A few years later, as I mentioned in my LAX by the Tracks webpage, I worked in Los Angeles summers for Douglas Aircraft.  At the time, it was more expensive to fly in a jet - much more expensive!  NY-LA on American was $150 by 707 and $112 by DC-6.  Not being too flush with cash, and not yet getting a paycheck, I took the DC-6.  It was nick-named the Vomit Comet and made 12 stops from LGA to LAX.  (N90730 on Jun 16-17,1963.) My seatmate from Nashville to Memphis to Dallas was Bing Crosby's wife Kathryn.

At the time, in the early 60s, there was a big debate over allowing jets into LGA.  There was a concern about runway length - both Runways 4-22 and 13-31 were about 5000 ft long and constrained by seawalls that kept out Flushing Bay.  There were also big objections to jet noise (as there was at Idlewild.)


The airlines were also concerned about the transition to jets and many felt the turbo-prop would be the follow-on airplane to DC-6s and Connies - both due to runway lengths and also due to competitive flight times on shorter routes.  Viscounts, Convair 580s, and F-27s were in widespread use, and the Lockheed Electra was designed to fill that market niche.

In those days, a 16 year old kid with a camera who wanted to take a picture of the cockpit need only ask the Gate Agent.  No problemo!


Meanwhile, the Electra had been plagued with bad luck shortly after its intro into service.  A brand new American Electra (N6101A) crashed into the East River on approach to Runway 22 one night - due to no fault of the airplane.


Another American Electra came in low during the day and struck the dike at the end of Runway 31, first tearing of the Left main landing gear, and then striking the ground left wing low, tore off the left wing and flipped inverted (fortunately, there were no fatalities in that one.)


Here's the airplane stashed alongside American's LGA hangar afterwards - and here's a souvenir piece of wreckage I "liberated" from the debris field.


Two other Electras' suffered wing failures (a Northwest and a Braniff) as a result of a phenomenon known as "whirl mode" where a weakened engine nacelle allowed a gyroscopic precession of the propeller arc to feed an harmonic vibration into the wing structure at its exact resonant frequency, thus causing its destruction.  The airplane was never grounded but did operate under a speed restriction.  At the time, there were many calls in congress and the media for the airplane to be grounded.  I didn't think so, and wrote a long letter to Pete Quesada, FAA Administrator, explaining why.  He responded with a long letter of his own, with a lengthy hand-written paragraph at the bottom stating "You help more than you know!"  I treasure that letter.  And, it's a good thing he didn't know it came from a 16 year old kid!!!


Lockheed designed a fix which stiffened and strengthened the engine nacelle structure in a program known as LEAP - Lockheed Electra Action Program.  To allay passenger fears about the airplane, the modified airplanes were re-labelled as Super Electras or Electra II.


American Airlines created a return to normal service program by offering 1 hour Electra rides for $5.  Guess who was first on line?

Boeing was designing the 727 during that time period, and operating out of LGA's 5000 ft runways was a prime objective, driving for example, the 26 stages of wing disassembly - leading edge slats and Kreuger flaps, and triple-slotted trailing edge flaps.

During flight test, Boeing brought a test airplane into LGA to demo the short field capability.  The story goes that an Eastern Connie was in trail behind the 727 and the pilot complained that he was "over-taking the jet."

Eventually, jets were allowed into LGA.  Today, it's strange to think of what would be the situation if the Port Authority had restricted the airport to recips only!

Also, both runways were lengthened to 7000 ft by building an extra 2000 ft out over the bay on piers.  You can see the pier extension being constructed here at the departure end of Runway 4.