Janine and I had the opportunity to go with the Photo Club from Saddleback College to the Los Angeles International Airport for a private VIP tour. Who would have thought you would get the chance to run around on the tarmac snapping pictures on the taxi way at the fifth business airport in the world. Our small group scored a private bus tour of every part of the airport along with an extended time on the tarmac within rock throwing distance from an active taxi way and about 100 yards from the north runways. It was an amazing experience – and loud!!!
Our trip culminated with a tour of the old control tower on the East side of the airport. Twelve stories up surrounded by active runways, we were eye-ball to eye-ball with the planes as they landed.
A great photo time was had by all. Thank you LAX!
Old control tower from across the South runways.
View from the old control tower looking West and the North runways.
View from the old control tower of the new tower that is 100 feet higher.
View of the new control tower and the iconic LAX restaurant satellite.
Looking East along Century Blvd. from the old control tower.
This is the original control tower for LAX from the 1920s.
This is the new control tower built 100 feet higher than the old tower so that tower controllers could see the entire airport as airport footprint expanded.
Iconic satellite restaurant that used to rotate while you ate. No longer in use.
The original control tower.
View from the original control tower looking South East.
View of the new tower looking West towards the ocean.
For more airplane photos, click on the Gallery Link at the top of this post.
Model of the entire airport for the next twenty five years.