Introduction

This web-page is an index to various pictures taken by different "Aerial Survey" flights and captured over the years. They cover the general area that is (or would later become) the Town of Los Altos Hills.

The pictures are grouped by "flight". That is to say that an aircraft might make a particular flight over the town on a given date and take multiple separate pictures (likely overlapping in the territory covered). Each picture is therefore identified by a combination of the "Flight Identifier" and a "Frame Number" within that given flight.

Click on the "Frame Number" in the left-most colored column of the table below to view a particular frame.

If you are unfamiliar... The frame will appear in your browser but shrunk to all fit on your screen which makes it too small to be readable. However, your cursor will now be in the form of a plus-sign. Place this over the part of the frame that you want to see in more detail and then click on it - this will cause you to "zoom in" to the that part of the frame, whereupon you can use the scroll bars to move around and navigate over the image. Clicking on the image again will cause you to "zoom out" again.

 

#	Frame No	Terrain Covered - and notes
	Flight c-1180, took place on October 6th, 1930
1	9	From Downtown Los Altos extending west to Town Hall, and stretching down to Purissima. (Showing just just the South-West quadrant of the original frame, as the other three quadrants were not applicable to the town.)
2	11	West of Edith Park (and Burke Road) extending not quite to Page Mill, and from Northernmost town boundary, South to top of Byrne Preserve.
	Flight c-5750-286, took place on Jan 1st 1939
3	66	From Town Hall to Old Page Mill, and then down as far as Moody Road on the West side of the frame, and the Robleda/Purissima junction on the East side of the frame. Note that while Altamont Road existed at that time, it was just a short road going from its junction at Page Mill a relatively short distance upto Byrne Preserve. The rest of the conection that we know today (going all the way down to connect with Moody) was via a number of other shorter individual roads which were eventualy connected (and partially rerouted) to form the single unified Altamont Road that we know today.
	Flight cas-2310-1, took place on May 2nd, 1968
4	51	The area of Los Altos Hills closest to the Downtown Los Altos tri-angle. Proceeding West from Edith, almost to Town Hall, and stretching from almost the North end of Manuella all the way South to where Robleda meets Purissima.
	The following three frames (36,37,38) cover mainly the part of town that lies East of Highway 280, flying North to South
5	36	This frame spans from the Northernmost point of Town (junction of Arastradero and Foothill Expressway), to a point approx half-way between Town Hall and Purissima. East-West it spans from the junction of Edith Avenue with Fremont Avenue to Highway 280. Town Hall is located approximately at the center of this Frame.
6	37	Highway 280 crosses this frame from diagonaly from top left (at the point where Arastradero goes under the Freeway) down to bottom right where Robleda goes under 280. The Eastern edge of this frame stretches from Miranda down to the junction of Robleda with Purissima. The West side of the frame reflects mainly the territory served by the Northern half of Elena.
7	38	This frame overlaps somewhat with the previous frame (37) but is focused further South.It covers from the Purissima Baseball Fields at the Northern end, and extends Southwards down to Foothill College. At the bootom of the frame, the start of Moody Road can be seen next to the College, and Altamont road heads Northwest towards Byrne Preserve. If you wish to continue further South from this frame, the next logical frame would be Frame #48 in the last series of frames from this flight further down this page.
	The following five frames (19 through 40) cover mainly West of Highway 280 and North of Moody Road, flying North to South
8	19	The intersection of Highway 280 (under construction at the time) and Page Mill is at the center of this frame. The terrain covered includes the Southern part of Old Page Mill Road down to Highway 280, and continues down Page Mill to a point just beyond Three Forks where Alexis branches off into Palo Alto Hills.
9	18	This frame (which overlaps a large part of the two adjacent frames) stretches from the intersectio of Page Mill and 280 all the way to the South to where Via Ventana branches of Page Mill Road.
10	17	This frame also overlaps with its two adjacent frames, and covers Page Mill Road from the point where Lupine Road branches off, and continues all the way South to where Page Mill connects with the top end of Moody Road.
11	16	From The intersection of Page Mill Rd with Via Ventana, all the way down to showing the upper half of Moody Road. Includes the first segment of Altamont where it connects to Page Mill, Westwind Barn, and the first part of Black Mountain Road. Also covers most of Byrne Preserve and the areas around Central Drive and Buena Vista
12	40	Continuation of Moody Road, South and East from bottom left of frame 16. Continuing East past junctions with Chaparral, Rhus Ridge and Tepa Way to the junction with the bottom end of Altamont. The bottom half of this frame is essentialy all Mid-Pen land today - a few trails are visible.
	The final frames in this flight cover the Magdalena / 280 junction down to where 280 enters Mountain View, flying North to South
13	50	Starting at Edith Park (where Edith Avenue meets Fremont Avenue), and then stretching West as far as La Paloma. From that point South to where La Paloma meets Purissima and Elena goes under Highway 280 (still under construction) to the Chapel In The Hills. Shows the area along the segment of El Monte that comes from Foothill Expressway to the point where it changes into Moody Road just past the Foothill College. campus.
14	49	Mainly redundant - overlapping portions of immediately adjacent Frames 50 and 48. Foothill College is at the center of this frame which stretches in the North from around the bottom of Purissima (where it joins Robleda) all the way South to Neary Quarry. In the East it covers the El Monte intersection with Foothill Expressway and spans all the way West to where El Monte has become Moody and intersects with Altamont.
15	48	Includes both the El Monte and Magdalena intersections with 280. From the Foothill College Campus and the first section of Moody Road, South all the way to the Town's border on the ridge behind Neary Quarry
16	47	Mainly redundant - the upper portion overlaps with Frame 48, the lower portion is uninhabited Mid-Pen Open Space. Shows the end of Stonebrook as it approaches Neary Quarry and extends all the way beyond where the end of Magadalena leads up to the ridge behind Neay Quarry.
17	74	Continuation further down 280 towards the border with Mountain View, showing the southernmost section of Town.

