I have just been sent this wonderful picture of Cape Town airport as it looked back in about 1960.

Back then, you were rewarded with a sweeping view of Table Mountain the second you stepped out of the terminal. What a fine welcome to Cape Town.

Now, of course, the first thing travellers see as they leave the terminal is the multi-story parking garage which not only blocks out the light but also destroys the view. Aesthetic concerns were clearly not high on the list when the new terminal and its support buildings were drawn-up.

The picture shows a South African Airways Vickers Viscount in front of the terminal, with a United States Air Force DC-6 or -7 on the taxiway.

You can see exactly where the airliners used to park by the large oil stains on the apron – an old saying goes that radial engines do not leak oil, they are merely marking their territory.

Those days, unlike the oil stains, were fading fast when this picture was taken as the big piston-engine aircraft (such as the USAF example) were being replaced by turboprops like the Viscount and, of course, jet aircraft.

The beauty of it all, though, is the low, red-brick airport building, as low-key and unpretentious as an international airport could ever hope to be.

Related posts:

1. Cape Town’s swish new airport terminal
2. What Jo’burg looked like in the early Jet Age
3. Time travel: Flying in the Congo in the 50s
4. The Dakota Years: Sleepy Tonga wakes to the roar of Pratt & Whitney radials
5. Air travel used to be cool