Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Washington Airport
38°52′N 77°03′W / 38.87°N 77.05°W
Washington Airport was the second major airport to serve the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. Located in Arlington, Virginia, near the intersection of the Highway Bridge and the Mount Vernon Parkway (in a site now occupied by The Pentagon's south parking lots, Metrobus bus bays, and a portion of Interstate-395 highway). The first airport to serve the city was Hoover Field, a private airfield constructed in 1925. Washington Airport, a private airport triple the size of Hoover Field, was built literally across the road in late 1927. The airfield suffered from short and unpaved runways, numerous life-threatening obstructions around the field, poor visibility due to a burning garbage dump adjacent to each field, and poor drainage. Washington Airport nearly went bankrupt in 1933, and it was auctioned off to the owner of Hoover Field, who merged the two into a single airfield, Washington-Hoover Airport.
Washington-Hoover Airport closed in 1941 when replacement facility Washington National Airport (now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) was opened.
Washington Airport emerged due to the need of a newly formed airline for a terminal in Washington, D.C. The new Washington Airport opened without fanfare in late 1927 as a field for sight-seeing planes. Its owners included Robert E. Funkhouser, Herbert Fahy, and other investors. Funkhouser was an investor and officer in several different small airlines in the mid-Atlantic region. Herbert J. "Hub" Fahy was a Lockheed Aircraft Company test pilot. The airport added acreage and improved its facilities, and in February 1928 Funkhouser, Fahy and the others formed Seaboard Airways. Seaboard's base of operations was Washington Airport.
But Washington Airport was only marginally safer than Hoover Field. Arlington Beach, a local amusement park with a Ferris wheel and high rollercoasters, was located to the northeast (on the downstream side of Highway Bridge), and a landfill existed on the eastern side. The trash in the landfill was also on fire. The smoke sometimes obscured the landing field, and the stench was notorious through the city of Washington. The owners also could not afford to pave the runways.
The field was dramatically enlarged (and the coastline of the Potomac River altered) in April 1928 when Washington Airport contracted to receive tens of thousands of cubic yards of earth, dug during the construction of the Federal Triangle complex of buildings in the District of Columbia, and used them to fill in the sides and ends of the field. An airport office was also constructed at Military Road. The expansion and land reclamation increased the size of the airport six times, to 97.31 acres (39.38 ha). The airport's new size was so impressive that in March 1930 President Herbert Hoover proposed that the federal government loan the government of the District of Columbia $2.5 million to take over both Hoover Field and Washington Airport, fill in the Boundary Channel between the Virginia shoreline and Columbia Island, and create a new city-owned municipal airport that would be a model for the nation. In August 1930, with construction largely completed on the new facilities, Washington Airport announced that it would begin 10 hourly flights between Washington, Philadelphia, and New York City.
The expansion effort ran into serious problems in September 1929 when the Smoot Sand and Gravel Corp. began constructing a rock wall along the high-water mark of the Potomac River. The rock wall was being built by the federal government, and was intended to support the fill dirt that was being placed there for the construction of Mount Vernon Boulevard (that portion of what is now the George Washington Memorial Parkway from Arlington Memorial Bridge to Mount Vernon). Washington Airport claimed it had title down to the low-water mark. The legal case went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, which held two years later in Smoot Sand & Gravel Corp. v. Washington Airport, Inc., 283 U.S. 348 (1931) that the proper boundary of the state of Virginia was the high-water mark.
Although this changed the company's plans, work still went ahead on the razing of the Arlington Beach amusement park, construction of three paved new runways on the theme park grounds, a new paved runway on the site of the existing airport, razing of the old hangar and office building, construction of a new hangar 160 feet (49 m) by 100 feet (30 m) in size and a new and larger office building. By year's end, however, the airport had changed its plans. It now intended to build two hangars, one 120 feet (37 m) by 100 feet (30 m) in size and the other 50 feet (15 m) by 110 feet (34 m) in size. (Paving of the runways was also canceled in favor of oiled earth.) Construction on the new buildings began in January 1930. The hangars were designed by the firm of Lockwood, Green & Co., while the terminal was designed by the architectural firm of Holden, Stott, & Hutchinson. Total cost of the two structures, whose designs were approved by the United States Commission of Fine Arts, was $85,000. Forty-five days later, however, some shareholders in the company sued the Funkhouser, Fahy, and others, arguing that they had reneged on a deal to buy them out and further alleging that they were driving the airport into bankruptcy with their profligate spending. As the suit lingered in the courts, Arlington County commissioners stopped the burning of trash at the landfill next to Hoover Field in mid-1932 (but not the one next to Washington Airport).
