New York Idlewild Airport 1958  (KFJK Kennedy after 1963)

"Basic" scenery for FS2004 only.

by Tom Gibson and Bill Tyne

Version 1  10/2009

1.  Many signs have been added to the various terminals, complete with night lighting.
2.  The photorealistic ground textures have been repainted to match the 1958 buildings and appearance.
3.  Many airline hangars and their surroundings have been altered for greater accuracy.
4.  The bridges across the road have been improved, and the planes look better taxiing across.
5.  Approaches to the airport have GPS and RNAV approaches removed, along with any transistion that begins at a waypoint (instead of a navaid) - not available in 1958.
6.  Many ILS approaches removed, since they were not in service in 1958.
7.  AI aircraft making approaches to runways 13L and 13R will now do curved approaches (i.e. the VOR or Parkway Visual approaches), avoiding La Guardia airspace.
8.  If you wish to make a similar approach via the GPS, select the 13L/13R VOR approaches.
9.  A KJFK.vcpmod file is included to have ATC call the airport as IDLEWILD instead of KENNEDY.  If you have already used the one in the AI EVP Update pack, you do not need to do this.

10.  THERE IS NO AFCAD FILE.  DO NOT SAVE THIS AIRPORT IN AFCAD OR YOU WILL LOSE THE CUSTOM APPROACHES.  The KFJK_ADE_CC58.BGL file is only editable by ADE 1.45 or later (in FS9 mode).  The original ADE9 source file is available by email from Tom Gibson.  You can download ADE at:  http://www.downloadcenter.scruffyduck.org.uk

11.  This is a complex airport.  To help you navigate, I have created maps of the airport (Airport Map.jpg) and the airline parking (Terminal Map.jpg).  These can be found in the FS2004/Addon Scenery/Idlewild 1958 folder.  You will also find a parking chart (Parking.txt), with airline parking assignments.


I've created this scenery to recreate the largest international airport in the United States (at least at the time), New York's Idlewild.  Please note that this scenery is quite basic with few details, other than the buildings themselves.

PLEASE NOTE:  The ICAO code for this airport has been kept as KJFK.  The airport at Indianola has taken the code KIDL, and thus I cannot change it to that code.

If you would like more detailed surroundings, this scenery is compatible with the FREEflow New England mesh package, which will also improve the coastline shape away from the photorealistic area.  The other file you might want to consider is the Canarsie approach addon scenery, which adds lights and light towers to the visual approach to runways 13L and 13R.  While not realistic in shape or size, they do simulate the night lights that are present in the modern era.  We do not know when the lights were added to the approach.  It is canasie1.zip at AVSIM and Flightsim.

Here is the description from Wikipedia (somewhat edited):
JFK Airport was originally known as Idlewild Airport (IATA: IDL, ICAO: KIDL, FAA LID: IDL) after the Idlewild Golf Course that it displaced. The airport was originally envisioned as a reliever for LaGuardia Airport, which was already showing signs of insufficient capacity in the late 1930s. Construction began in 1943; approximately $60 million was initially spent, but only 1,000 acres (400 ha) of land on the site of the Idlewild golf course were earmarked for use.

The project was renamed Major General Alexander E. Anderson Airport in 1943 after a Queens resident who had commanded a Federalized National Guard unit in the southern United States and who had died in late 1942. In March 1948, the New York City Council again changed the name of the airport to New York International Airport, Anderson Field, but the name "Idlewild" remained in common use until 1963.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey leased the airport property from the City of New York in 1947 and maintains this lease today. The first commercial flight at the airport was on July 1, 1948; the opening ceremony was attended by President Harry Truman. Upon opening Idlewild, the Port Authority cancelled foreign airlines' permits to use LaGuardia, effectively forcing them to move to the new airport.

The airport was renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1963, one month after the assassination of President Kennedy.

Development

The Port Authority originally envisioned a single 55-gate terminal for the airport, but the major airlines of the time did not agree with this plan, arguing that the terminal would be far too small for future traffic. Architect Wallace Harrison then designed a master plan under which each major airline at the airport would be given its own space to develop its own terminal design. This scheme made construction more practical, made terminals more navigable and introduced incentives for airlines to compete with each other for the best design. The revised master plan met airline approval in 1955.

    * The International Arrivals Building was the first new terminal project at the airport, opened in December 1957. It was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and featured perpendicular "finger" piers to allow a greater number of aircraft to park, a major design innovation at the time.
    * In 1958 the temporary terminal was still in use, and hosted flights from the US domestic airlines.  It had been in service since the airport opened in 1943 and expanded (haphazardly) several times

The following terminals/changes are not in this 1958 scenery, and thus it is valid through September 1959:

