Author: Julia Lauria-Blum

On January 24, Iris Cummings Critchell, the last living Olympian from the 1936 Berlin Games, died at 104 years of age. Iris competed at the 1936 Games as a 15-year-old in the 200 m. breaststroke. It was at these games that Adolf Hitler wanted to showcase the alleged superiority of Nazi Germany’s Aryan athletes. Upon her arrival in Berlin, Critchell said in a 1988 interview, ‘’Everywhere you went, there were the goose-stepping police and the guards. There was a sense of the impending future, a sense of the wish for dominance by the Germans and Hitler.”. However, Hitler was humiliated and…

Coping with a medical condition or serious illness can be an overwhelming experience for a patient, a loved one, or a caregiver. It becomes particularly formidable when an individual learns that essential medical care, trial, or treatment is located at a hospital or specialized medical center far from home. Adding to the challenges of logistics, are people who live in rural or isolated areas with limited travel options and those with limited financial resources. Under these circumstances, charitable non-emergency air medical transport presents as a vital and compassionate support for patients and their families. By providing an efficient, prompt, and…

In 2018, I took a first-time trip to Paris. While in Paris, I arranged an independent tour outside the city that I had always wanted to do: a privately guided day tour to the beaches at Normandy, where the D-Day landings took place on June 6, 1944. After a few days of taking in the city, I arranged a guided tour to Normandy with my husband Doug. On the morning of the tour, we met our guide near the Arc de Triomphe at dawn. After an informative 3-hour drive to the Normandy region, we stopped at Omaha Beach first, followed by…

As the Port Authority’s $30 billion airport redevelopment program moves forward across New York and New Jersey, a record 32.4 million passengers were welcomed across the agency’s commercial airports in the first quarter of 2024. From January through September 2024, about 109.7 million passengers used the agency’s commercial airports, with 11.9 million passengers welcomed during the month of September alone. With passenger records for travel set at John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International, and LaGuardia Airports, an enormous passenger demand arrives today following years of redevelopment at the agency’s three major airports, as their outdated terminals and footprints are…

One of the most famous ‘aviation firsts’ photographs of all time was taken by John Daniels of the Kill Devil Hill Lifesaving Station and made from a 5 x 7-inch glass-plate negative deposited in the Library of Congress in 1949.  A camera was set up on a tripod by Orville Wright, and it clearly captured the world’s first powered, manned, and sustained airplane flight at the exact moment of liftoff after Orville instructed Daniels how and when to snap the shutter. With Orville Wright at the controls, lying on the lower wing of the Wright Flyer with his hips in…

On December 7, 2024, the 83rd anniversary of the Japanese attack on the U.S. Naval Fleet at Pearl Harbor, a ceremony was held at the American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport remembering all who served and those who perished at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, ‘A date which will live in infamy’. The ‘’Dropping of the Roses’’ event featured a vintage World War II AT-6D Texan, which took off at 12:30 p.m. from Hangar 3 at the Museum and flew to the Statue of Liberty to drop off 83 American Beauty Roses (including one extra white rose for…

On Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, Metropolitan Airport News had the pleasure of being asked by The New Terminal One (NTO) and the John F. Kennedy International Airport Chamber of Commerce (JFK COC) to participate in an engaging and informative discussion about the progress being made at NTO.  The discussion took place during a luncheon held at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, in Garden City, NY.  After being introduced by the JFK Chamber of Commerce President, Joseph Morra, I moderated a ‘fireside chat’ with keynote speaker Jennifer Aument, CEO of the NTO, before a completely sold-out audience of airport community members. Seated at the podium inside…

Deciphering the acronyms that aviation and airports rely on to accurately and safely communicate worldwide. Whether a passenger or anyone who works at an airport or in the aviation industry, acronyms and airport codes are seen everywhere. They are on luggage tags at airport check-in, printed on flight tickets and itineraries, on travel booking websites, in documents, on ATC and flight charts, and more. At airports and within the aviation industry, acronyms and abbreviations are a common way to communicate formal terminology more effectively. Acronyms use parts of a phrase to abbreviate a word so that it is pronounced as…

Over the course of nearly 25 years, much of my work has been about aviation history and how both aviation and, unfortunately, war brought about previously unheard-of opportunities for American women during the Second World War. In researching the history of the over 350,000 women who served our country in uniform and the six million women who took jobs in factories and other civilian capacities on the U.S. Homefront, any serious researcher can tell you of the unlimited variety of rabbit holes that you will be led down to get to the heart of a story, and the branches that…

Airports are dynamic, fast-moving, and complex environments that can be stressful for even the most seasoned, stalwart traveler. They are gateways that serve as immersive centers for diverse people of varying ages, cultures, languages, and backgrounds, including people with visible or non-visible physical and cognitive disabilities. Each traveler’s journey may present a unique set of hardships. For people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, for those with physical disabilities who may struggle with mobility, and those with medical challenges who scramble to find their bearings in a large, crowded, over-stimulating complex, the airport experience can be overwhelming to the point where…