Naples Airlines

Lockheed Electra

When Harold ‘Mackie’ Macklin flies out of Naples in One Christmas in the Sun, headed back to college in Ohio, he might well have been in ‘this’ plane, operated by Naples Airlines and Provincetown-Boston Airline. The picture here is of a Lockheed Electra in 1966. The airline was founded in 1946 and served Naples for decades (though the Naples Airlines part of the name was dropped in the Eighties).

There was no reason to name the carrier in the novel, of course. Maybe I’ll find a reason to in a sequel, if someone flies again! After all, Lin Summerlin should be coming in for some summer vacation once more in the next planned book. But she flew into Miami in her last appearance and was driven to Naples. Larger carriers flew into Fort Myers, too. I recall seeing big Constellations on the field there when I was a kid. They looked big to me, anyway!

The field in Naples was built during the Second World War as a training facility. The barrack buildings still stood during the time my Sun books are set, the late Sixties. I wouldn’t be surprised if some do yet. They were remodeled as businesses and residences in the post-war period. I have Mackie remember living in one of them when he was a little kid. Admittedly, that was one of my own memories.