Author: Brian Keene
Brian Keene
Brian KEENE grew up in West Islip, NY, in the 1970s and loved to hang around John F. Kennedy Airport. Awestruck by the colors and trademark insignia of aircraft and their movement about the airport, Keene decided to take his passion for aviation and the airport to another level by building a 1:400 scale replica of JFK International Airport that would capture and remind him of a moment in his life when the aviation bug first bit him.
The growth came from an unlikely location. The North Terminal, originally constructed in 1953, had been host to many airlines that flew piston aircraft along with a few of the early jets of the ’60s. However, by the early seventies, the terminal became fairly dormant, with the exception of a few charter carriers. All major carriers moved to newer modern Terminals A and B on the airport’s south side in 1973. Then, in 1981, it all changed. A product of the Air Carrier Deregulation Act of 1978, PEOPLExpress Airlines was born, and their business model of low-cost fares to underserved…
While JFK has always been famous for its themed terminals and record-breaking passenger traffic, Air Cargo has always been a big part of JFK’s history. In fact, as an Airport Modeler, I recently built a 1:400 scale diorama of the North Corner of “Cargo City” as it appeared in the seventies. I was surprised at how many dedicated buildings, airlines, and aircraft were focused on cargo support at JFK. Searching for these rare aircraft models and displaying them at the cargo terminals and hangars used in the seventies was great fun. Introducing Cargo-only jets became very popular with the advent…