After World War II, the United States was left with a lot of airfields and the pilot population grew from 34,000 in 1939 to more than 400,000 by 1946. The Civil Aeronautics Administration proposed to build residential airparks throughout the country to put in use the deactivated military strips and to accommodate the retired war pilots. This is how fly-in communities formed, with all the residents having a shared interest in aviation.
One of these residential airparks is the Cameron Park Airport in California. A TikTok user whose handle is @thesoulfamily filmed a video showing this unusual neighborhood where everyone has an airplane which they keep in an hangar like a car in a garage.
Apparently there are neighborhoods called fly-in communities where it is as common to own a plane as it is a car
Image credits: The Soul Family
The video shows the streets of the fly-in community and airplanes standing in front of people's houses or in their hangars. The streets are really wide, designed for the pilots to taxi their planes from their houses to the Cameron Park airport nearby. The woman in the video says, “Every road is ginormous. It’s almost as if you have no idea where you should even be driving.” They are actually so wide that a plane and a car can pass one another safely.
The roads are so wide that a plane and a car can pass one other safely
Image credits: The Soul Family
The sight of a plane on the street in this community is as normal as seeing a car or a bus anywhere else
Image credits: The Soul Family
Image credits: The Soul Family
Also, the street signs and mailboxes are lower than normal so that the planes won’t knock them down with their wings, and the streets have names related to aviation, like Boeing Road. It is not unusual to see planes driving down the street, as in these communities, people use their airplanes to commute.
Image credits: The Soul Family
People have hangars attached to or integrated into their houses
Image credits: The Soul Family
Image credits: The Soul Family
There are more than 630 residential airparks in the world and more than 610 of them are in the US
Image credits: The Soul Family
The video amazed TikTok users as it received quite a lot of attention: it was viewed 4.8 million times and got over 800k likes. People in the comments were surprised that such neighborhoods exist. According to Living With Your Plane, there are more than 630 fly-in communities around the globe, and more than 610 of them are in the United States.
Image credits: The Soul Family
Some of the larger fly-in communities became mini-towns with shops and restaurants
Image credits: The Soul Family
Some of the bigger communities have their on-site restaurants, shops, sporting facilities, and country clubs. These communities have also become a niche real estate market, with some firms dedicated solely to these developments. But it is not easy to find a house with a hangar because people don't move out often.
You can check out the video of this amazing neighborhood below
Have you ever heard of these neighborhoods, or maybe you live in one? Let us know in the comments!