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Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Detroit, MI. Year unknown.
Up until the late 1970s, Detroit Metro Airport had a small lot where citizens could park their cars (for free) and watch plane arrivals and departures. DTW has grown exponentially since, and you can’t even see a runway, due to sprawling new terminals and acres of parking. (The streaky clouds are actually deep scratches)
Image courtesy of the Box of Curly Photos from my parents. View full size.
Eastern never scheduled DC-4s to Detroit Metro-- they stayed at Willow Run until 1966, maybe eight years after they sold their DC-4s. This looks to be N88707, which Eastern sold in 1951. It will fly to Atlanta or Miami, first stop Cleveland.
(Eastern didn't move to Willow Run until the end of 1946, so there's a remote chance it's Detroit City Airport.)
American industry could barely produce jet engines fast enough to keep up with military demand during the 1950s. That's why piston engines still dominated domestic air travel throughout that decade. This is a Douglas DC-4, the backbone of the U.S. Air Force's Berlin Airlift. Piston engined planes like this quickly fell out of favor (by about 1960) for a few reasons: jet engines were finally becoming available for civil applications, jets were faster, and jets produced FAR less vibration than their piston predecessors-- greatly reducing the maintenance volume per hour of operating time.
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