Table Of ContentAmerica’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
