The "Up, Up, And Away! Story

This is the first hangar at the Lancaster Airport on the Manheim Pike.

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting in the passenger's seat of a small single-engine plane talking to one of my students I have in class at Manheim Township High School who is flying the plane.  

Car races were held at the old airport in the 1930's.

George needs to fly from time to time to get hours so he can get his next level of license qualifi- cation.  Got talking to him in class one day and he told me he uses his dad's plane that is housed at the nearby Lancaster Airport.  I asked him if I could take a ride with him if I paid for the fuel.  That was yesterday!  Enjoying the views and snapping away with my Minolta film camera I have strapped around my neck.   Asked him if I could open the window to get a few photos without the reflection from the glass and he told me sure.  He showed me how to open the window and before long I was holding the camera out the window.  What happened next is not what you are thinking.  

This was the hangar at the Lancaster Municipal Airport that
was opened in 1935 on the south side of Lititz, PA.

I tried to get my head in position for a shot behind the camera when ..... my glasses were sucked off my head and out the window.  The whole ordeal took seconds and makes for a great story, but today I am writing about our point of departure and return; the Lancaster Municipal Airport.  It was a year after Lancaster, PA dedicated it's new train station in 1929 that the new privately owned Lancaster Airport along the Manheim Pike (SR 72) was dedicated.  Throughout it's short existence, the Lancaster Airport was home to several "air circuses" which featured  stunt flyers, parachute jumpers and airplane rides.  On August 17, 1935 Lancaster's new Municipal Airport, located in Manheim Township along SR 501 to the north of Neffsville, was dedicated with much fanfare.  

Dedication of the new Lancaster Municipal Airport
on August 17, 1935

The new airport was on 181 acres of farmland and publicly owned.  It had two hard-surface runways that were each 3,000 feet long and a 3,200 foot sod strip.  With the help of state and federal money, on June 18, 1949 a "new" Lancaster airport was dedicated that covered 474 acres with two 4,100-foot paved runways, lighting for night operations, clear approaches and electronic navigation equipment.  In 1951 it officially became known as Lancaster Airport.  

The Conestoga Wagon from Lancaster that traveled to
Washington, D.C. to tell about the need for additional service.

Then, in 1953, the editor of our local newspaper sent a Conestoga Wagon to Washington D.C. to dramatize the need for additional air service to the area.  The wagon and team of horses made the 120-mile trip and parked outside the Civil Aeronautics Board building with a banner across it that read: Lancasater Needs Washington Air Service Now, Not Conestoga Wagons.  

The inauguration of north-south commercial air service at the
airport was a milestone in 1954.  Colonial Airlines, which later
was sold to Eastern Airlines, provided flights to Syracuse, NY
 and Washington, D.C.

A few months later Lancaster received north-south air service.  A new air-traffic control tower was added in 1965 and new passenger terminal was finished in 1994.  In 2005 the instrument runway was extended to 7,000 feet.  Today the airport covers 850 acres at an elevation of 403 feet above sea level with two asphalt runways, one being 6,934 feet long and the other 4,101 feet long.  There are over 150 aircraft based at the airport and hosts general aviation aircraft, military aircraft, air taxis, jet travel and has helicopter and glider service.  Lancaster is one of the top airports in Pennsylvania for amount of traffic that arrives and departs yearly.  And, I assume George still flies out of Lancaster.  Maybe someday he will spot those glasses of mine that fell from the sky years ago.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Recent aerial view of the Lancaster Airport.

Large Military planes arrive and offer plane rides on Community Days.