Airliners, Nostalgia, and the Design of late 90’s/early 2000’s American Airports
Aviation has always been a major passion of mine, especially commercial aviation. The world of airports, and their logistics in regards to moving people, goods, and ultimately aircraft, is awe inspiring to me. The intricate ecosystem of ground service vehicles, ground crew, mechanics, air traffic controllers, and pilots working together to make people and goods move is a poetic dance of modern innovation and industrial beauty.
For over 15 years, I have been collecting diecast model airliners, mainly in the 1:400 scale. For me, diecast model collecting is a nostalgic, and therapeutic exercise, as I work to recreate the memories of my childhood with my own airport dioramas. Many of the airlines and aircraft of my childhood are long gone, but their memory can live in my collection, and through my photography.
As I’ve moved into my own apartment in college, I’ve finally had my own space to actively pursue my hobby more, giving me a proper place to display my models. Slowly but surely, I have been working to expand my airport diorama in my living room, using all the technology available to me to design and build the most realistic scale model I can of a late 90’s/early 2000’s American Airport. I’ve built this airport from the ground up with a combination of pre made scenery and home crafted 3d printed components, over a digitally designed parking and taxing apron.
I’ve taken up the hobby of photographing, and editing my airport photos to appear as realistic as possible. To me, there is something immensely satisfying of creating realistic depictions of the everyday movement and action of an airport tarmac. With modern manufacturing technology, model aircraft, many of which are no more than several inches long, are more detailed than ever, as well as the ground equipment and service gear sold with them that are no larger than a thumb tack.
To me, there is a great joy extracted from spending time every day delicately moving around the aircraft on my diorama, imagining where specific aircraft are heading, and setting a scene. Like I set up a digital painting in Photoshop or a render environment in Blender, in my airport, I control the action. Which planes are pushing back, which cargo loaders are moving parcels, which fuel tankers are returning to the garage to refuel. It’s like setting the scene to a play or movie, and waiting for the right natural light to wash over my set piece to make the best photos. Then off the computer to Photoshop away my wall and room and introduce scenery to bring the photos alive.
A lot of my airport scenes recreate scenes from my childhood. The comforting yet dated early 2000’s design of Delta’s Colors in Motion Livery. The friendly presence of defunct airlines like America West and AirTran. Regional turboprops, McDonnell-Douglas jets, and overall a greater diversity in aircraft design and brand identities that have all faded as time marched on. In my airport, they all live on, like they do in my memories.