I'll never forget my first time visiting Arizona during a business trip in 1980. My manager and I went to Arizona to pay a customer support visit to the microelectronics division of
General Instrument. We flew into Phoenix's Sky Harbor airport, but instead of renting a car, we were met at the gate by none other than our customer, who informed us that he would be flying us to our destination. Flying us?! This was fine by me, but Chandler was only 20 minutes from Phoenix, why would we need to fly? Well, I quickly learned that this particular customer lived in a very special neighborhood in Chandler, which was situated next to
Stellar Airpark. In this neighborhood, plane hangars, in addition to a standard garage, were the norm. Yup, that's right -- he
flew us to his home -- parking his plane in his very own hangar, and then drove us the 2 miles to General Instrument.
Here's a current aerial shot showing one of the streets in the same neighborhood 32 years later. Not much has changed. One homeowner even uses his tennis court to park his planes! To see the planes in greater detail, click the image.
Here's a fun bit of trivia. The microelectronics division I had visited all those years ago was spun off by General Instrument back in 1987 and became
Microchip Technology Inc., the very company I now work for (and have for years). The original building still exists, which we now call C1, and every now and then I like to visit it for old times sake. :)
