Electric Netherworld...

Electric Netherworld...

...or, as Yogi Berra once famously opined,
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

Not the clattering electric netherworld under a large metropolis…

But rather the world under taxiing 747s, A-380s, and even little regional jets.

When Washington Dulles International Airport opened in 1962, it had a unique fleet of levitating people carriers that fanned out from the soaring Saarinen designed main terminal to waiting first-generation jetliners on the tarmac. These “mobile lounges” would then rise up to the level of the jets’ doors, allowing passengers to board.

Sort of like the world's longest Jetway with the world's shortest walking distance!

With Dulles’ growth came the mid-field terminals, allowing more airliners to dock, as well as for extensive hub connections. Construction of the AeroTrain subway system, its (non-clattering) trains running on rubber tires,
saw a partial phasing out of those distinctive machines, in favor of the faster underground rail connections (*).

Nonetheless, those who still enjoy that above ground experience sharing the busy taxiways with aircraft - even listening to radio comms with the same ground controllers who are moving those 747s and A-330s around the complex chessboard of alleyways and taxiways - can still experience it, as long as they are arriving on an international flight as, for this operation, the mobile lounges are the only form of transport (**).

©Steve Ember
(*) the AeroTrain station on Midfield B-Concourse