History
North Platte Regional Airport was originally called North Platte Field and was built in 1921 using private funds. The original location was on the east side of the North Platte River near the river bridge south of U.S. Highway 30. The first hangar and terminal buildings were constructed there. The airport was the site of the first night airmail flight which occurred on February 22, 1921. The field was lit using fuel burning barrels and the plane landed at 7:48 p.m. and then piloted onward toward Omaha at 10:44 p.m. after repairs were made to the de Havilland 4 aircraft.
In 1929, the City of North Platte purchased the airfield and leased it to the Boeing Transport Company, an original part of United Airlines. More construction was done in 1941 and the site became the site of a B-17 training command. The same year the airport was renamed Lee Bird Field after Lee Bird, the son of a North Platte family, who was killed in 1918 while training as a pilot for World War I. The Airport Authority began operating the airport in July 1963 and the airport was officially renamed the North Platte Regional Airport Lee Bird Field in June 1992.
Read more about this topic: North Platte Regional Airport
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“In all history no class has been enfranchised without some selfish motive underlying. If to-day we could prove to Republicans or Democrats that every woman would vote for their party, we should be enfranchised.”
—Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)
“My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”
—Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)