FreightWaves Classics/Infrastructure: SFO is a key gateway airport (Part 2)

An aerial view of San Francisco International Airport in 1970. (Photo: SFO Airport: Aviation Museum & Library Collection)

Earlier this month San Francisco International Airport (SFO) celebrated its 95th birthday. The largest of the three major airports serving the San Francisco Bay area, an earlier FreightWaves Classics article covered the early history of SFO. You can read that article here, while today’s article will profile the airport’s history during the first two decades of the jet age.

The jet age begins at SFO

In March 1959 the first commercial jet service at SFO began when Trans World Airlines (TWA) flew...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classicsinfrastructure-sfo-is-a-key-gateway-airport-part-2

FreightWaves Classics: The commercial jet age began in 1959

A prototype of the Boeing 707 on its maiden flight on July 15, 1954. (Photo wired.com):

The first transcontinental commercial jet flight in the United States occurred on January 25, 1959, inaugurating the jet age for passenger and cargo aircraft.

At 12:01 p.m. an American Airlines Boeing 707 departed Los Angeles International Airport on its way to New York City. To mark the occasion, Bernice Brown, the wife of California Governor Edmund G.  Brown, pressed the buttons to start the airplane’s jet engines. 

The festive and historic west-east flight across the United States lasted...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-the-commercial-jet-age-began-in-1959