America's Airports: Airfield Development, 1918-1947 (Centennial of Flight Series, 1) PDF
Preview America's Airports: Airfield Development, 1918-1947 (Centennial of Flight Series, 1)
America’s Airports Number One: Centennial of Flight Series Roger D. Launius, General Editor America’s Airports AIRFIELD DEVELOPMENT, 1918–1947 Janet R. Daly Bednarek Texas A&M University Press COLLEGE STATION Copyright © 2001 by Janet R. Daly Bednarek Manufactured in the United States of America All rights reserved First edition The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Li- brary Materials. Binding materials have been chosen for durability. o Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bednarek, Janet R. Daly (Janet Rose Daly), 1959– America’s airports : airfield development, 1918–1947 / Janet R. Daly Bednarek. — 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-58544-130-9 1. Airports—United States—History—20th century. 2. Airports—United States—Design and construction—History—20th century. 3. Urban renewal— United States—History—20th century. I. Title. HE9797 .5.U5 B43 2001 387 .7'36'097309041—dc21 2001000831 Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction 3 1. Pioneer Efforts: World War I to 1926 14 2. The Era of Airport Enthusiasm, 1926–33 41 3. Depression and Reality: The Fading Enthusiasm 67 4. We Have to Have a Plan (And Money to Pay for It): Cities, the Federal Government, and Airports, 1933–40 97 5. City Planning and Municipal Airports, 1927–40 123 6. “For the Duration” and into the Postwar “Air Age”: Airports, World War II, and the Federal Airport Act of 1946 151 Conclusion 178 Notes 183 Bibliography 209 Index 221 v Acknowledgments While this book project began with a question—why municipal air- ports?—the question began after a conversation with Roger Launius, NASA’s chief historian, in the early 1990s. We ran into each other at an American Historical Association conference in Washington, D.C., and be- gan to talk about all the great topics not yet covered in aviation history. One of those topics was airports. Being an urban historian by training and an avi- ation historian by circumstance, the more I thought about it, the more I saw a way to combine both fields in one project. Then in 1995 Roger was working on a project for Texas A&M University Press on innovation in aerospace history. I asked for a chance to research and write an essay on airports. It seemed I was go- ing to be spending three summers in the Washington area and I wanted to take full advantage of the research opportunities thus offered. Out of that initial essay on airports grew the book on airports. As I worked on the essay and then the book, a number of people offered im- portant help and support. First, I want to thank staff members of the library and archives at the National Air and Space Museum. Mary Pavlovich and Paul Mc- Cutcheon from the library along with Dan Hagedorn, Melissa Keiser, and Brian Nicklas from the archives provided tremendous amounts of valuable and cheer- ful research support. Of course I would not have had the chance to work as closely with the library and archives staffs had it not been for the aid received from the museum’s Aeronautics Department. Tom Crouch, Dom Pisano, and Rick Leyes all supported my gaining official researcher status at the museum. Those fine gentlemen, as well as Peter Jakab, F. Robert van der Linden, and Dorothy Cochrane all expressed interest in the project and continuously assured vii viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS me that others would also find it of value. I am proud to now consider those people my friends. While I did a great deal of my research at the National Air and Space Mu- seum, I also spent time working at the National Archives and the Library of Congress. The staffs at both those institutions proved unfailingly helpful and supportive. I especially want to thank the many individuals at the Library of Congress who retrieved volume after volume of bound aviation, city planning, and engineering journals. In Dayton, the interlibrary loan folks at my home in- stitution, the University of Dayton, proved lifesavers on occasions as I sought any number of obscure publications. I must also thank Dawne Dewey and the staff of the archives at the Paul Lawrence Dunbar Library at Wright State University. Wright State has an extensive collection of aviation material, the staff knows it well, and they are very willing and eager to share it with researchers. I would also like to thank the staff of Texas A&M University Press. My colleagues at the University of Dayton offered support and encourage- ment over the long process of bringing this project to completion. Both the So- ciety for American City and Regional Planning History and the Cincinnati Sem- inar on the City gave me the chance to present many of my ideas. I received important feedback in both forums. Most valuable, though, in terms of col- leagues and peers were the two anonymous readers of the manuscript. Both chal- lenged me to better focus and organize my ideas. The final manuscript benefited tremendously from their suggestions. Of course for any remaining errors in fact or interpretation, I take full responsibility. Finally, I must thank my family. In particular, my brother, John R. Daly, gamely acted as my research assistant, along the way learning more about Om- aha’s airport than he ever wanted to know. And in many ways this project would not have been possible without my husband, Mike. First, it was his Air Force ca- reer that provided me the “opportunity” to spend three summers (not to mention every other weekend and school holidays) in Washington. Second, he rescued me from innumerable technological crises caused by my often less than expert use of the personal computer. And last, his good humor acted to pull me through even the most difficult moments. I dedicate this book to him and all the many members of my Daly and Bednarek families. America’s Airports
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