Walk A Crooked Mile - Airport
Igor Braun, tailed by O’Hara and Grayson, boards a plane at San Francisco Airport en route to Los Angeles to meet with his fellow plotters.
Then … The plane is a Douglas DC-6, a pressurized version of the DC-4 which had entered service for United just one year earlier - it served the airline well throughout the 1940s and 1950s. It was powered by four piston engines - It would be another 10 years before United would begin switching to jet aircraft.
… a vintage photo … Here’s a United DC-6 in full color livery.
Then … We get a good view of the terminal building as Braun enters the plane. The terminal opened in 1937 and would eventually be phased out after a new terminal, Central Terminal (today known as Terminal 2) was built nearby for a 1954 opening. This terminal was eventually demolished in the early 1980s - its former location is now covered by a taxiway.
… a vintage photo … This is a 1938 photo of the terminal shortly after it opened. The aircraft here is a United Mainliner DC-3 .
Here’s a 1959 photo of the replacement terminal, located a little more than a half-mile from the old terminal pictured above. Central Terminal has seen enormous modernization since then but is still in use, now called Terminal 2.