 

Where did these images come from, and can I go looking there as well? These images were retrieved from a publically accessible database (link provided below) but before you try this - a word of caution! There is a centrally maintained collection of aerial images containing some thousands of frames. But before you start exploring, be aware that the "file format" of the retrieved images is of the file type ".tif" - as opposed to ".jpg" or ".pdf" for instance. So unless the computer that you are using has the necessary capablity to display and/or manipulate such images, there is no point in pursuing this avenue. The web site for these images is https://mil.library.ucsb.edu/ap_indexes/FrameFinder Clicking on this link will result in a screen showing a map that is covered in dots - this may take a few seconds depending on available bandwidth and the speed of your computer. After the opening screen has come up, observe there is a small query box in the top-left corner of the screen. Type the string "Los Altos Hills" (without the quote marks) into this box and execute the query - this will take you to a similar display, but this time the map will be of the local area. Each dot on this map is identified with a certain "frame" taken on some "flight". If you click on a particular dot, a small window will appear next to where you clicked, and the contents of the window will be one of two types: Either it will inform you about the Flight Id, Frame Number, and date of the image associated with that dot. and provide a clickable link to cause downloading of the .tif file to your computer - if the actual file is available in the collection. Or it will inform you about the Flight Id, Frame Number, and date of the image associated with that dot, but the file is not yet available in digital format and needs to be scanned before it can be made available. By clicking on the associated link, you can cause the image to be scanned and made available on payment of a relatively modest fee. Before you are tempted - another word of caution. Looking for maps and examining them can be addictive, and cause you to spend many hours at the computer and get square eyes. You have been warned. The mystery the two frames from the 1930 flight The two frames we have been able to obtain from the flight on October 6th 1930 are quite extraordinary and most unusual. There has been much discussion and speculation in how come those frames got to be created with such high quality at that point in the history of aerial photography. Aerial photography got its real start during the First World War, mainly through trial and error. No significant advances had been made by the end of that war, neither was there much emphasis in improving the material or process until it became apparent that another conflict might be brewing. So in 1930 (when these two frames were captured), the quality of aerial photography (resolution and clarity of detail) was still very much constrained by multiple physical limitations. These may be summarized as follows: The camera had to be mounted somewhere on the aircraft so it could point straight down. It could not be hand-held by a passenger because a passenger can only see “down” at some angle less than vertical Mounting the camera directly on the aircraft means that (no matter how much damping or shock-absorbing is built into the mount) the camera will be subject to some degree of vibration and plain tossing around caused both by the piston-engine nature of the motor driving the propeller, as well as “bumpiness” encountered by large wings flying through the air at somewhere around 100 m.p.h. This means that to get a sharp picture, the film must be exposed only for a very brief moment (i.e. a very fast shutter speed). 1/25th of a second is not going to hack it, nor even 1/50th of a second. 1/125th of a second might just produce something useful. But more likely 1/500th will be required to get any kind of sharp picture, and 1/1000th of a second would be better. This then means that the diameter of the lens must be very large (to gather enough light during this brief moment to expose the film sufficiently) which compromises the accuracy with which the lens can be ground to provide a sharply focused image. As a general rule – the bigger the lens, then the greater the area of the lens that is outside the central “sweet spot” at the center of the lens which contributes the sharpest focus. This also means that the film emulsion (the chemical layer in the film that records the amount of light received on any spot) must be very sensitive - or “fast” as it is referred to by photographers. This in turn means both that (a) the film will be very “contrasty” – meaning it will tend more towards just showing extremes of black and white rather than the intervening shades of grey, and (b) the film will provide a very “grainy” image which compromises the resolution and level of detail that it can record. All this boils down to the fact that an image captured in 1930 should have no better technical quality (resolution, sharpness, contrast) than one captured in 1939 – on the eve of an impending war when research and development in this area was starting to pay dividends. If you compare the quality of the images in the two frames we have from 1930 with the single frame we have from 1939, then it becomes apparent that the earlier ones are very unusual and very special. But we have not been able to find any further background about this “flight” – who made it and using what equipment. In terms of the historical context,, we know that the Stearman biplane (aka the PT17) was the platform of choice for aerial photography in this era, because of its superior (lack of) vibration characteristics. But this aircraft only became available in 1934. As far as film is concerned, the American company ANSCO (which produced the bulk of the specialised film used in aerial photography at that time) merged with the German company Agfa in 1928 to pool their research and came under the control of the German chemical conglomerate IG Farben. The American side of this operation was taken over by the American Government at the outbreak of war in 1941. Bottom line... is there perhaps interesting story lurking here somewhere as to how these superior images were obtained in 1930 - who knew what and when - about the required technology. Scholars, historians, and amateur hobbyists have discussed and postulated various scenarios about how this could have happened. Such high-quality aerial photos have been found that were made on different occasions and dating back even earlier... How is that possible? We can't be sure of course, but there is a potential answer which is not only possible - but probable.. Mystery solved?   Spoiler Alert! To see the answer, select all the text (by clicking/dragging your mouse) from this point <here> Probably the pictures were taken from a balloon (Blimp) instead of an aircraft to this point <here>