New photos were released -- via Tumblr -- of a very young John F. Kennedy Jr. sitting at the controls of the presidential helicopter during a weekend trip to Camp David when he was just a little boy and his father was still president.
The photos were made public by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, which digitized the photos and posted them on its Tumblr page. According to ABC News, the photos were shot by Robert Knudsen, the White House photographer from 1946 until 1974 who took pictures for five presidential administrations: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.
The three photos show little JFK Jr. in white pants, brown shoes and a red jacket, trying to get a grip on headphone that are clearly too big for such a little boy. His feet don't touch the floor, but he's firmly got his hands around the control gear. In one of the three pictures, he looks right at the camera. In another, he's figured out how to get the gear atop his head, he has his hands at the control and looks ready to pilot a takeoff.
The pictures, as with so many things JFK, caused an Internet stir, quickly getting shared and passed along via social media. The photos were from March 31, 1963, according to ABC News.
And yet there is a bit of eeriness to the photos of a young JFK dong what so many little boys do, pretend to be a pilot. As an adult, JFK Jr. was a lawyer, magazine publisher and a pilot. He, his wife and his sister-in-law all died when the small plane he was piloting crashed into the Atlanta Ocean in 1999. JFK Jr. was 38. The plane had been on its way to the wedding of a Kennedy cousin, and all three died on impact. The National Transportation Safety Board because of pilot error.
