Flying Over a Strip of Beach

Princess Juliana International Airport (IATA: SXM, ICAO: TNCM) (also known as Sint Maarten International Airport) serves the Dutch part of the island of Saint Martin. In 2007, the airport handled 1,647,824 passengers and 103,650 aircraft movements. The airport serves as a hub for Windward Islands Airways and is the major gateway for the smaller Leeward Islands, including Anguilla, Saba, St. Barthélemy and St. Eustatius. It is named after Juliana of the Netherlands, who as crown princess landed here in 1944, the year after the airport opened. There is also an airport on the French side of the island near Marigot, called Aéroport de Grand Case or L'Espérance Airport.The airport was started as a military airstrip in 1942. It was converted to a civilian airport in 1943. In 1964 the airport was remodeled and relocated, with a new terminal building and control tower. The facilities were upgraded in 1985 and 2001. More Images after the break...

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Plane Restaurant

The Ir@n-Contra Cargo Plane - Restaurant and Bar

What's the future for a cargo plane after it was shot down?

Well, it can start a bar and restaurant business. Not bad. Don't take it as a joke. Fairchild C-123 relates its name with one of the biggest scandals in the mid 1980's. That involved the Reagan Administration's bizarre of network for arms sales to Iran. This very cargo plane was shot down on October 5, 1986, while delivering supplies to the Nicaraguan Contras.

However, now it's known as El Avion Restaurant and bar. Ready to serve you serve you food and drinks at cost little more than usual ones. Pack your bags with lots of currency and enjoy meals under the wings, built around a 1954 Model. The most charming feature other than the menu and plane itself is the scenic beauty around seacoast blended with mild reddishness at evening sunset. I think other planes should seek inspiration from this unique one among them after their retirement.

It is not an ordinary aircraft but a restaurant & bar. The plane itself became popular long before the transformation. In 1986 it was transporting weapons from the USA to the Nicaragua smugglers but was brought down. The plane was left on the Costa-Rica coast where the locals transformed into the “El Avion” restaurant. It is located on a hilltop on the road between “Manuel Antonio” and “Quepos” in the pacific coast in Costa Rica..

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