Jaunted

Over a hundred men (and, potentially, women, though we didn't spot any specifically female names) from Continental and its predecessor airlines—Texas International, Frontier, PEOPLExpress, and New York Air—are memorialised in this one block.

More poignant still: the square appliqués with every name are all bordered with the material from the ties of each airline, with the five uniforms, pins, buttons and memorabilia also appliquéd between the clouds below. And a rainbow lei down the bottom.

We simply can't imagine the time, love and remembrance that the flight attendants of Continental—now, of course, United—put into this Quilt block.

But there are other airline-related blocks of the Quilt, and panels that make up blocks, on display at Dulles too. Take a closer look in the photo gallery above.

Dulles has several blocks on display on the airport side of architectural legend Eero Saarinen's masterpiece terminal, and while we were chatting to airport staffers they mentioned that they'd specifically requested panels and blocks of the Quilt with an aviation or airline connection. In fact, we were told that a gentleman at Dulles involved in organising the Quilt's display is a double-decade flight attendant veteran.

We at Jaunted salute him, and all those memorialisers and memorialised on the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. The Quilt will be on display at Dulles (and Washington National) through the XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington later this month. A larger display of the Quilt—the biggest since 1996—will be displayed on the National Mall from July 21-25, to coincide with the start of the conference.

[Photos: John Walton/Jaunted]