Hub AI
Washington Airport AI simulator
(@Washington Airport_simulator)
Washington Airport
38°52′N 77°03′W / 38.87°N 77.05°W
Washington Airport was the second major airport to serve the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. Located in Arlington, Virginia, near the intersection of the Highway Bridge and the Mount Vernon Parkway (in a site now occupied by The Pentagon's south parking lots, Metrobus bus bays, and a portion of Interstate-395 highway). The first airport to serve the city was Hoover Field, a private airfield constructed in 1925. Washington Airport, a private airport triple the size of Hoover Field, was built literally across the road in late 1927. The airfield suffered from short and unpaved runways, numerous life-threatening obstructions around the field, poor visibility due to a burning garbage dump adjacent to each field, and poor drainage. Washington Airport nearly went bankrupt in 1933, and it was auctioned off to the owner of Hoover Field, who merged the two into a single airfield, Washington-Hoover Airport.
Washington-Hoover Airport closed in 1941 when replacement facility Washington National Airport (now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) was opened.
Washington Airport emerged due to the need of a newly formed airline for a terminal in Washington, D.C. The new Washington Airport opened without fanfare in late 1927 as a field for sight-seeing planes. Its owners included Robert E. Funkhouser, Herbert Fahy, and other investors. Funkhouser was an investor and officer in several different small airlines in the mid-Atlantic region. Herbert J. "Hub" Fahy was a Lockheed Aircraft Company test pilot. The airport added acreage and improved its facilities, and in February 1928 Funkhouser, Fahy and the others formed Seaboard Airways. Seaboard's base of operations was Washington Airport.
But Washington Airport was only marginally safer than Hoover Field. Arlington Beach, a local amusement park with a Ferris wheel and high rollercoasters, was located to the northeast (on the downstream side of Highway Bridge), and a landfill existed on the eastern side. The trash in the landfill was also on fire. The smoke sometimes obscured the landing field, and the stench was notorious through the city of Washington. The owners also could not afford to pave the runways.
The field was dramatically enlarged (and the coastline of the Potomac River altered) in April 1928 when Washington Airport contracted to receive tens of thousands of cubic yards of earth, dug during the construction of the Federal Triangle complex of buildings in the District of Columbia, and used them to fill in the sides and ends of the field. An airport office was also constructed at Military Road. The expansion and land reclamation increased the size of the airport six times, to 97.31 acres (39.38 ha). The airport's new size was so impressive that in March 1930 President Herbert Hoover proposed that the federal government loan the government of the District of Columbia $2.5 million to take over both Hoover Field and Washington Airport, fill in the Boundary Channel between the Virginia shoreline and Columbia Island, and create a new city-owned municipal airport that would be a model for the nation. In August 1930, with construction largely completed on the new facilities, Washington Airport announced that it would begin 10 hourly flights between Washington, Philadelphia, and New York City.
The expansion effort ran into serious problems in September 1929 when the Smoot Sand and Gravel Corp. began constructing a rock wall along the high-water mark of the Potomac River. The rock wall was being built by the federal government, and was intended to support the fill dirt that was being placed there for the construction of Mount Vernon Boulevard (that portion of what is now the George Washington Memorial Parkway from Arlington Memorial Bridge to Mount Vernon). Washington Airport claimed it had title down to the low-water mark. The legal case went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, which held two years later in Smoot Sand & Gravel Corp. v. Washington Airport, Inc., 283 U.S. 348 (1931) that the proper boundary of the state of Virginia was the high-water mark.
Although this changed the company's plans, work still went ahead on the razing of the Arlington Beach amusement park, construction of three paved new runways on the theme park grounds, a new paved runway on the site of the existing airport, razing of the old hangar and office building, construction of a new hangar 160 feet (49 m) by 100 feet (30 m) in size and a new and larger office building. By year's end, however, the airport had changed its plans. It now intended to build two hangars, one 120 feet (37 m) by 100 feet (30 m) in size and the other 50 feet (15 m) by 110 feet (34 m) in size. (Paving of the runways was also canceled in favor of oiled earth.) Construction on the new buildings began in January 1930. The hangars were designed by the firm of Lockwood, Green & Co., while the terminal was designed by the architectural firm of Holden, Stott, & Hutchinson. Total cost of the two structures, whose designs were approved by the United States Commission of Fine Arts, was $85,000. Forty-five days later, however, some shareholders in the company sued the Funkhouser, Fahy, and others, arguing that they had reneged on a deal to buy them out and further alleging that they were driving the airport into bankruptcy with their profligate spending. As the suit lingered in the courts, Arlington County commissioners stopped the burning of trash at the landfill next to Hoover Field in mid-1932 (but not the one next to Washington Airport).