Poster size is 14" wide by 20" tall, including a one-inch white border, and is printed on heavyweight, acid-free poster stock.

Take a ride in Chris Bidlack’s time machine and have a look at his original Aerobus art print, highlighting a brief moment within the Jet Age, when the Checker Aerobus (and its rival the Stageway Airporter) were common sights at airports across the U.S.

In addition to the Aerobus, this illustrated composition includes Eero Saarinen's 1962 TWA Flight Center* and a TWA 707 climbing-away overhead... re-creating a moment never to be experienced again at Kennedy Airport.

The Checker Aerobus, produced in Kalamazoo, Michigan, was available in both 9- and 12-passenger models (6 doors or 8 doors). At 270 inches in length (over 22 feet!), the 8-door version remains the longest passenger vehicle ever manufactured in regular production.

The Aerobus body was based on its cousin, the more well-known Checker Marathon taxicab. (Both vehicle types can occasionally be spotted in the backgrounds of scenes from old TV shows and Jet Age-era movies involving airport drop-offs and pick-ups.) Although a they're a rare sight today, more than 3,500 Aerobusses were manufactured between 1962 and 1975. In the '60s and '70s they began to be replaced by more functional and economical passenger vans and minibuses.

Checker Motors itself lived on until 1982, finally succumbing to recession, modern automobile safety standards, rising fuel costs (severely decreasing sales of the large and heavy Marathon), and the inability of the company to be nimble when it came to automotive styling. On July 13, 1982, the New York Times ran a Checker "obituary" on Page A12, under the famous headline, “Checker Taxi, 60, Dies Of Bulk in Kalamazoo.”

Your Aerobus print will arrive carefully packaged and ready for you to unroll and frame. (Framing instructions included.) Click on the image to see the full poster in detail. (And of course, the “JetAgeArt.com” watermark does not appear on the actual poster.)

* If you're more interested in the TWA Flight Center at JFK, and less interested in the Checker Aerobus, check out Chris's other Saarinen tribute, his TWA FLIGHT CENTER AT JFK TRIBUTE JetAgeArt.com poster.