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
Famous quotes containing the words closing, military, road, approval, washington, national and/or airport:
“We got to start thinking beyond our guns. These days are closing fast.”
—Walon Green, U.S. screenwriter, and Sam Peckinpaugh (b. 1925)
“Stately as a galleon, I sail across the floor,
Doing the military two-step, as in the days of yore.”
—Joyce Grenfell (1910–1979)
“A broad-backed ox can be driven straight on his road even by a small goad.”
—Sophocles (497–406/5 B.C.)
“The final flat of the hoe’s approval stamp
Is reserved for the bed of a few selected seed.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“When you wish upon a star your dreams come true.”
—Ned Washington (190l–1976)
“The word which gives the key to the national vice is waste. And people who are wasteful are not wise, neither can they remain young and vigorous. In order to transmute energy to higher and more subtle levels one must first conserve it.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“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)