Closing of Military Road and Approval of Washington National Airport
The rapid expansion in aircraft size and weight as well as the need for enhanced airfield safety led the U.S. Department of Commerce to threaten to close Washington-Hoover again. In June 1937, the department promulgated new rules requiring runways to be lengthened by as much as 2,000 feet (610 m) and for all obstructions for take-off and landing flight paths to be removed. The department also instituted an airport classification system designed to rate fields on safety and other factors. Aircraft would be permitted to use only at those fields which had a rating indicating it was safe for them, and air traffic volumes would be limited at fields with lower ratings. The rules threatened to close Washington-Hoover, or permit its use for local traffic only.
In early September, the War Department agreed to allow planes to land at Bolling Field in an emergency. This led the Air Line Pilots Association to cancel its boycott of Washington-Hoover. But shortly thereafter, the association renewed its push to have the airport closed altogether. Under intense pressure, the National Aviation Corporation said it was putting Washington-Hoover Airport up for sale. Airport officials later said they hoped that the federal government would take over Washington-Hoover, greatly expand it, and operate it as a joint public-private enterprise with National Aviation. Two months later, Washington-Hoover officials announced that the blimp hangar at the field was being closed and removed. The airfield also proposed filling in part of the lagoon that formed the southern end of Boundary Channel, so that a much-needed, much longer cross-runway could be built at the field.
One important improvement at Washington-Hoover Airport went almost unnoticed, but proved historic. J. Willard Marriott, noticing the many passengers at Washington-Hoover Airport without access to food, opened the world's first airline catering business there in 1937.
Read more about this topic: Washington-Hoover Airport
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—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Who are we? And for what are we going to fight? Are we the titled slaves of George the Third? The military conscripts of Napoleon the Great? Or the frozen peasants of the Russian Czar? No—we are the free born sons of America; the citizens of the only republic now existing in the world; and the only people on earth who possess rights, liberties, and property which they dare call their own.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
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—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“There are always those who are willing to surrender local self-government and turn over their affairs to some national authority in exchange for a payment of money out of the Federal Treasury. Whenever they find some abuse needs correction in their neighborhood, instead of applying the remedy themselves they seek to have a tribunal sent on from Washington to discharge their duties for them, regardless of the fact that in accepting such supervision they are bartering away their freedom.”
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Like fish sauce, but agreeable.”
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“Airplanes are invariably scheduled to depart at such times as 7:54, 9:21 or 11:37. This extreme specificity has the effect on the novice of instilling in him the twin beliefs that he will be arriving at 10:08, 1:43 or 4:22, and that he should get to the airport on time. These beliefs are not only erroneous but actually unhealthy.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)