San Diego Flight Path

In most places in America, this picture would evoke fear – or at least it would evoke memories of September 11.

But in San Diego, it’s virtually unnoticed – happening, as it does, around 500 times every day.

San Diego is the busiest single runway airport in America, and it’s flight path is intriguing – coming in, as it does, across Balboa Park – and the Central Business District.

The planes aren’t quite as close to the buildings as they appear from this #travelpic .. but they ARE close, and it’s a plane-spotter’s paradise!

San Diego has always had a close link with Aviation – the city’s airport was named Charles Lindbergh Field, after the pioneer aviator left on his historic flight from the city, and is just three miles from downtown.

From the 1920s, there’s been a strong and vital aviation industry – but in the 1940s, the US Army Air Corps chose San Diego as a base and the city’s major aviation construction facilities came on line.

Then, after World War Two, Pacific Southwest Airlines began operating from a base in San Diego – it was California’s most successful airline until deregulation nearly 40 years later.

Today’s picture comes from the 7th-floor rooftop deck of a building in Bankers Hill / Hillcrest.