity with Dad. Loved it! It’s a nearly impossible thing to do in New Jersey.
I used to live on the flight path for LaGuardia. I could name the plane just by the engine noise.
Though the DC10 and Lockheed 1011 sounded nearly identical to me. They had fairly similar 3 engine configurations. The DC9 was super loud.
That’s impressive!
I lived in Flushing in the 1980s and could hear the planes ✈️ at LaGuardia all day and all night. It was more nuisance than joy.