    * United Airlines opened its terminal (now Terminal 9), a Skidmore design similar to that of the IAB, in October 1959. 
    * Eastern Airlines opened its Chester L. Churchill-designed terminal (now Terminal 1) one month later.
    * American Airlines opened its terminal in 1960. The terminal was designed by Kahn and Jacobs and became known for its 317 feet (97 m) stained glass facade designed by Robert Sowers, which was the largest stained glass installation in the world until 1979. The facade was destroyed in 2007 as the terminal was demolished to make room for the new Terminal 8; American cited the prohibitive cost of removing the enormous installation.
    * Pan American World Airways opened its terminal (now Terminal 3) in 1960. It featured a large, elliptical roof suspended by 32 sets of radial posts and cables; the roof extended 114 feet (35 m) beyond the base of the terminal to cover the passenger loading area. It was one of the first airline terminals in the world to feature Jetways that connected to the terminal and that could be moved to provide an easy walkway for passengers from the terminal to a docked aircraft, rather than having to board the plane outside via airstairs, which descend from an aircraft, via truck-mounted mobile stairs, or via wheeled stairs.
    * Trans World Airlines opened the TWA Flight Center in 1962. The terminal was designed by Eero Saarinen and its distinctive winged-bird shape became a famous image of JFK. With the demise of TWA in 2001, the terminal became vacant. In 2005, JetBlue Airways and the Port Authority financed the construction of a new 26 gate terminal behind the Saarinen building, branded as Terminal 5, which opened on October 22, 2008. T5 is connected to the Saarinen central building through the original "tubes" which connected the building to the outlying gates; the Port Authority is working on renovations of the central building.  In this scenery only one tube and finger had been completed; the other one was temporary construction.
    * Northwest Airlines, Braniff International and Northeast Airlines opened a joint terminal in 1962, designed by White and Mariani of Washington DC.  It is now Terminal 2.
    * National Airlines opened the Sundrome (now Terminal 6) in 1969. The terminal was designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. This terminal replaced the "temporary terminal" in this scenery.  Trans Caribbean used this new terminal until its absorption by American in 1971.  In 2001, United Airlines planned to redevelop this terminal and the TWA Flight Center as a new United terminal, but the airline later reduced its operation at JFK and abandoned plans for a future JFK hub. Terminal 6 was used by JetBlue Airways from 2001 through 2008 and vacated when JetBlue moved to Terminal 5.
    * BOAC (now British Airways) moved into its new terminal (now Terminal 7) on June 30th, 1970, with Air Canada as a tenent.  The Concorde used Gate 1 (later Gate 5) at this terminal.  Started before the Sundrome, it was redesigned for 747's and thus delayed.  This terminal replaced the horseshoe shaped headquarters building in this scenery.

IDL/JFK at that point was still designed to accommodate aircraft no larger than a Douglas DC-8 and had to be significantly modified in the late 1960s to accommodate Boeing 747s.  These changes included removing runway 7/25, which allowed the enlargement of the Pan Am terminal (then called the Worldport).

Terminal 1 replaced the former Eastern Air Lines terminal in May, 1998.
Terminal 4 replaced the International Arrivals Building in May 2001

------------------------------

INSTALLATION:

1.  If you do not already have these object libraries (i.e. the BGL files listed below in your Static 
Objects Library/scenery folder), you will need to download and install the following:

fs9_custom_buildings_ss_1.bgl in fs9_custom_buildings_ss_1.zip   by Sidney Schwartz
fs9_custom_buildings_ss_2.bgl in fs9_custom_buildings_ss_2.zip   by Sidney Schwartz
fs9_custom_objects_SS_1.bg    in fs9_custom_objects_ss_1.zip     by Sidney Schwartz
lfobjlb2.bgl                  in lfobjlb2.zip                    by Lou Frost
FS9RAFControlTowersLib.BGL    in fs9rafcontroltowers.zip         by Ted Andrews

2.  Quit FS2004 if running.

3.  Double click this Idlewild_1958.zip file archive.  You will find this text file and a file 
called SetupKIDL58.exe.

4.  Double click the SetupKIDL58.exe file to start the installation (press the Run button at 
the warning screen.)  Follow the instructions to install.  If it doesn't find your main FS2004 folder 
automatically (the one with fs9.exe in it), press the ... button and browse to it.

5.  OPTIONAL:  If you wish to have matching photo scenery underneath the airport, copy the files from the 
FS2004/Scenery/Cities/Newyork/texture/1958 BMPs folder into the FS2004/Scenery/Cities/Newyork/texture 
folder.  This will place modified versions of the photoscenery tiles into that folder.  DO NOT USE IN 
FSX - FS2004 ONLY!  FSX does not need them, and they are incompatible.  (This scenery is not recommended 
for FSX anyway.)  NOTE that this alters some of your default files, which will display at all times until 
you change them back (see below; backup files are provided).

6.  Start FS2004, and go to the Settings/Scenery Library choice on the 
opening screen.  If you are currently flying, press Escape (Esc) and then End 
Flight to get to this screen. Look at the top portion of the list.  If there is no 
Idlewild 1958 area listed there, click on the Add Area button.  Double click the 
ADDON SCENERY folder.  Click the Idlewild 1958 folder once.  Click OK.

7.  If you have any addon scenery for New York Kennedy airport, jetways, etc. uncheck 
that scenery's Active box to inactivate it.

NOTE!  If you have Idlewild 1962 installed, you should have EITHER 1958 OR 1962 active at one time, NOT BOTH!

8.  Note that this scenery is currently designed to be used *with* the New York Aerial Scenery layer.

9.  Click OK.  Quit and restart FS.

10.  If at the main screen, choose Create Flight at the left, select desired items, and
press Fly Now.  Choose Options/Settings/Display.  Under Scenery Objects set the
Scenery Density to Dense or less (setting to Very or Extremely Dense will display modern
jetways at default airports).  Also, set the Autogen Density to Dense or less 
(any higher may display telephone poles in odd places at the airports); this will also 
simulate the less dense cities found in the era.  Click OK.

11.  Many buildings (default and library objects) have crash detection turned on - we suggest you choose Ignore Crashes and Damage from the Aircraft/Realism Settings menu.

12.  If you later want to fly in the modern era, just go into the Scenery Library 
(Settings/Scenery Library) and click on the Enabled box next to the Idlewild 1958 entry 
until the red check mark is removed to deactivate the 1958 scenery (do not deactivate 
the Static Objects Library layer). Also, if you replaced the default photoscenery tiles 
copy the files from the FS9/Scenery/Cities/Newyork/texture/Default BMPs folder into the 
FS9/Scenery/Cities/Newyork/texture folder.  You must restart FS after you do all this.

Reverse this process to go back to 1958.

Tom Gibson
tgibson@sunstroke.sdsu.edu

