Comments on: Dulles Airport moon buggies: A remembrance

By: Les

Les — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 03:02:09 +0000

Can someone tell me about how many flights came into Dulles daily in 1963? This is part of a mysterious family research project. I know someone who insists they flew from El Paso Texas to Dulles in the summer of 63. For a host of personal reasons I don’t think this actually happened. Thanks.

By: Mike M.

Mike M. — Wed, 19 May 2010 04:09:38 +0000

Love the ode to the moon buggies and the video. On a flight to Dulles over the weekend (May 15-16) I confidently assured another passenger that the mobile lounges were finished. Upon arrival I discovered that I had to take the mobile lounge from A to D.

By: Anil

Anil — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 09:33:49 +0000

Yes, but they were rather frustrating when either late for a flight or coming home. I must say though something uniquely Dulles, and despite all of that I’ll miss them a bit next time I fly through there.

By: David

David — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:22:33 +0000

The new train has one major drawback in my experience of using it for two separate trips out of IAD. The distance to be covered at each end of the ride seems to make the whole proceeding more protracted and harder work for the traveler than the mobile lounges. Another issue – there seems to be choke points at narrow escalators that in busy times would slow the traveler in a hurry; too, predictability of time to gate may suffer because at least there was an indicator of the next departure of a mobile lounge. My overall reaction was that sadly the whole design of the access/egress for the train was incredibly poorly executed. The train seems slower than other airports with similar systems.

By: hampshireflyer

hampshireflyer — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:05:57 +0000

I remember arriving at Dulles from the UK, deplaning on to one of these when I was extremely tired and thinking that they’d blacked the windows out….

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:20:17 +0000

I forwarded this to my father who replied with an interesting story:
I rode my first lounge in 1963 on the way to Chicago. There were three or four daily flights in and out of Dulles back then. Much was written in the papers about the mistake that it was to have built a third airport out in the boondocks, for a city already too well serviced by National and BWI. Along the Dulles Access Road there was nothing but vegetation. No exits until the airport. If your car broke down: Good luck! Before even CB radios, and long before cellphones, with nary another car coming or going, you could die from thirst and starvation. At Dulles the lounges were few, four at the most. They came and went half-full at best. Brand new; spic-n-span clean; they felt spacious and futuristic. The lounges docked at the gates located right behind the check-in counters in the terminal – only the main building existed in those days – and the counters were located immediately in back of a wide open waiting area. Riding onto the tarmac and up against the airplane, each lounge offloaded passengers directly on board. Departing Dulles at night felt like being in outer space: A lone buggy venturing into pitch darkness, rolling slowly away from the terminal’s magically suspended sloping roof to reach the dimly lit mother ship. Coming home at night felt like arriving in the twenty-first century. Those were the days.

By: Patty

Patty — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:08:50 +0000

I love traveling, haven’t been to Dulles in a while though, it’s cool to see the changes. Thanks for posting!

By: Mark Ashley

Mark Ashley — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:07:08 +0000

Thanks, N766AN for the link!

By: Mark Ashley

Mark Ashley — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:03:15 +0000

I stand corrected! Thanks, April.

Bonus history, from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority website:

The mobile lounge was designed by the Chrysler Corporation in association with the Budd Company. It is a 54-foot long, 16-foot wide, 17 1/2-foot high vehicle, weighing 76,500 pounds. A mobile lounge can carry 102 passengers- 71 of them seated- directly from the terminal to the aircraft on the ramp. When the Airport opened in 1962, passengers had to walk only 200 feet once they entered the terminal until they were seated in the mobile lounge for the short trip directly to their aircraft, a unique service offered only at Dulles.

The Plane Mates are 15 feet high, 15 feet wide, 54 feet long and weigh 79,300 pounds. Similar to mobile lounges, plane mates were designed so that passengers could board directly from the Plane Mate to the aircraft, avoiding walking on the airfield.

Today, Dulles operates 19 mobile lounges and 30 plane mates.

By: N766AN

N766AN — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:01:54 +0000

They’re still used to get to D (some United flights), and for international arrivals (except United flights):

http://www.metwashairports.com/dulles/882.htm